My New Job

In August, I will be beginning a new job as a middle school math teacher in room 62 at Spring View Middle School.  Wait a minute, that is where I have been teaching for the past nine years.  Confused?  I, for the first time in a long time, am not.  For the past several years I have been looking for greener pastures, seeking and considering a variety of different positions and/or titles in education.  This spring/summer I read Linchpin, Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin and my perspective on many things has been permanently altered, especially the way I view my career in education.  And so I am announcing that I will be "getting a new job without leaving".  I will be doing my job in a new way by looking for opportunity and refusing to hide from blame.  I have decided to do my job BETTER and transfer my passion to my job and in the process guide my students in doing this also.  Here is what I have so far as my job description:


Looking for a Middle School Math Educator:
General Description:

• Someone who sees herself as an artist who works for respect, connections, relationships and wants to cause change - Seth Godin
• Someone who is smart, courageous, and bold
• Someone who honors her calling and trusts her heart - Oprah
• Someone who makes plans, takes small steps, revises, refines, improves and then moves forward again - Eric Ryan, Adam Lowry, and Lucas Conley
• Someone who is committed, no more "yes" it better be "hell yes!" - Derek Sivers
• Someone who is willing to be an "Ish" - Peter Reynolds
• Someone willing to find what Drives herself and each of her students - Daniel Pink
• Someone who will "take a moment to slow down to a more thoughtful pace, to ponder, reflect, imagine and envision.  Take time to believe in her dreams, to celebrate possibility" and continually ask herself "where is it you want to go..." To follow her North Star - Peter Reynolds

Obviously the above is a compilation of quotes and books I have been spending time with this summer.  I will  have this list posted in my classroom so I can see it and  remember while in the midst of the daily "have to's" we as educators encounter everyday.  I know, the above is great stuff in theory, how am I planning on using it to change the everyday workings of my classroom?!

That will be addressed in my next post!