Teachers in Transition

Show Notes – Bloom Where You’re Planted – or maybe find a new planter.

In this episode, Vanessa talks about what goes into the decision to think about if you are in the right place for you. Do you want to leave education? Or just the place where you at! This week’s hack is designed to take a moment to check our documents to save untold amounts of surprise grief, and finally, we’ll talk about some strategies for making sure we stand out from a crowd of applicants.

A link to our Facebook Page! Join us!

Chain Lightning by Rush. Read the Lyrics – just click on Show Lyrics. Hear the Song.

FindaNotary.com – find a notary who will meet you to take care of your notarial needs

The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success – by Albert-László Barabási

And remember to send your comments, stories, and random thoughts to me at TeachersinTransitionCoaching@gmail.com! I look forward to reading them.

The transcript of this podcast can be found on the podcasts’ homepage at Buzzsprout.

Are you a teacher who is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout - or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing something different or a new job or perhaps pursuing an entirely different career - but you don't know what else you're qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search and you just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you are not alone. my name is Vanessa Jackson; and I am a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal with the overwhelmingly stressful nature of your day-to-day job and to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. You might ask yourself, What tools do I need to find a new career? Are my skills valuable outside the classroom? How and where do I even get started? These are all questions you deserve answers to, and I can help you find them. I’m Vanessa Jackson. Come and join me for Teachers in Transition.

***Hi! And Welcome back to another episode of Teachers in Transition. I am your host, Vanessa Jackson – I’m a compassionate career transition and job search coach. If you are frustrated with your current teaching position – you are burnt out and overwhelmed, I am here for you. I help teachers reach their goals and dig into what they really want to help them chase their dreams. I provide tips and suggestions to help with stress and mental health, hacks to help your day, and job hunting tips. Today on the pod we are going to talk about deciding if leaving teaching is what we really want. Maybe you just need a different school. We’ll also share a hack to save untold amounts of surprise grief, and finally, we’ll talk about some strategies for making sure we stand out from a crowd of applicants.

Today in our mental health segment, we are going to talk about the decision – to leave teaching? Or not to leave. Let’s dive into the question. In some cases, you are reaching out, you are burnt out, and you are overwhelmed - but you're not ready to leave teaching. It may just mean that you need to teach in a new environment. And a lot of these job hunting skills are going to be the same – it’s just going to be easier to write your bullet points because you won’t have to translate them into corporate speak. Districts still use applicant tracking systems. It is OK to look for another job in a different district nearby, or perhaps just a different school. There are certain areas and certain neighborhoods where parents are not very involved and there are certain demographics where the parents are very, very involved. You can't comb them out of your hair! There are very many different kinds of schools. Each one of them comes with their own set of difficulties. I'm going to be sort of retelling a story that I heard in a previous music educator conference from a long time ago. And I am going to have to apologize, but I don't remember who I originally heard this from, but the story itself really stuck with me and I think that it is important to internalize this message. This was a teaching supervisor and he had two students getting ready to graduate and go out into their first jobs. One of the students was technically the better candidate. He had better grades, more talent, and people looked to that student as a leader and everything came pretty easily to him. For those of you who in the know on such things -he played trumpet. We contrast that to another student who was not as innately talented. She worked very hard for everything that she got. She wasn’t always a leader in her school groups, but she worked hard and was enjoyable to be around. And she just generally was very happy to be there. I don’t remember what instrument she played. Hmmm, that’s interesting too For the sake of making this story easier to tell, we’ll name our talented fellow Eric and we’ll name our other student Emily.

So when it comes time for job placements after graduation, local districts would check in with the university professor because he knew the students. His thoughts and opinions carried weight. (This is another example of networking – but one where your network is working on your behalf when you don’t even know it.). There was a larger school in the suburbs. We’re going to name that one Suburban High. This was a thriving band program with money, resources., and active parent organization – the works! So naturally, the university professor suggested Eric – talent, leadership skills, and good grades. He was the natural pick. Eric went to work at Suburban High. Emily had a harder time finding a job, but she was undeterred. And finally the opportunity came from a very rural, farming community pretty far out in the middle of nowhere. There were not a lot of resources, not close to a big city, and the program was small. At this point, Emily was just happy to have a job, so she dove in.

At the music educator conference the next year, this professor got to run into these students again, so he asked how they were doing. Eric was not happy. He had been placed into an amazing environment, but he didn’t have anything nice to say about anything. The kids were a mess, they have so many things that they're doing, they don't. have time to practice their instruments, they don’t take things seriously, the parents were very demanding and so on.

Emily was having a blast over at Rural High. She told her former professor that it was such a great place – she didn’t understand why no one else liked it. The kids were polite, they families were tight knit. They’d had a few band potlucks and the food was amazing! And, she pointed out, there’s NOTHING to do around here. So it’s easy to recruit kids into the band.

A few years go by - the program at Suburban High has shrunk, performance is down, parents have complained, and the district is looking to find a new director. Yes, that can happen sometimes in the world of Band. They’re encouraging Eric to look elsewhere. They reach out to our Professor in the story because they’re frustrated with Eric. The professor promises to keep an eye out.

Wouldn’t you know it, not too long after that, Emily called to check up. The program is the largest program in the school except for football, scores are up, and Emily is ready for new challenges. She’s earned her street cred, so to speak.

The professor immediately suggests that Emily call up Suburban High. That district, of course, hires her.

But now Rural High School doesn’t have a director, so they call the local university and get routed to the professor and they’re looking for a director. Long story short… Eric goes to work for Rural High. It seems to check the boxes to fix the complaints he had at his previous school.

At the next music conference, the professor is now very interested to hear from these two because this has become practically a research experiment. Emily, no surprise, loves her new position. She tells her former professor “Wow! These kids have MONEY! I don’t have to do as much fundraising, but when I do, there are so many parents that have the time to pitch in and help! And they’ll take their kids to private lessons!! The principal is very interested in letting me grow this program so they’re letting me try things to recruit more kids. Do you have ANY idea what I can do here”

Eric, had a different story to tell. He didn’t like the fact that there weren’t any parents to help at events, he didn’t like that there was no access to private lessons, and he didn’t like that he had to share kids with other activities.

And I'm sure I missed a few details in there. But that was the gist of it. And there are a lot of things one can pull from that story. What I pulled from it at the time was to Bloom Wherever I was Planted. As a military spouse, that served me very well. But that’s not all. Please do not pull from this some level of toxic positivity. That isn’t the point. Here’s what I think the main point is:

Different environments work for different people. I'm not sure what the perfect environment would have been for Eric, our grumpy Gus, because there is always something wrong with everything that happens. Meanwhile, Emily, our eager young director started rural and ended up suburban and she just really dug in and made things work regardless of the difficulty.

Once Upon a Time in the middle of a recession, I came into a school as a long term sub. As a friend told me “That principal hates the orchestra program and orchestra directors, but those kids need a teacher.” They had been going through a teacher a year. That’s never a good sign. At the time, I was very desperate for a job so I went in with my armor and shields up – just in case. I’d have taught a class of rabid wolverines if necessary. To everyone’s surprise I ended up loving it there. They actually hired me into that position. The principal didn’t hate orchestra or orchestra directors – we got along great. She was sad when we got orders to move. I tripled the size of that program.

Sometimes, just a change of scenery can be a good thing. When you decide that you are going to bloom where you were planted, you don't overlook what's wrong. You see exactly what's wrong. You just choose to embrace the parts of it that you can make work. And our talented young fellow, our grumpy Gus was very frustrated because things just didn't work the way he thought that they should, whereas the other director in the story just rolled with whatever happened. “We're doing this now, OK?” That's not to say that that we should be endlessly flexible either. Even a rubber band breaks if you pull it too far. But I think that there is something here to be said in terms of environment. I also think that you can get to a point where it's impossible to see the positive environment anymore or the positives in the environment just don't outweigh the negatives. In my last teaching job. I had amazing amazing kids who were giving me 100% of what they were able to give. They gave me all they had. It wasn't much, but we were in the middle of a pandemic, and I was happy to have it and I enjoyed working with them and I understood my role at that place and time in their lives. Unfortunately, my school administration and the state had very unrealistic expectations. My administration was plowing forward as if it was a normal year - but it wasn't.

Yes, the strain of that coupled with an inability to effectively handle the needed logistics is what caused me to look around and tell myself, “I can't do this anymore.”

It is true that I might have been able to find what I needed by moving somewhere else. But it is also true that at that time, I was so damaged emotionally by what I'd been through. I had to get away. If you are in a place where you don't want to leave teaching but you're just miserable where you are - start looking at other schools. Start looking at other districts. Start examining the administrations. There are good principals out there. There are good superintendents out there. There are good school board members who care about their teachers out there. There's just not as plentiful as want them to be. Often those wonderful people are getting run out by districts and state.

Sometimes you can bloom where you are planted, and sometimes it is just time to take your bloom to a new planter. That planter might be a new school, a new district or a whole new career field. And that is a decision that deserves serious attention and thought.

And moving on to our next segment - our teacher hack, which is designed to help you save time and brain space so that you can spend it on you getting ready for that job hunt. Whether you're up skilling for a new career or applying to jobs, with today's hack we're going to approach something that is a little more like a tip than it is a hack. But letting this slip on you can ruin your day in a variety of ways. Right now, go check the expiration dates on your IDs. Driver’s License, military ID if applicable, Passports, pool pass – all of them! We had just come up in my family recently. As a veteran family, we still have dependent ID cards even though my husband's veteran status is never going to change. He will always be a veteran, but our ID cards still expire. And my son is getting ready to go off school. He casually mentioned that his ID expired months ago. And I get to looking and darn it, mine had just expired too in the last couple of weeks So now we are faced with trying to figure out how to get on post to get our IDs updated. We’re having to coordinate time off of work and it’s just a mess. I would love to save you from that mess with minimal loss of important time. And you want to check those passports because it can take several weeks for the renewals process and for that to come back. If you have a child, remember those child passports under 16 are only five years long. When they go to get their first passport after they're 16, it's exactly like starting from scratch, as if they've never had one. Make sure that you allow enough time for that. One of my son’s adventures in adulting was to renew his own passport, so that’s why I’m up to date on that information. I know that a passport is an expense, but it is an excellent ID form. If the opportunity to go to another country for something appears you are ready to go. If you find you do have IDs expiring soon, take a moment and figure out in your calendar and your planner system of choice – when is the best time for you to be able to do that.

Since we are on the topic of unexpired government IDs, it also makes me think of Notarizations. As a teacher, I had the hardest time getting something notarized. The banks worked shorter hours than I did, the Notary Public wasn’t always available at the UPS store, and it was just SUCH a pain. Did you know that there is probably a MOBILE notary that will come to YOU? They’ll meet you in the parking lot before you drive home, or during your planning period in the front office, or at your kid’s soccer game, or your house… the list is almost endless. You can find one at FindaNotary.com (I’ll put a link in the show notes). Search your area and just reach out. Make sure that you have your unexpired photo ID available. They’ll charge a travel fee and whatever the state required fee is, but a Mobile Notary is like picking the groceries up at the curbside – you have been given back an immense gift of time – and one that you can use on you!

Moving on to our Job Hunting Segment: We all know there are a gabazillion candidates for any given job you find on LinkedIn or Indeed. The harsh reality is that there are a lot of good candidates in there. And they are going to get down to the top 10-20 - possibly more- candidates who have virtually the same level of qualifications and expertise. So we have to ask ourselves, how can they possibly choose one? and the answer is: something needs to stick out in the mind of the recruiter or the hiring manager. The book The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási, talks about a hiring manager that eventually settled on the candidate wearing pink socks because all of the candidates were equally qualified and well positioned for the job, and that’s the one person who stood out. So I'm not advocating that you go out and buy pink socks – unless you want them -but we have to find a way to stand out from the crowd. On your resume if this can’t be achieved in your regular work experience, perhaps there is additional experience out there that can grab someone’s attention. I spent 5 years working in a place called North Pole, Alaska. That’s an attention grabber right there. People **always** ask if it gets cold there (very), if I know Santa (actually, he was our Mayor for awhile) and so on.

Some of the ways that we can stand out are through the things that aren’t said when you get to the interview stage. Chances are any one of the applicants would do a good job at the job, so at the interview stage, companies are looking for personality that fits into their corporate culture and they’re looking for attitude. And there is article after article that talks about body posture, eye contact, and speaking. And I am going to argue that you need to smile. Now, as women, we get tired of being told to smile more, but hear me out.

When you smile, a whole smile that goes all the way up into your eyes – most of the time, someone smiles back. And once you have gotten them to smile, they now associate you with a positive feeling.

It's a thing.

There was a group of researchers who were studying facial microexpressions – the art of just using the smallest muscle to convey a feeling. And they started to realize that on the days they were practicing disgust and angry expressions they left their workday significantly irritated. On the days they were working on the happy expressions, they left working feeling notably happier. A whole different study sprang out of this and – jumping to the end a bit – smiling actually sends a signal to your brain to make you a little bit happier. So if you can get someone to smile, you have their brain chemistry filing you happily away in a more positive place. And as the interviewer is going through their notes, YOU spark a happy thought. To quote my favorite band in their song, Chain Lightening: “Hope is epidemic, optimism spreads”. Another line in the song says “Laughter is infectious” and we’ve all seen that in action! I’ll Link to that song and to the lyrics alone in the show notes. Enjoy!)

Statistically speaking, another way to increase your odds of getting the job after you have landed the interview is to be one of the last people to interview. This doesn't sound particularly significant but again, from the book, The Formula: when everyone else is the same and there is nothing that particularly sticks out, how do you decide who to pick? When scheduling your interview, ask if you can know the time window during which they are interviewing, and ask for the last slot.. It statistically increases your odds of being the final pick. On the flip side of that, the older a corporate job posting is, the less likely your resume will be seen. The current advice is to get your application in the first 24 hours to have the best chance of being noticed. However, if it’s a job you love and it’s outside the 24-hour window, do not let that stop you from applying – let your passion shine through!

And I want to bring this full circle from the first segment – remember Emily, our little educator who could? A quote attributed to Henry Ford used to hang on the wall in every classroom I taught – “If you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” Emily thought she could, and so she did. When you think you can, you do everything in your power to get it done – because you can. When you think you can’t, your brain provides you with lots of reasons to bail out. I hang out in various social media spots and I pass tips and advice out for free all the time. There are those who grab the advice and start to apply it, and there are those who just keep telling me how it can’t be done. Be careful what you tell yourself – it comes true.

Personally, I think you are amazing, and I know you CAN.

Thank you for listening today! I am shamelessly asking you to help me grow my little podcast by telling others and sharing it with anyone you think might benefit from it! Those recommendations are a really big help to me and I appreciate every one of them. Also – rate and review! That also bumps it up in the algorithms, and helps people find the podcast. It really does help a lot!

And come join me on Facebook! The Teachers in Transition Podcast Club is a place where you are welcome and wanted. You can ask me specific questions and I’m happy to answer. Just search for Teachers in Transition Podcast Club and it will come right up, but I also have a link in the show notes.

If you are stuck in your job search, or are having trouble getting started, please feel free to reach out to me to schedule a complimentary discovery call to see how Teachers in Transition can help you pivot careers and find the job of your dreams.

That’s the podcast for today! If you liked this podcast, tell a friend, and don’t forget to rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Tune in weekly to Teachers in Transition where we discuss Job Search strategies as well as stress management techniques. And I want to hear from you! Please reach out and leave me a message at Teacher in transition coaching at gmail dot com. You can also leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099.

I’ll see you here again next week and remember – YOU are amazing!