A common slogan in sports these days is ‘I’m built for this.’ The slogan is meant to indicate one’s specialization and skillset as it applies to a specific task. In other words, you’re born to be that kind of athlete. Sitting here in a workshop for my college I recognize that I am not built for this. In fact, the business side of teaching is absolutely contrary to my personal nature. I’m not one for categorizations (sociology background not withstanding) but I am what you would call a ‘creative’ and a non-linear thinker for the most part. Now that means a lot of different things to different people but for me it means I have a lot of stuff up in the air and I pluck at it with the grace and skill of a juggler…
who happens to be in a low gravity environment.
In plain language, I constantly have a number of projects happening and peck at them all slowly as opposed to focusing my attention on each one to its completion then moving on to the next. I also almost never write out the guidelines and rubrics (in essence the after action report) of what I just did. I just don’t roll like that. I don’t like it and I don’t feel it works terribly well for my brain or especially my time. In essence, I do not care about such things.
Such things are the backbone of teaching and absolutely aren’t me.