I became an Assistant Principal in the middle of a tornado.
No seriously. I found out I had been chosen for the position, and then I had my first real, “Hey, I got the job,” conversation with a co-assistant principal. Then, the school went in to lockdown for a tornado.
After that, nothing was normal. Literally, nothing about school and my job was normal.
Since August of that school year, I’d been in the Spanish classroom. I’m a certified English teacher. I took the Spanish position because I needed a job, they needed a teacher, and that school was home for me.
Teaching Spanish was humbling, and the entire first semester (well, at least 3/4 of it) felt like my first year of teaching. Maybe worse.
When second semester began, my world tilted and the position of Assistant Principal came open at the same school. I’d been wanting to work in that position at that location since 2008 when I started my School Leadership courses.
And here I was.
The tornado started it all. If only I’d known that it was going to become a real life metaphor for the remainder of the school year.
Right as I started my first few days in the new role, the school system shut down for wind. Yes, wind. Wind and potential flooding. Understandable, but it still sounds really weird to say it.
Then, the talk about COVID-19 began. Would we close? Would we stay open? Would it be a few weeks? Would we go back?
And in all this time, I was still trying to work with my Spanish students since we hadn’t found a replacement yet.
I have said it more times than I can count, but my transition in to Assistant Principal has been the weirdest transition for a job that I’ve ever experienced.
What I learned in the few weird months of being Assistant Principal/pseudo-Spanish teacher was that I love my job, and I love the world of education. The shutdown caused many, many fears for teachers and students, but we prevailed. And I was so humbled to be in a position to help.
What was the weirdest job transition you’ve ever experienced?