And That's a Year

So today marks the one year anniversary from when I started in my full time position as Coordinator of Instructional Design at North Shore Community College.  To say the very least, it's been an absolutely wonderful year.  As I told a colleague this week, it's a year later and I'm still excited every day to go to work.  It's rewarding as much as it is (mentally) exerting.

I don't hesitate to count my blessings in many regards with this position.  I have a great team of colleagues who are also insightful (equally if not more so), enthusiastic and genuinely caring.  I get to work with an amazing group of faculty who continually teach me great things that I'm then able to share with other colleagues or my students.  My work involves thinking, learning, and sharing and for a nerd like me--that's paradise.  I feel supported and valued in myriad ways from the minute I was into work till well after I leave each day.  I don't mean to brag or ramble on; but in looking at the last year, I just feel grateful I landed at such a place. 

The past year has brought me some great things, professionally.  It's sent me back to blogging regularly (as my few readers can see).  Writing for my work's blog has only propelled me to write more on my own blog.  In a very profound way, it's further helped me practice patience, understanding, and perspective.  I continually need to step out of my habits of doing things and understand why and how others (i.e. faculty) do the same things differently as well as consider how others (i.e. students) might make sense of those actions.  It's continually spinning the collidiscope; knowing that your own view is but one possible perspective and rarely (if ever) the best one.  It's also helped me focus and work about half my way through my next master's degree (Masters of Education with a concentration on Instructional Design at University of Massachusetts, Boston).  The interplay of the degree and work has also stimulated a great deal of ideas about what I want to do (and can do) in my position and even in the classroom (I'm still teaching classes, of course).  I now have several projects for the next two years that have been deeply informed by these crossovers from the classes I'm taking to the work I'm doing. 

It's always strange to see where a short stretch of time brings one.  I was in such a different place; still doing the full-time adjuncting (and hating running) without clear thought of where I was going next.  Then, with a simple suggestion and nudging by a few friends, so much changed.  I couldn't have foretold it, but I'm certainly glad I'm here and hope that it's the first of many years and future successes. So here's to a year. 

 In a position that deals with helping faculty integrate technology into their classrooms or converting face to face courses into online courses, I'm can easily be perceived as the "technology" guy, trying to cram a bit or byte into every corner of the classroom and that this can be disconcerting to many.  So when interacting with faculty I really do have to step

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