Turn around.....

Remember the Bonnie Turner song, "Total Eclipse of the Heart?"  My friends and I often sing "Turn around....."

I want to bring up how many trials, tribulations, and challenges I've faced. But, that's really depressing. It actually depresses me if I sit and think about all of them.  Bad stuff has happened, but I've worked very hard and deliberately to find a way to make each bad situation have a meaningful outcome. There is NOT a silver lining for everything; I'm not that naive. But, can I make something meaningful come from the bad things that have happened? That's my personal driving question.

I really won't go through all of the things in my past; I'll just bring up one situation that I let fester for nearly a year. I was in a leadership role at my primary workplace. I'm a teacher, and I was department chair. One spring, the principal and I interviewed many people to come on board, and we put a current teacher into the role of instructional coach.  It was not a position I really understood, nor wanted. I wasn't sure how much the district was going to back and support instructional coaches. I was department chair, and I was very happy with that role and those responsibilities. During the summer, the principal wrote me an email (it was a copy/paste of what she also sent to the entire faculty) stating that she was getting rid of all department chair roles. Their responsibilities would fall now to the instructional coaches, who would be taking on even more responsibilities than in years past.  It took me out of a leadership role, and it took money out of my pocket.  I was pissed.

I had really started to look at my career growth with the department chair as a building block to grow from. I was no longer in all of the leadership meetings, no longer in the know, no longer the go-to person, etc.  Other people in the district didn't know exactly how to treat me - had I been demoted? What did I do wrong?   The answer was no and nothing, but they wouldn't dare to ask those questions.

The next school year, I continued to mentor a new teacher and I had a student teacher. I looked at other ways I could develop my career.  Both of these mentoring positions gave me valuable experience and insight into a different kind of role. At the end of the year, I was offered the role of Lead Mentor for our campus teacher mentors.  This is actually an even better fit for me.

I also made a proposal to speak at a conference, which I might not have done if I had continued as a department chair. AND ----- I WAS ACCEPTED!

Instead of just wallowing, I looked to see what other career possibilities were available. I also waited to see what would pop up. That was particularly hard since I like to plan, prepare, and conquer.