#memorablemomentsineducation #31: I was hired for my first teaching job over the phone. I interviewed well enough that Keith offered me the job (I’m sure with a little help from Jeff Stines), and I had six weeks or so to pack up all my stuff, buy a car, find an apartment, and move to Denver. The prospect of teaching at-risk students at an alternative school excited me–how naïve to believe I could be ready at age 21!
I drove through Denver on my way to Arizona a couple weeks after getting the job, so I stopped by my new school to meet some people. My principal gave me a piece of advice that day which still sticks with me–“Your job is to take risks. Whatever we’ve done for these kids in the past hasn’t worked, so you need to try whatever you can to reach them.” At the time I didn’t recognize what a gift I’d received, but Keith set me on a path that has led me well for more than two decades. Too many teachers are not trusted, much less empowered, to take care of their students, to determine the appropriate curricula for their students, to recognize the immediate needs of their students, and to act on all of it. In a meeting today we discussed how we can create a more collaborative environment where educators and students embrace vulnerability and risk-taking. In our discussion, I recognized how I can try new things and remembered why I’m willing, all from one comment made by one man years ago.
Two weeks after I met my principal, he quit to take a job, a promotion, in another district. (Interestingly enough, he would eventually come back years later as a director of high schools.) This second act meant four of us (with a combined 4 years of teaching experience) would open a new school site without a leader. I took charge to build student schedules, order books and technology, and plan first-day-of-school activities. My colleagues jumped in with their own expertise to ensure we had a functioning school building, textbooks and supplies, and policies in place to make all this happen. From that day forward (whether legitimate or not), I believed I was in charge, maybe not of everything, but at least of the areas within my sphere of influence. Four days after the school year began, we got a real principal who came out of retirement to lead us for the next three years. This lovely man willingly indulged our naïve belief we were in charge, and we built a school out of adventure, risk, honesty, and love.
Even though I left that school (sadly) after seven years, I know the words and actions of my very first principal, who was never my actual principal, can be held responsible for all the good and bad that comes from my willingness to take risks, with my career and for my students.