This year marks my 20th year as an educator. It has been an interesting and exhilarating ride. I celebrate my 20 years,with My Pajama PD Party Online beginning this week under the theme “Say YES to Learning”. I am excited, thrilled, anxious and nervous at the same time. I am excited to start a new chapter on my entrepreneurial journey, as Kiana Porter- Isom of Edupreneur Today would put it from classroom to consultant. I am thrilled, I mean who wouldn't be..I'm going LIVE! I am anxious but that's nothing new, my anxiety is a reminder to plan and over plan. I am nervous because for me this is not a job. It's not some random rant. I am nervous because I am sharing my lifestyle, my way of life, how I have created over the years a lifestyle of perpetual learning. Going LIVE, that alone has become apart of my learning process. My nervousness is not a signal for lack of readiness. Quite the contrary it is a sign that I am ready to bring it! To bring value, to bring purpose to why we should all live a lifestyle of learning. I have given myself the task of inviting you, of inspiring you, of motivating you to Say YES to Learning. Today as I prepare for my Go Live experience, I can’t stop but think where teaching has taken me, the connections, the friendships and the learning experiences that I gained along the way. In addition, as I write my book which I hope to bring inspiration to others to Say YES to Learning,I reflect on my own learning experiences filled with a big ol' mixed bag of emotions. These emotions remind me of a what would have to have been a major turning point in my life. I would have to say it may very well be the first time that I came face to face with the term “Say YES to Learning”. I was about 10 years old, completing the 6th grade. I do not know exactly when or how it came about, but my parents along with my aunt came up with the idea of me going to school in Anguilla and living with my aunt and grandmother. Well, this may be important to note, at that time I was living in St. Maarten with my parents, a mere 20 minute boat ride away. (err, uhm ,yeah, I kind of did move a lot JFK-SXM-AXA-JFK) I could only imagine what other people must have thought, “Annie and Delvin got to be crazy!”, You see my parents had just buried one child the year before and here they were about to ship one, literally, across the sea. What were they thinking??!! As a child I was excited about it. I guess after years of reading, Around the World in 80 days, Pippi Longstocking, Nancy Drew, and Dr. DoLittle (sigh, the book not the Eddie Murphy movie), I believed I was on my own magical adventure waiting to unlock and discover a hidden mystery. I had dreams of becoming a world explorer. My parents, on the other hand, had dreams of a daughter going to college and making them proud or rich?? or both? not sure really?? (ok, joke mother, just a joke geeesh) Their decision to send me to Anguilla, was their way of saying “YES” to learning for me. They knew the importance of not just an education but a good one. Their motives, their purpose was quite calculated and intentional. Not only was I going to get what they felt was a better education but I was also going to live with my mom’s sister, who just happened to be an educator. Now you tell me if you still think my parents were crazy?? GENIUS I tell ya, just genius. Up until that point, I cared little for school. I went to school like most children because my parents sent me. But preparing to go to school in Anguilla changed everything. Having to prepare for an exam, passing with top marks, and acknowledging the fact that my parents were making a sacrifice, made me at 10 years of age “Say YES to Learning!”. Was it a consistent YES? Definitely not, along the way I had to learn how to say YES to Learning! It has nothing to do with age or maturity. There are many factors why you may think you are not ready. Or the times you felt like you screwed up, like when I got kicked out of college, another time for that story though. Whatever it is...... It’s not too late! So maybe you dropped out of high school, it doesn’t matter the reason. Or maybe you finished or about to finish high school and just not sure which way to turn. Perhaps you are feeling stuck at your current job, it was not what you hoped and are thinking where do I go from here. If you are feeling like you are at a crossroads, not sure what to do next. You may be asking where do I go to learn to help myself, to help my situation. If you fall into any of these categories, then you my friend, are ready to Say YES to Learning. What are you waiting for #SayYEStoLearning? Join me every Third Thursday at 8:30pm AST/ 7:30pm EST. Together we will chart your course to learning. Take care and see you then.
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AuthorEducation + Technology +Innovation + Tamara Pradel= Learning Your Way Your Time Archives
March 2017
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