Summer creates space. For a lot of educators, that space brings up a question you don't really get time to ask during the school year.
When the bell isn't ringing, the emails slow down, and nobody needs something from you right away... who are you? Not your role. Not your title. Not the person everyone in the building leans on. Just you.
That question matters more than we probably give it credit for.
Most of us got into education because we cared about kids, about learning, about making some kind of difference. The work gives us purpose. Structure. Relationships. A real sense of meaning. Those are good things, all of them.
But over time, the job and the identity start to blend together. You stop being a person who teaches and just become a teacher. You stop being a person who leads a school and become a principal. Sounds like a small difference. It isn't, not when school is out and the building goes quiet.
One thing to try this week
Write down three things that matter to you that have nothing to do with school. They don't need to be deep or impressive. Running. Music. A place you love. Time with your family. Something you used to enjoy before work took up all the space.
The list isn't really the point. The reminder is.
The Principal's Chair
Six years into being a principal, I remember hitting this wall myself.
I had built so much of my identity around the job that when summer came and things finally got quiet, I wasn't sure what to do with myself. It wasn't that I had nothing to do. I had plenty. The real issue was that I'd let the role tell me who I was for so long, I'd forgotten how to answer without it.
As uncomfortable as that was, it ended up being good for me. It forced me to figure out who I was when the building was empty and no one needed me to be the principal. Turns out the answer was bigger than my job title.
You are more than the work you do. The educators who stay healthy and connected over the long haul are usually the ones who protect a life outside of school. Not because the work doesn't matter. Because the work is better when it isn't the only thing that does.
See you in two weeks.
David
educatorlifelab.com