Webbing

I started my searching with the Financial Implications:

·         Reviewed my Teachers’ Retirement Fund account

·         Reviewed my Social Security statement

·         Reviewed our retirement plan that our financial planner prepares each year

·         Signed up for a Retirement Seminar offered at school

There are hundreds of websites, but I found most of them just provided “general” information about retirement.  Annette Lamb’s 8W’s model states of the Webbing (Searching) stage, “One piece of information may lead to new questions and areas of interest” I got side-tracked on many of my searches reading about retirement and baby boomers.  I had to force myself to concentrate on the task at hand.  Hopefully, I can come back to that topic at a later time.

I also created a survey about retirement that I’m sending out to everyone I know who is retired. 

That’s it for today.  Indianapolis is hosting a little event called the Super Bowl so we are heading downtown to enjoy the festivities!

Reflecting / Investigating

The Inquiry Page (Ask, Investigate, Create, Discuss, Reflect) – Continuous Cycle

(Bruce, Bishop, and Bryan 2003)  First, I am going to reflect

From the Information Search Process (ISP) developed by Carol Kuhlthau (1994):  “Initiation:  Feeling:  apprehension and uncertainty.”  I am much more comfortable with a project that requires “memorization.”  I’m really pretty good at that!    From Information Power, (Mancall, Aaaron, Walker, 1986):  “Our educational system focuses primarily on teaching youth “what” to think rather than “how” to think.  I am a product of that system!  I was so uncomfortable with this project, I thought about dropping the class.  However, I realized I am probably feeling the same way that many students feel when asked to “think.”  Maybe all teachers need to “re-experience” that feeling. 

I have also done some investigating.  I found several Indiana Standards for my project:

Guidance 3-5 2.7  List jobs that relate to their hobbies and/or leisure activities and Personal Finance PF 1.1.8 – Develop Strategies and goals for retirement and estate planning. 

I went to the library and found many valuable resources on retirement.  The New Retirement, The Ultimate Guide to The Rest of Your Life, by Jan Cullinane and Cathy Fitzgerald and Looking Forward, An Optimist’s Guide to Retirement, by Ellen Freudenheim just to name a few.  I even ran into a retired teacher who volunteers at the library.  She has agreed to take my survey on retirement!

Wondering

I come from a very large family (6 sisters and 2 brothers) and my mother is 95 years old and in great health.  They are all retired except my brother and me!  I always laugh on my way to work, thinking I’m supporting their social security checks!  As my husband I were brainstorming ideas for my blog, we both realized how little we know about retirement and really how little thought we have given to it.  My focus of this project is to become more educated on the subject and prepare for the future. 

I have decided to divide my wondering into four categories:  Personal implications, financial implications, social implementations and logistical implementations.

Personal Implications
            Do I want to retire?

            Does my work define me as a person?

            What will I do with my time if I retire?

Financial Implications

            Can I afford to retire?

            How will retirement affect my spending habits?

Social Implications

            How will retirement affect my family?

            How will retirement affect my lifestyle?

            What are my friends’ thoughts on retirement?

            How do people I know that have retired view retirement?

Logistical Implementations

            What age can I retire?

            If I retire from teaching, can I still work?  Are there restrictions on how many hours or how much money I can make?

            How will this affect my insurance and benefits?

Watching

The first topics I thought of were related to my position as an educator and elementary librarian.  Such topics as The Role of the Media Specialist in the Elementary Setting, Author Studies, The Balanced Calendar or Specials Teachers Evaluations.  However, when I reread the words, “Your topic should be something that you are truly interested in exploring,” I decided to look inward.   

To me RETIREMENT is a scary word.  I knew in the first grade that I wanted to be a teacher and feel very blessed to have worked in that capacity for many years.  However, changes are taking place in education that may affect my future employment.  For the last two years, the media specialists in all the buildings have been on the top of the RIF (Reduction In Force) list.  Our high school media specialist resigned at the end of last year and was not replaced.  Our teachers’ union role has diminished and we have committees that are looking at evaluating all positions in the schools.  Therefore, I have decided to create this blog to examine the many facets of retirement.

I plan to have "fun" with this topic.  I don't think I have ever used the word "fun" and "assignment" in the same sentence!