Edge the Line. A former student and current admired colleague left me this comment after my last blog. She says I taught her as a student and as a teacher to Edge the Line. I really like the sound of that. And as I sit here on a snowy Wednesday afternoon, I’m drawn to those words and what they mean for me as an educator.

And those words start my freshman year of college when I met the man who would indelibly form my educational philosophy. I walked into the English department offices at Lebanon Valley College and met Walter Labonte. This lover of all things educational philosophy and baseball was a former high school English teacher turned college writing professor. I spent hours in his office, chatting about his time in the classroom, my excitement and fears of becoming a real-life teacher, and the ever-present friendly rivalry of his Boston Red Sox and my Bronx Bombers.  He taught me the importance of what empathy and compassion can do in a classroom, how revision and second chances create life-long relationships, and how a teacher must work as a facilitator to instill discovery and a love of learning in students. He taught me at every turn to take the chance, take the road less traveled, edge the line of what teachers were doing today and push myself to try things that felt right to try even if nobody else was doing it.

All this I learned between 1994 and 1998.  

That was eons ago.  

Flash forward 21 years. Two weeks ago, I attended the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference in Hershey for my second time. I attended sessions about hyperdocs and edtech tools and educational philosophies that are up-and-coming, sessions given by phenomenal educators from across the state of Pennsylvania. I had the priviledge of being one of those presentors, and I spoke about copyright in the digital age and the virtual co-op program at Grove City College run by Dr. Samantha Fecich. The words and ideas flying through this conference revolved around the concepts of growth mindset, empathy, discovery learning, and so much more! But the phrase I heard that stopped me in my tracks was this: The teacher is the facilitator of learning.  

I lost Walter a few years ago.  He mentored me far beyond the few years I knew him as a professor. He was my first connection to what is now an immense PLN, and sometimes I wish he was still here for me to ask questions or bounce crazy ideas off of, and yet, at that conference, there he was. Something I’ve been holding as part of my educational philosophy for 21 years, something I rarely heard outside of our conversations was out there for all to hear.  IS out there - and thriving as educators all over the state, this country, and the world do what he instilled in me those many years ago. We do what we do to make learning accessible to our students, and the best of us do that by constantly looking at ways to attack problems and push our students to their limits and beyond. We facilitate learning and by doing so we constantly Edge the Line.

I look back on my years in education and know that I have spent my career on that Line. It is a place that allows me to try the impossible and hope for the best. It gets me frowned at and high-fived. It gets me a tsk-tsk and an atta girl. It gets me a raised eyebrow and huge smile. And that Line keeps me exactly where I need to be. At the place Walter knew I would stand strong. At the Edge of the best educational practices out there. And as sometimes terrifying as the changes and ideas that are flying at teachers every day may be, for my students and myself, I will never look back.  I will stand on that Edge and keep pushing that Line.