Things You Want to Know if You Are Switching Schools When Teaching
This week on the Truth for Teachers podcast: Are you thinking of changing pedagogy jobs? Moving schools or districts? I will teach you my personal system for making big didactics decisions.
This is the time of year when many teachers are facing huge decisions about their careers. And while that tin can experience similar a burden, I think we should start by acknowledging that having choices and options is a privilege, considering not every teacher has a say in these issues. I know many of you aren't certain if you're even going to have a job next yr because your teaching position has been cut.
Your determination might be whether to look for another teaching job, or detect a different career altogether. Others of y'all are wondering:
- Should you stay domicile with your kids, or save up for some other year first?
- Should you try to get a job in another school?
- Should yous ask your principal if you tin accept that open spot in another form level?
- Should you apply for that position every bit an instructional coach or an administrator?
In many ways, these are securely personal questions that no one tin can advise you on. In that location are so many factors to consider and only you know them all, and understand the relative importance of them all.
And then, rather than requite you advice nigh what to do, I'm going to teach you my arrangement for making these kinds of big decisions. I've changed schools five times and grade levels three times, and relocated to other parts of the country for work twice. And I ever felt confident about the choices I made because I created a system that helped me remember through every aspect of the decision and weigh the options not just on an intellectual, rational, logical level, but also on an emotional and heart level.
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A simple system for weighing your options
The process is elementary: simply brand a weighted pros and cons listing. You tin download this one I made, or only utilise a blank piece of newspaper.
Yous need four columns in your list: pros of staying, cons of staying, pros of changing, and cons of changing. Make your columns, and and then list out all the possible reasons that might go in each section.
Write it all down, anything that pops into your head, no thing how silly. Your sentimental reasons are valid. No perk or potential problem is as well small to include. Put it on the list. You can do virtually of this in one sitting, simply you may think of things later that you lot want to go back and add.
In one case you lot feel confident that yous've listed out all the pros and cons for each pick, you're and so going to weight them on a calibration of 1 to five in terms of importance.
For example, if a pro is that this new job would cut a lot of time off your commute, that's probably worth the full v points, then write 5 next to it in the chart. If in that location's a con that the new school has a parking lot actually far abroad from your classroom, that might be worth but 1 point.
Go with your gut instincts as you're doing this, and don't try to talk yourself upwards or down when yous're assigning points. If something feels on first thought that it'southward a three, give it a 3.
Afterward you've assigned a point value to everything on the list, you're ready to tally upwardly each column, and subtract the cons from the pros. So if you have 35 points under pros for staying and 15 points under cons for staying, the total score for staying is 20. Exercise the same math for the option of changing your electric current teaching position.
Whichever pick has more than net points is your final determination.
How you'll know if you've arrived at the right choice
Now, here'southward the really powerful part about making a weighted pros/cons list and why it'due south been a fool-proof strategy for me every fourth dimension I accept a big decision with no clear right or incorrect answer:
When you're writing the pros and cons out and deciding how much to weight them, you're going to discover yourself instinctively wanting to be more lenient with one selection over another.
You'll find yourself penalizing ane statement more than harshly and wanting to overlook or rate down problems with the other.
This is your intuition speaking: this is your inner wisdom surfacing, and what you truly feel in your heart of hearts. This is the right selection.
You will complete this list and either experience excited nearly the result that is clearly the all-time choice, OR you'll detect yourself wanting a redo. You'll say Hmm, this was really shut, let me look at the indicate values I gave here. I think actually this reason is more of import than I thought, and information technology should be weighted more than heavily. Yous'll observe yourself wanting to skew the results the other way.
If so, listen to that intuition and follow information technology.
What if other people demand to make the decision with me?
The above process explains how this works when the decision is basically in your hands and the final choice is up to yous. If this is a conclusion that your family members and loved ones need to be involved with, you can either include their opinions and the effects on them inside your own listing, or make the list based purely on your own feelings, and testify information technology to your significant other afterward. She or he may want to add together to the list, or make his or her own which you can then compare and talk through. You lot tin download the weighted pros/cons list and print out as many copies as you lot need.
A final piece of advice as your weigh out your options
People tend to regret the things they didn't do more than they regret the things they did do.
If you don't make a change in your life, you will always wonder "what if." You're less likely to wonder "what if" when you choose to keep things the same, because you already know what that reality is like.
Often when I talk to teachers who are weighing out their options, they know that "what if" volition haunt them if they don't take a bound of faith and create alter in their lives. They're really wanting to do something dissimilar, and 9 times out of 10, they truly believe the alter volition exist the right conclusion, but change is scary.
They're looking for someone else to say, "Y'all're non crazy for uprooting your life or taking on something new. It really is all going to work out for you lot. You lot should do this." They want someone to affirm what they already know deep inside. They want someone to assistance them push back the fright and brand sure the determination is the right i.
That'south why working through all of the issues through a weighted pros/cons listing is and so powerful. It does non deny the fear or the reasons for fright, simply neither does it let you to make a conclusion based solely on that fear. It will help you brand the determination based on a well-reasoned analysis that affirms your intuition.
"May your choices reverberate your hopes, not your fears." -Nelson Mandela Click To Tweet
This post is based on the latest episode of my weekly podcast, Angela Watson'due south Truth for Teachers . A podcast is like a free talk radio show y'all can listen to online, or download and take with you lot wherever you go. I release a new xv-20 minute episode each Sunday and feature information technology here on the blog to help you get energized and motivated for the week ahead.
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Source: https://truthforteachers.com/truth-for-teachers-podcast/figure-change-schools-big-teaching-decisions/
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