A clear and unintended journey

Each of us start a path in our lives professionally.  Many of us begin at a point when we enter Kindergarten.  Many of us have a vision of what our lives will look like after we graduate twelve years later.   Some of us envision post secondary schooling, some the military,  some ministry, and yet others head right into the workforce.   Regardless of our paths many of us began developing and formulating and planning that path early on in our educational journeys.

I too had a path.  I knew, from as young as I knew what a profession was, that I wanted to be a teacher.  I knew I wanted to inspire, to educate, to motivate and to be with students,  I knew that being in front of a classroom was home and I traveled through my education with that goal in mind.  As I began my own post secondary journey I knew that was a good fit.  I knew that I would some day get my administration degree and lead my own building and I did.  All of that came true.  Twenty years in the classroom and ten years in administration.

What I did not plan or even consider was my next step.  I thought that I would retire from education at whatever age I had decided and move on into retirement.  But, I learned that my journey was to be different.  In my time in the classroom I was not ignorant to the politicalness in education.  I was rather protected as a great teacher but I was not ignorant.  I watched as some decisions were made that were questionable to me but yet, I believed in blind faith and moved on.

Then I became and administrator.  I watched and personally lived through some political decisions that were made "in the name of kids" that were far from that.  I  watched as my colleagues, great administrators were discarded based in the whim of a disgruntled stakeholder of the school.  I watched amazing teachers discarded and outcast and flat beat down at the liberty of a political figure in the community or on the board.  I became lost and confused and committed to find answers.  I knew that this could not be the norm, there had to be more.  After all, I told myself, at the very essence of what we do are STUDENTS and surely we can all agree even if that means disagreeing to agree.  After my own "non renewal" of my contract I knew that my beliefs were being tested and that this was a path that I had not planned.

I left my amazing field KNOWING we must do more.  I left knowing that what I know and what I personally experienced empowers me.  I became committed to exposing and offering solutions as to how we can fix our school system for our students and for our educators.  I now know that my journey was exactly what it was supposed to be.  I was MEANT to be with students.  I was meant to lead teachers and I am MEANT to fix our broken school system.

This next chapter as a business owner, consultant, and author

http://amzn.to/1plBNFg  are for a purpose.  They were all a part of my clear yet unintended journey.  I had to experience each and every step of my journey.  I had to be where I am.  I had to experience the great and the not so great, the working and the not working in school, the fair and the unfair, the benefits and the losses.  I had to go through each and every step to bring me to where I am now.

I KNOW that this book will change lives.  I know that this book will make a difference for every educator and every student in our schools.  I know that this book will create some amazing dialogues that will benefit all of us.  Difficult conversations can and  often are tough but we MUST have those dialogues if we ever are to grow and learn.  We cannot move forward if we do not acknowledge where we are right now.....no matter what that looks like.  It is in looking at where we are that allows us clarity in how to get to where we what to be.

Who is ready to join me on this unintended journey?