For the umpteenth time, I am driving that long stretch of barren highway between my home in southwest Colorado and my father’s home in Salt Lake City. I am ready for lunch and am desperately in need of a bathroom break. I will be in Wellington and Price within a few miles so I can take care of these issues. Then I pass a green highway sign: “Wellington 25” – 25 more miles! That’s not possible! I have been on this highway forever and I’m sure I’m closer than that! Although I drive that highway regularly, it seems that every time I think I am almost there, I realize am not.

As teachers, we tend to think that as the years of experience stack up, we will somehow “get there” and we will know everything we need to know and the mysteries of our profession will be solved. Once “there” we figure we can relax and enjoy being good teachers. After nine years of teaching, I am coming to realize that each year I teach I find myself reading that road sign, yet again, that says I still have a ways to go. Yes, I’ve learned many lessons and yes, I have improved as a teacher, but I now know that the concept of getting to some destination as a professional teacher is like chasing a moving target. To be cliché, we have to remember that teaching is more a journey than a destination.

We learn and monitor and adjust, but for each new mile marker we reach, we have more distance to travel. Along my journey of nine years teaching high school, I have reached a few mile markers and I hope that sharing them will help others in their travels through teacherdom.