I’ve just had a little squizz through the end-of-year brain dumps that I’ve done for the last few years and a commonly recurring theme is bonkersness and new pathways forming. I do realise that I am pretty much mad as a box of frogs and that at times I do make Tigger seem cool, calm and collected.
So bonkers probably is a good word to describe 2022. It has been stressful, scary- bloody terrifying at times- an overall, so flipping rewarding!
I started out as a part-time classroom teacher and doing research, and assessments alongside that and I end, doing assessments, and research and writing and producing training materials and… and.. and…
2022 has been the year of people for me.
My friends in the dizzy heights of Trowbers and Wiltshire have been epic and I adore them and value their patience and grace every single day that they put up with me!
I am also really excited and blessed with some beautiful and amazing new people in my life, some of whom are really firm friends who I’d walk over hot coals for. I think they know who they are- and if they don’t, they’re daft!
In January, I had a random message on LinkedIn from a bloke in Israel that utterly befuddled me about a posh and fancy piece of technology that needed evaluating and exploring. So I met Michael Druker in the dizzy heights of Bracknell and realised that he didn’t want to come to my school and evaluate it there, but he wanted me to evaluate the OrCam Learn and see how it can help kiddos. Working on the project alongside all the other new and exciting stuff meant I ran out of time to do everything so I had to leave the classroom but that opened up doors to bajillions of things. The TLDR version is that the tech is pretty bang on! But the coolest bit is the laughs and friendship that we’ve built along the way. He is cracking and I’m chuffed to bits I’ve been lucky enough to work with him.
Then in Spring, I had a chat with Georgina Durrant because she needed a bit of help for a project. So we talked and then we talked some more. I reviewed and endorsed her amazing new book. Then we did a podcast and then we did another thing and then she booted me up the bum to do something new and exciting- something that is in the pipeline and hopefully will bloom in the new year! And we met in real life in Autumn and it was just amazing! It really is cool when you meet a person in real life, and it’s not weird. Georgina is amazing and I am so lucky to have worked alongside her this year. I’m sure there will be more where that all came from too!
I’ve done podcasts and chaired things with politicians and met some AMAZING people. Lovely people have supported me with stuff I don’t understand or where I’ve needed advice- Michelle Catterson and Suzanne Edmond have always been on the end of the phone and I appreciate them more than they’ll know. My lovely Swansea project companions are the kindest people. The newer groups I’m working with: Beate and Dagmar in Austria (getting me practising my rusty German); Amanda Haste and Linda Baines on the Board of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. These lovely people have supported me loads and I am a lucky sausage.
2023 already has some amazing projects pencilled in. They look interesting and they will be.
But none of that lot would be possible without all the amazing, gracious and very patient people I have in my life, many of whom I am a lucky enough to count as really bloody good friends!
