I spent 33 years of my life as an educator on Long Island. Most of those years were spent in the same school district. During my tenure as an educator I would begin each year with an unknown group of children that I was to work with. I had a planned curriculum and a design on how I wanted to approach that class or classes. The first few days were always a learning curve as I assessed the students needs and personalities and adapted what I had planned to do to the climate of the group. As the school year progressed I continued to adapt to the needs of the group, doing more open ended projects with the more independent classes and more structured assignments with the more difficult ones. Each day I went to school I knew what I was getting into or what might happen since I had been with the same group over time. One could consider me a farmer of sorts. As I cultivated the field of learning, I could work the soil, pull out the weeds, and fertilize and support each plant when needed to allow them to grow. Granted there were obstacles along the way, but I was usually in control.
Then I retired. Though I’m still an educator, it is interesting that the two career paths that I am following now has changed my persona from a farmer to more of a hunter.
One of my jobs is as a part time consultant, an “educational technology integration specialist.” That means when I’m needed, I’m sent into school districts to train other educators on how to use technology tools, such as smartboards, electronic response systems, document cameras, etc. in their teaching. I also teach some Web 2.0 tools, like podcasting, digital storytelling, and useful sites on the Internet. Sometimes I have advanced notice of who the teachers are that I’m training, but many of the times it’s an unknown school and I find out more about who I’m training when they sign in. As hunter I need to be armed with choices of weapons that can deal with the differing prey I might run into. Sort of like my first week of teaching every time I do a workshop.
My other profession is that of storyteller/singer at various venues such as schools, libraries and festivals. Other than telling at the school that I taught in for most of my career, most venues are new. Sizes of listeners and control of listeners behavior is usually determined by those that hire me, since I’m the performer, not the disciplinarian, and sometimes those people don’t even show up to the performance. Other than in school performances when I’m told how many people will attend, the predicted size of the audience is not always accurate. If I get to my venue early enough I usually can have some say as to how I want the audience to be seated. There are times when I have no control over that, so parents will chat in the back while I’m trying to perform to kids in the front, or the kids will sit by class with teachers sitting around the outside of the group, I’ll be on stage in a giant auditorium with a handful of people scattered about the entire room. At one venue I was in a banquet hall and some kids sat up front with me, but the rest all sat at giant round dinner tables around the hall with adults (talking and listening to each other at their tables was a higher priority than being quiet, participating and listening to me). Again I go into the forest with a multitude of weapons, hopeful that I have the right ones to make my hunt successful.
One difference between what I did for 33 years and what I do now, is in the amount of time that I spend with the groups that I work with. As a farmer, I was with the same product within any given year. I could cultivate, nurture and watch it grow over time. Though the first few days may have been unknown as the seeds began to germinate, I could take longer to adapt to changes that I needed to make to grow my crop.
As a hunter, I don’t know what animal I’m going to be dealing with when I enter the forest, therefore though I have the same experience of knowledge that I want to impart to my audience as I did as a farmer, I have to have quicker reactions and the support system is not always present. If I’m invited back to the same group to train or tell to it’s a little easier, because a I have knowledge of the group. Then I can reach back to my farmer days and try to build upon my relationship with that group. Even so, the group changes too rapidly; rarely have I worked with the same children or teachers more than twice in any given year. They must be released into the wild and a new group appears.
Maybe this analogy only works now because I’ve only been a hunter for a short while compared to my farmer days. As I continue to grow and gain experience in my new professions, maybe the planning, adapting and fruition of my work will become more predictable. Maybe I can move on from being a hunter and become more of a ranger on a natural wildlife preserve, where I will know the animals in my domain and be able to guide and protect them with the same kind of comfort as I had in my farmer days.
Time will tell.
