It’ll be Great, They Said…

It’ll be great, they said. You’d be perfect, they said. What could possibly go wrong, I thought. So with those words of encouragement I began my journey from the coffee fuelled, high paced, airline driven world of corporate learning and development into the world of education, snotty noses- it really cannot be underestimated how many noses; and exuberant young learners, but still fuelled by coffee. After years of graft I qualified as a teacher and experienced the thrills and whirlwind that is teaching small children. 

At this point it should be noted, I now had my own small children, with equally snotty noses. Having put my corporate world on hold, indeed it seemed very far away, I had pivoted my efforts into their learning and development. Fascinated by the experience of seeing how learning occurs in babies first hand. It held my thrall and my creativity was re-focused into learning experiences that insta would have been proud of. Pinterest became my new best friend and soon I was volunteering at the local play group, designing and running arts and craft activities carefully matched into the early years curriculum.

Honestly, you can take the girl out of L&D but you can’t take the L&D out of the girl. Bloom’s taxonomy seems to run through me like words in a stick of rock. The need for a creative outlet was and still is, an essential to me. Birthday parties became another source of fun and slowly but surely it became my world. And it was great, I loved being part of so many young children’s learning journeys. 

But it was all consuming; and I missed my old life. I love travel, I love being able to design and create experiences that make a difference to a learner and to a business. And it cannot be underestimated how demanding it is managing a class of four year olds.

So time for a new pivot, not back to my old life, but forward to a new one. A spiral rather than a circle. Forward, yet back, into adult learning. Bringing experience from adult learning and in early years education, into a shiny new offering. Designing and building learning experiences that enable change. Robyn Williams once said, “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world”. So here I am, ready to change the world, one learning experience at a time. And still fuelled by coffee.