I found this clicking around on
pinterest last week and felt like it was the perfect quote for me to find. Especially the last line.
Good things fall apart so better things can fall together.For the past five months, I have been taking the steps to make a career change. I've always known in my heart that I want to teach. And around mid-February, it was like a light bulb went off in my mind that Hello? I totally can. I can get my certification and get a job, possibly at the (super wonderful) school I already work at. I can do this. I don't love my current job. I love my school and I love all the people here, but the asking people for money and bending over backwards for donors day in and day out? I am over it. I'm not the least bit passionate about this field. But I so, so, so want to teach.
So one night over dinner back in March-ish I told Mark my idea. He was on board and more than excited for me to get out of the negative atmosphere of my current position. So I researched a number of teaching certification programs in the area and contacted several of them before deciding on what felt like the best place for me. I met with an adviser at this school, and everything just clicked into place. It felt right. I took the required admission test and officially submitted my application. Classes would start in August and over the next year, I would earn my certification and then apply for a teaching position for the 2012 school year. It was a ways off, but I knew time would fly and I was so excited about getting back to school and taking classes and learning about this new field, that I didn't even mind the long timeline.
My plan was to quietly get my certification while still maintaining my current job. Classes were two evenings a week, which was totally doable. But then a couple months ago, a teaching position opened up at my school for this coming fall and something inside me told me I should apply for it. I knew I could do it, if I could just convince the leaders at my school that I could. So I talked to our HR manager and the teacher who is leaving the position, and they both encouraged me to try for it. I interviewed with the Head of the Lower School, the school Headmaster, and the department head for the position. I got to teach a sample lesson to a class of third graders and had so. much. fun. The entire process reaffirmed even more that this is 100% what I want to do.
In the end, I didn't get the job. I have zero true-life experience, and I knew it was a long-shot. But, by going out on a limb and applying for the position, I spilled the beans to my current boss, the head of the Lower School, and our Headmaster that I want to switch jobs. Which turned out to be the best thing possible. The Lower School Head loved how I taught and came to me afterwards to tell me that she wants to work with me for the next year, while I am taking my certification classes, to get me in a teaching position at our school for next fall. She talked to my boss and we're going to work it out so that I can sub in several classes during the year, shadow and observe teachers, and take professional development classes and trainings through the school. I'll be meeting weekly with the LS Head and she will serve as my mentor while I transition to this new career. I couldn't be in a more perfect position to achieve my goal.
But then. Then things fell apart. A couple weeks ago, I got a call from the director of the program where I applied for my certification classes. I thought for sure that she was calling to tell me I had been accepted into the school. However, she was instead calling to tell me that the school they were affiliated with decided to completely eliminate the teaching certification program, and could I please come pick up my application packet. No explanation. No apology for completely throwing the biggest wrench into my plan.
So I'm back to the drawing board, looking for a new place to take classes. The problem I am running in to is that pretty much all of the other programs in the area are designed to get you in and out in 6-8 weeks and get you into the classroom by August. This is not what I want to do. I never wanted to rush through the process of learning "how to be a teacher." I enjoy being in school and I want to feel completely prepared when I have a classroom of my own. Plus, our Lower School Head flat out told me she doesn't hire candidates who go through these kinds of programs. She would rather I find a slower-paced program that gives you more opportunities to shadow current teachers and take classes that last an entire semester, rather than two weeks.
Thus, good things fall apart. I'm on the hunt for the better things now.
