Almost exactly one year ago I sat down to look back at 2023 and ahead to 2024. It feels like an obligatory task to look back as the year ends to grasp at some kind of knowledge, realization, or epiphany. Last year I spent the transition between calendar years exploring four questions:

1. “Why School?”
2. “What brings me joy and happiness?”
3. “What does it mean to be human?”
4. “What does it mean to be in community?”

I felt it only fitting to explore these questions again to see where they took me in 2024.

Why School?

Throughout 2024 I have been grappling with the first question regularly and have found myself increasingly caught in the tension between the traditional school setting I find myself in every day and the pull towards a different configuration of learning and school. In 2024, I took on the Executive Director role at Walkabout Education. Attending Walkabout as a Senior in high school was transformative. The photos below are of two of the index cards I used for my graduation presentation I gave back in 1998 to my teachers, peers, family, and friends about my year at Walkabout.

I was a good student and did everything I was supposed to do–what the adults around me told me I should do–what my peers were all doing–and I was unhappy, lacked self-confidence, and lacked purpose. In my role as Executive Director of Walkabout Education, I have the opportunity to talk with alumni from the over 30 years of Walkabout’s work with young people. Everyone has a story about how their year at Walkabout gave them the purpose, skills, and confidence they carried with them into adulthood. It has become clearer to me over the last year that the work of creating systems and opportunities for young people to have a similar experience is the most important work I can do. “Why School?” has become THE question that has underscored my work and thinking in 2024 and will continue to do so in 2025.

What brings me joy and happiness?

For the last 20 years, my every waking moment has felt tied to the classroom, my students, my school, and my career. The conveyor belt pushing me forward has become increasingly exhausting and I have felt the pull to slow down and appreciate the minutiae, the little moments of each day. As my children have gotten older, spending time as a family has become more and more important and fun–they are funny, smart, and wonderful people to spend time with.

A year ago I hoped to carve out time for “making art, listening to music, spending time in the woods, and reading for pleasure.”

This year, I made art with my daughter and my students. I walked in the woods, planted and tended my garden, read dozens of books for pleasure, and created an 8-hour music playlist I shuffle through regularly. I hope to continue this trend in the coming year.

I wrote some poetry in 2024 and revisited and revised some older pieces. I’ve been trying to be better about capturing those poems when they come to mind however I can so they don’t get lost once the moment has passed.

What does it mean to be human?

In 2024, I reflected on the developments in generative AI, loneliness, human connection, the importance of purpose, and on being in community with others. At the end of last year, I was intrigued by the “Futures Cone ” and how we help young people build a preferred future. Over the last few weeks, I have been reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s fantastic book Braiding Sweetgrass. Her exploration of reciprocity and the teachings of plants profoundly resonated with me. Last year I wrote about the life lessons I have learned working in my garden. I have been learning that I am an eternal optimist. I believe we can be critical and alarmist about our broken relationship with the natural world while also playing our role in reciprocity and joyfully receiving the daily gifts that the earth gives us. Around Thanksgiving, in advisory, we named things for which we were thankful. I shared my gratitude for the window in my kitchen where I could watch the birds in my yard.

One of the first things I did when we moved into our house was identify each of the plants and grasses growing in our yard. As Kimmerer explains, when we are part of a community, one of the most important things we learn is the names of the community members. She describes how alienating and lonely it must be to walk through your community without knowing the names of all of its inhabitants. I am happy to have met and know each of my neighbors, human and non-human. To better understand our humanity, we should understand what it means to be human in the context of our non-human neighbors. Helping young people build their preferred future means helping them understand the gifts the earth gives, and the role they play in the reciprocity of being human neighbors to all of earth’s inhabitants.

What does it mean to be in community?

At the end of last year, I was interested in exploring the Japanese concept of ikigai and how being a member of a community can help young people find purpose. Whether it is building community in our Art room where we share ideas, take risks, and support each other’s creative growth, helping young people explore and understand their digital lives and the digital communities they inhabit, connecting young people with local businesses and organizations where they can volunteer or gain career knowledge, or partnering students with local organizations for service learning projects, my passion for creating and fostering human connections will continue in 2025. I will also continue to seek out communities that share my values and goals so we can work together.

Looking ahead

I’m not sure what I will be doing a year from now, but these four questions will continue to guide me into 2025. It’s become clearer to me that the thread that has connected my work throughout my career has been centered on authentic experiences for young people, and building and working within communities.

I have spent most of my career in the edtech sphere. This is mostly because this work is directly connected to my students’ lived experiences and because I’ve seen the power it has to amplify student voices and help them develop ideas and create. However, I’m finding myself less enamored with technology and more drawn to the deeper work of rethinking learning spaces and configurations to support the development of young people’s sense of purpose and place in society. I see a direct overlap between my edtech and experiential learning work but the latter is where I am hoping to spend more of my energy in 2025. This may mean stepping away from more traditional classroom settings and focusing more on systemic change.

I’ve always assumed that, as we age, we become more and more defeated and embrace “realism.” I have been happy to find however, that I am more idealistic than ever. Online spaces are terribly noisy these days and hyperbole is rampant. In 2025 I will seek communities that center student experiences and that think deeply and responsibly about what it means to be human within our own communities and within the larger community we share with the natural world. I will also do my best to tune out the noise.

I am grateful for everyone who has supported, inspired, and challenged my thinking over the last year. I wish everyone a happy and healthy transition to 2025 and look forward to continuing to learn and grow with you.