Failure is not the opposite of success; it's part of success (Arianna Huffington)

 

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Oh, teachers are my lessons done? I cannot do another one (Leonard Cohen)

Boys are trying enough to human patience, goodness knows! but girls are infinitely more so, especially to nervous gentlemen, with tyrannical tempers, and no more talent for teaching than Dr. Blimber.

Louisa May Alcott in Little Women

Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away (Marcus Aurelius)

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Change is constant.

Recently, I heard a friend say, "I hate change".

To me, that is like saying, "I hate life", because change is constant. To get upset by change is to wrongly assume that stability is possible.

Schools are incredibly unstable places - every period is different, the students are different each day (not just behaviourally, but physically, and academically). The periods change at the end of every hour. There's a change-over and a new set of students arrives. Every day is different. In schools people come and people go constantly. Every year staff come and go, every student advances to a new year level. We are in a constant state of flux in a school.

No man steps in the same river twice (Heraclitus) - because the river has changed and so has the man.

I am in the process of a change to a new school. I am mindful that every school is different. I embrace that idea and I am excited by the prospect of having to learn new ways, meet new people, teach new students. That gives me a strong sense of purpose.

Some of my students and colleagues may have struggled to understand why I have changed schools. I loved my job, why would I change?

My former head of department said in his farewell speech to me that - at this point, "Warren has earned the right to go and do whatever he wants to".

I embrace the idea that everything is change, and in the end, it doesn't really matter because I can't control change. Yes, I made a conscious decision and applied to a different school, but I didn't control the outcome. Events have conspired to indicate that the time is right to change to a different place.

At this point, it feels right to go with that flow.

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe (Marilyn vos Savant)

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Next year I am taking the Purdzilla Show across town to a new school - Iona College.

I am very aware that scrutiny will be high (plenty of first impressions) and the need for relationship building will be at the forefront of my thoughts once again. 

I will also be observing, careful not to weigh in with my opinions too quickly. No one likes a clever Trevor, do they?

The above quote from Marilyn vos Savant is spot on - I will be studying, definitely, but mostly I will be observing the culture; looking for all of those unspoken rules that underlie what is done around a school.

It will be fascinating to compare the Woodford Way to the Iona Way. I was introduced to the concept of 'Sits' recently - this is the name for the year level common rooms at Iona. Fabulous. I'll be keen to observe how they operate.

My antennae will be on high twitch mode in my first weeks of next term as I begin my induction into the Iona Way.