It’s been a week.

Both personally and professionally, this week has been challenging: trying to get in last minute play dates before my son started school on Wednesday; a daycare blip meaning I had both kids on my first day of classes; my son starting at a new school on a day that I taught back-to-back evening classes and wasn’t home in time to tuck him in; trying to do active learning in a lecture hall; smart panels gone awry; lost USB sticks for clickers; just generally feeling like my brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders; and then today, being notified that a grant application that I had submitted (and worked really hard on for a month solid) didn’t progress past the first round.

Yeah.  It’s been a week.

But, it’s also been an inspiring week.  This week, I got to work with 65 credential candidates excited to inspire young minds and broaden their own horizons.  I got to watch them connect with one another, think about their practice in new ways and explore new ideas.  I got to watch them try twitter for the first time to make their thinking (and our practice) public.  I got to model flexibility.  Then I met 20 practitioner-scholars entering the first week of their masters’ program, not sure what they’d gotten themselves into, but who trusted me enough to help guide them on the journey of action research, and who trusted the process enough to examine and learn from their own practice.  They enter this journey with apprehension, but also with commitment to addressing problems of practice that can inform their work with students. This week, I also got to witness the remarkable resilience of my 10-year old as he adjusted to his new surroundings and I got much-needed support and encouragement from my partner through all the ups, downs and late nights.

As we were finishing my Introduction to Educational Research class last night with my masters’ students, a few stayed behind to chat.  We talked about balancing family, career and academia, and their nervousness at the overwhelming nature of the program.  I reassured them that we’ll all be okay together.  We’ll work through it together.  We’ll support one another.

We stumble through the journey together.

So, as Friday looms on the horizon to close out this week, I am thankful to be on a journey that is not solitary.  I am thankful to journey publicly, even when the road seems long and tough.  I embrace the vulnerability of not having it all together publicly, too, because the reality is that the journey of learning, growth and development is long: for new teachers, practitioner-researchers, academics.  But, it is worth it, for the possibility of becoming the change we wish to see….in spite of the bumps along the road.