As the start of the school year looms closer, my burnout from the previous year is being replaced with anxiety.

I’ve done my best to recover and get myself into a new mindset, but with changing recommendations and uncertainty of expectations, especially with a micron thin plan in place, it hasn’t been relaxing.

There has been no “vacation.”

What I do know is the future of education is looking drastically different. And not in the way we expected it would eventually be, but paradigm shifting changes overnight.

Whatever we were doing before is not going to work anymore.
(The question of if what we were doing before ever worked is a different discussion)

We always knew change was coming and now it’s here.

To get myself in a new frame of mind, I’m pulling in one of the boldest military strategies:

Burn the Boats

This strategy, made famous by Hernán Cortés, puts you on the shore of a new land with no option of turning back.

Whatever I’ve done before is done.
Whatever resources I’ve pulled from are no longer valid as is.
Whatever worked for the classroom before is being altered.

I am a new teacher on a new land.

It’s time to build a new future.