In a Better Place

It's official! I took the leap. Today, I woke up knowing that there is no possible way I can be an administrator again...I let my license expire yesterday, January 31, 2016. This post is not meant to discourage future or current administrators, or to complain about administration. What is IS about, is finding and living your true passion and to take the leap if you are living something else. Funny that I happen to be the co-author of a book called, "The Passion-Driven Classroom" with my friend Angela Maiers. But even so, I thought I wanted to be a school principal.

I have reflected a lot on what the reasons were that I was so unhappy the last couple of years of my 7 year tenure as an administrator, and this is what I want to share with you:

1.  I love teaching...every day. Administration taught me that my passion is to be on the floor with a group of elementary students around me, learning together, every day. Yes, you can do that as a principal, but not every day, and when you do plan for it, something seemed to always pop up. I missed that close relationship with students that you can only have when you are there with them every day for hours at a time. I love lesson planning, creating, and implementing. I do not love making calendars and duty schedules.

2.  I love my family...and I wasn't spending enough time with them. I am a wife and mother of four children (and two furbabies). I remember supervising a track meet while my own children were competing in a different place. The emptiness that I felt that moment was a kick in the pants that I needed to be with them. My friends know that I cry once a year...I'm not what you'd call an emotional person...but I found myself shedding more than few tears missing my own kids' special events.

3.  I want people to like me...and when you are an administrator, most people like you, some do not. There is the old saying, "If everyone likes you, you're not doing your job." My personality is such that I want to be liked. Until I was an administrator, I didn't really understand that there is a bigger picture and decisions impact multiple people. There is the forest, and there are the trees. As a teacher, you often see your tree, but not the vast forest. When it appears you are messing with someone's tree, that irritates that person. I hated that feeling and felt like I had to explain myself constantly.

4.  I'm not getting any younger. When you reach over 40 something, something happens to you. You reflect a lot on what you have done and what is yet to come. Time is limited. I wanted to spend it practicing my passion. It would have been easier to stay in the administrative role in the short run...to keep doing what was safe and routine. In the long run, taking the leap to get back into the classroom has been more than satisfying. I am once again truly practicing my passion.

My message to you is to practice your passion, no matter what it takes. Take the leap, do it. It will put you in a better place.