Last month, I achieved a goal I set for myself over two years ago. That goal was to become a Google Certified Educator and a Google Certified Trainer. I earned my Level 1 and Level 2 Certifications earlier this year and I was approved as a Google Certified Trainer last month.
It was a goal that I thought I had to let go and wouldn’t be able to achieve with the career shift I had made; because two years ago, I left the world of education to become a corporate trainer for a real estate company.
I left education, sadly, for a lot of reasons. I left because I was a part-time teacher in one district, a study hall para, lunchroom supervisor, after-school homework coach, online teacher for a different district, tutor, and evening adult education teacher. I literally worked myself sick and kept working through the illness. All through that, I was passionate about using technology in my classrooms effectively and innovatively. I made sure that I was in the building as much as possible, which made me the go-to Tech Guru for staff when the Tech Integration Specialists were out of the building or busy. I constantly found new and interesting ways to teach my students and keep them engaged. I tried things, failed, iterated, and repeated the process.
But at the end of the year, when I was told that I was not going to be renewed, due to low enrollment in my subject area, I knew that I couldn’t keep going. So I left. It was the hardest and also easiest decision I ever made. I left so that I could have a better work-life balance (working 90 hours a week, from 7am Monday to 10pm Sunday, isn’t much of a balance). But really I left because I was offered a full-time job as a technology trainer.
Which is when my goals shifted and I started a new iteration of being a teacher. I was no longer with the same students every day, but I was still teaching every day. The topic shifted dramatically, but in many ways, training is an iteration of teaching.
And because goals rarely die, they iterate and potentially become barely recognizable, which happened. The goal changed to write and teach a Department of Commerce approved continuing education class about using the free G Suite tools in business. Which turned out to be three different approved classes; all of which were extremely successful. The first course had over 70 attendees and an overall rating score of 4.8 out of 5.
Slowly but surely I had been in the same position, without growth opportunities, for two years and I was looking for new opportunities, a new iteration. And I stumbled upon a technology trainer position in a school district. And with a strong application and a lot of luck, I was offered the position. This again made me iterate my goals, and this change took them more in the direction they were two years prior, but with the learned experiences of time informing them.
Which brings me to writing this blog today, a Technology Trainer for a school district, with experience working in the corporate world. Of course, none of it felt like iteration as it was happening, it was emotional and difficult, but looking back on the long past and recent, I realized that without naming it as such, I iterated on my goals as a teacher. I can’t wait to see where this next iteration will take me and what goals new and old will be found and refound.
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