Being thankful for the people with whom you get to work/play

A veritable gaggle of ETS's

I have been in the same job, as Director of a Language Learning Center, for 10+ years. In that time I have worked with 4 and a 1/4 individuals who have more than aptly filled the role of Educational Technology Specialist. (the 1/4 refers to the poor, poor sod who left after a month or so…)

I could not do my job without the support and the creativity and the tenacity and the talent of these wonderful people. I am so very, very thankful to have/have had the opportunity to work with them and to learn from them.

Recently, we had an impromptu reunion of some of the past and the one present ETS folk… one had just become a dad and his wife is now teaching at our fair college (wait! does that make me a grandma?), another had left in June for SF (and writes for this blog, hmmm) but had returned to help train/warn my new colleague about all things ETS-y. The new guy (ETS #5) was there. Someone took a picture. Here we all are.

(Note: I am not identifying anyone in the photo -okay the cockatiel’s name is Flaubert (Bert)– because we had a problem with the googles getting loose and not letting people who wanted to stay anonymous be anonymous. So you can make up names for these fine folks and leave them in the comment section. G’head. I dare you 😉 )

This picture makes me smile, because there seems to be a lot of happiness going around. And that is pretty much what it is like to work in our Center. It is noisy, crazy and fun. And we have birds. And a hammock. So there.

My wish for each of you out there in “language technology and teaching land” is that you, too, will experience joy and whimsy and chutzpah and fearlessness and, okay I will say it, love, for the work that you do and the people with whom you work. I have been blessed.

And if you are really bold… You will get a cockatiel for your Center too. Really. I’m not kidding.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone !!!