News: A New Position, A New Beginning

Yes, my friends, it has indeed been a while.  My last post was all the way back in February, so for those of you who have been wondering where I've been, I will apologize for my lack of regular chatter.  I'm keenly aware that it's a good way to kill a blog's following, but prioritizing is something every teacher has to do.  My students, my program, and my family have needed more attention in the last few months, which I'm sure many an educator can relate to.  I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about my job in this post, so if you're not at all interested in hearing about a bunch of personal stuff, then hopefully I can catch you on the next post.

I've enjoyed being a teacher over these past 15+ years, but if I'm being completely honest, not every year has been amazing.  For reasons too numerous and complex to recount, there have definitely been times where I felt that I needed to consider leaving the profession.  I know this is something many of my colleagues have wrestled with, and I can imagine just about every teacher having their fair share of "why am I doing this?" moments over the course of a career.  

Naturally, some educators make the decision not to stay in the classroom.  Teacher burnout is a thing, and some leave education entirely.  Others make the decision to move on to other positions in education, but outside of classrooms.  While I'm sure many folks who move into admin or jurisdiction offices do so out of a passion for those roles or to take on new challenges, there are undoubtedly those for whom escaping the classroom is a significant motivator.

I'll admit that I've felt like I was in the shoes of one of those latter types of people -- been so disgruntled and dismayed by my teaching experience, that exit strategies were a regular part of my internal monologue, as well as conversations with my family and friends.  

If you've been following this blog, however, you'll know that my attitude started changing a few years ago.  While I can't pinpoint the exact moment when the switch was flipped, I can say that a combination of factors have brought me to the point I'm at now, one where I have never been more excited and happy with teaching.  To try to summarize all those factors is a challenge in and of itself, but as an aside, I'd like to try to offer a moment of advice to anyone who finds themselves in that state of mind -- seriously considering an escape route from a classroom you feel trapped in:

1. Stop consuming, and start creating.  Textbooks and other people's lesson plan binders are fine resources when you have little idea what you're doing and you need a lifeline to keep you afloat.  But once you're up and treading water, no satisfaction can be found in other people's creations.  If you start thinking of the work you do with students as your canvas, it can be as creatively fulfilling as any artist's craft.  Make.
2. See your students as your own children, even the ones you would never have raised to behave that way.  Don't worry about keeping them busy or making sure they're always doing.  Think about helping them find who and what they will one day be.
3. Stop looking for that zone where everything is "just right," and you can finally get settled and be comfortable for a while.  That's where "Bored" and "Boring" live.  The fun is in the new, the untried, and the untested.  Make change the norm.
4. If you don't already have at least one, tenaciously seek out one or more teacher buddies -- one(s) who you can be sincere with and who can call you out on your BS.  Let them see you teach, and seek out their honest critique.

Back to the tale at hand, it is with some irony that in the moment when I am least interested in leaving the classroom, an opportunity arises that more or less takes me out of the classroom.  An opportunity in my district's office opened to take on a learning specialist role -- one who works with teachers to coach and support their 21st Century Learning practices.  I applied and was accepted.  Yay!

You might be wondering "Waitasec. Didn't you just say you've never been happier teaching?"  Yes I did.  And it's exactly for that reason why I felt this was something I needed to do.  My very first post on this blog was a declaration of my desire to be a revolutionary.  Why?  Because I have seen first hand that when an alignment of attitude, tools, and environment is just right, great things can happen for kids.  A revolution needs revolutionaries, and it seems to me that a sphere of influence reaching many schools and many teachers offers more opportunity to help guide those alignments in to place than a single classroom within a single school.  I genuinely want to be able to share, almost evangelically, how fulfilling teaching can be with other teachers, especially those who are feeling as though they've lost their way but haven't yet given up on their chosen profession.

I'm not so naive as to think my message will be universally accepted.  Nor am I so naive as to think I have everything figured out and possess the road map to teacher happiness.  I fully expect to be challenged and to not always have the correct (or even any) solution.  But I truly believe I can be of help to teachers, and that will in turn help kids.  

So I don't yet fully know what my new role as "21st Century Learning Specialist" for Rocky View Schools will entail.  I do know, however, that if you're a teacher who could use a teacher buddy, one who can be sincere with you and who wants to help make excellent things happen in your classroom, then I hope you'll consider dropping me a message.

Vive la revolution!

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