The SlickLaRoo Brand

February 18, 2012 1 Comment

I love my job.  Everyone knows that.  But sometimes I feel like I need to add I love the company I work for.  While I do not see myself in this job forever, my company understands this and is very supportive in building us up to be the best person we can be, professionally and personally.  And while every job has its downside, so do companies.  I am not saying it’s perfect …but I’m thankful to be employed here and to grow here.

Last week at an all staff meeting we spent the entire two hours talking about our personal brands.  If you know anything about the details of my job, you may wonder why they would spend a precious 2 hours of the work day doing this.  Well, honestly, if you don’t know your personal brand, you may not know the best place for you to work.  So we identified our personal brands and I think it helped some of us realize if we were in line with the company mission or if perhaps we would best be suited somewhere else.  If I’m not bought into the mission or believe in what we do, I best be taking my brand elsewhere.  Luckily, that’s not the case for me.

So without further ado, my personal brand:

I am a believer, artist, and information-seeker with expertise in love and teaching others.  My experience includes urban education and community development.  I am unique because I se joy where some cannot and choose optimism when others do not. 

 

Anything related to “brand” lately has been quite buzz worthy, especially around social media networks.  However, call it what you want, it is a great exercise to figure yours out.  I like to think my brand is really “Love God, love others,” but this goes a bit more deep.  It can help identify you personally AND professionally.  And while I want God to bleed into all parts of my life, work included, that’s tricky being the self-declared non-evangelical that I am.  But perhaps others will see Him in my optimism, or at least wonder what makes this girl tick, or march to a different beat.

If you’re itching to brand yourself, feel free to use the outline below that we used to help craft ours.

I am a ______________ with expertise in _________________.

My experience includes _______________.  I am unique because __________________.

Something we are working on in the future is our “one sentence.”  Think about something that would go on your epitaph, or perhaps to not be as morbid, your catch phrase, for lack of a better term.    I think this will always be a work in progress for me but I think I found something for the meantime.

She taught; she learned.  She laughed; she loved.

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Happy anniversary!

January 26, 2012 Leave a comment

Two years ago, my life was forever changed.  I was fired from my job as an elementary school teacher.  But, Slick, how do you remember the exact day?

Well, you must not know me very well then, because I remember everything.  OK, well not everything, but when you’re fired on a Monday morning at 8am after taking a long weekend to celebrate your birthday…you remember.  You remember learning that while enjoying your birthday at your alma mater speaking on education to a classroom full of teachers-to-be, your students whom you loved and worked your arse off for, were getting a demo lesson from a teacher they were interviewing to fill your spot.

You don’t forget those things.  But let’s not dwell on those things which you cannot change.

January 25th won’t always be a day I’ll celebrate.  But for now, the array of emotions I’ve experienced over the last two years are notable.

Someone asked me today if I cried.  I’ve yet to shed a tear about losing my job.  One emotion I’ve not felt is sadness.  I get sad when I think about my students; I miss them.  But when it comes to the feelings I’ve felt about being fired, sad is not one of them.  I’ve felt disbelief, excitement, relief, joy.  At times I’ve felt lost, not sure of what I would do with the rest of my life.  But even since becoming gainfully employed again, that feeling of being lost still lingers.  Except…I think I was most lost when I was teaching.

There are times when I can say I truly loved being a teacher.  I loved seeing those light bulb moments with my kids, planning messy science lessons and reading Roald Dahl books aloud to my class.  But now, after two years, I can fully admit that being a teacher wasn’t for me.  There was a lot of pride I had to work through to get to say that.  No one wants to be fired.  That’s a failure.  But I wasn’t fired because I was a bad teacher.  I don’t want to go on why I was fired…the stated reason was Twitter (long story), but at a charter school you’re at will…they don’t need a reason.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I wasn’t at fault.  I clearly was not in love with my job, but I did do what was asked of me and I think I did it well.

I say all this not to get pity, but to express my gratitude for the experience.  From early on, I always said it would take me being fired to leave that school.  Those kids needed a teacher who loved them and fought for them.  I did that.  But I wouldn’t have abandoned them.  If there is one regret I have, it would be being the coward that didn’t leave on her own agenda.  I didn’t know what I would do if I left teaching. couldn’t fathom a life not teaching.

But since I’ve tasted freedom,  I love it.  I am still not sure what the rest of my life holds, personally or professionally, but I can find peace in the unknown now. I do know I am meant to help people.  Maybe that means in a teaching capacity again someday; for now, it means helping students go to college.

Life goes on beyond “termination.”  And it goes on quite nicely.  :)   The biggest lesson I could learn…jump off the deep end (or get pushed, like me).  You may belly flop, but you’ll get to the ladder eventually, get out, and do it all over again. :)

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