I love this quote. I feel like I’ve spent my life wandering. My teaching career started in Minnesota, then Alaska, Missouri, and finally Iowa.  I’ve taught kindergarten through seniors in high school on a subjects from shoe tying to the Civil War.  It’s been challenging, exhausting, invigorating, but the most fun thing I’ve ever done.

Yet, I crave more.  I know I’m not administrator material (love the classroom too much) and I know I couldn’t leave the field (love what I do too much) so I wander.  Twitter has helped with this, being able to share ideas, resources, ways of creating a better classroom environment along with how to teach them more effectively. Changing grade levels helped pushing me to learn a new curriculum, how it works, and what’s the best for my students.  I’ll be starting work on a reading endorsement soon.  I’ve found I love the ideas behind the Daily 5 and Book Whisperer.  I can be a better literacy teacher, and truly want to expand the love of reading for all my students.

So I wander, seeking information, strategies, and ideas.  My wife and I both love the above quote. To us, to wander has never been a bad thing.  We’ve had great adventures, just feeling our way through things, and will have new adventures with our daughters, teaching them to live that way.  My own personal growth does come with some “must haves” but the journey to get their doesn’t always need to be a straight path either.

Let go, enjoy the small things your students, co-workers, and family share with you.  But remember, it’s your journey, you put as much or as little into it as you want.