This week, I finally cleaned up with final edits three of the four journal submissions I researched and created this semester. I also attended two professional learning communities, one hosted by the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) Early Childhood Special Interest Group, and the other a book study hosted by CEC Teacher Educator Special Interest Group. After attending these two professional learning communities this week, I started to feel like I could integrate back into professional organizations in a meaningful way. It is nearing the end of my sabbatical and this is the first time since February 2020 that I have felt this way. Once COVID hit, I had to take a huge step back from the service I was doing both locally and nationally. Back in 2020, I was on the National Board for the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA), was appointed chair of the education committee, was a state-chapter president, and was on two other local special education focused boards. I chose to either not run for re-election or step down from these roles because of how much I had to and/or was asked to do during the pandemic.
This week I feel like I was finally able to start integrating back into my discipline’s society. It was nice to have conversations about what we all learned, in terms of teacher preparation and the pandemic, and the current projects we were working on. Most of these projects were proactive rather than the reactive responses the pandemic required many to make. I waited so long to integrate back because I know myself well enough to know that I am not a passive participant—meaning I have a hard time giving between 0-100%. I am either actively involved and all-in, or non-existent. So, I have two meetings that I took part in last week, and two more coming up this week, and this is what my schedule will probably look like moving forward—and I am ready for it now. I also spent time last week just reading the message boards of each organization and looking at up-coming conferences and submission dates. One for the Division of Autism and Intellectual Disabilities (DADD) is where I will work this week to submit a proposal for an upcoming project that I am looking to start with a colleague. I haven’t submitted conference proposals since before the pandemic either—so this is something I need to get back into the swing of things with, as well. My last two years have really been about helping my program and other university’s programs produce high quality online coursework. It was something I went and sought additional training and certification in before the pandemic, and I did this at the most opportune time as I was used by many as a resource throughout the pandemic. I am glad I have this training, and happy to help others but I am also ready to be involved in discipline specific activities and societies again. I am grateful to have had this sabbatical to let me get back into research again, get back into discipline specific professional learning communities, and do so in a way that I did not feel like I was neglecting my family or my teaching and other university “asks”.
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AuthorKristina Scott Archives
February 2023
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