“C” I have had so many words in mind for the letter “C” over the past few weeks… Challenge, Crisis, Cool, Create, Calamity, Clown, Classes, Coursework, Collaboration and I have finally reached Collegiality. When I entered the teaching profession at the not so tender age of 30, I came from the fairly cut-throat world of cosmetics/fashion/beauty marketing. (Think The Devil Wears Prada - it isn’t fiction, I swear!) | If you have a few minutes, this was my life for 8 yrs. |
For position, for promotion, for paychecks.
As the years passed with movie premiers, boxes at the Jets games, meeting the rich and famous, sitting next to models getting my hair done as they got theirs done as well, decadent sales meetings, and other amazing perks, I began to realize what I was really doing. I was, in essence, telling women they needed my products to feel good about themselves. Telling them that they were ugly without haircolor or color cosmetics and styling gel. It was eating at my soul. So... I turned to my boyfriend (now husband) and it took a long time to decide what I was going to do to fix my soul.
If you’re reading this, you know how that turned out. 18 years later, I am a teacher (I love it) married for 21 years (never had a fight - ha!) but the most important thing I learned from going from “Corporate America” to “Academic America” is that you aren’t competing. You are a team. You are collaborating. You are collegial. You are working towards a common goal, whether it is a grade level, a team, a department or a whole school. No withholding, no subterfuge - just sharing information, help, materials, anything you can to make another teacher’s life easier, to make a student’s day better.
Let me tell you, this makes every single day a joy to go to work, when you know the people you are working with are all striving with you, not against you, and you are all working towards making the world a better place for kids and for all people, instead of telling them they are ugly and they need to fix themselves.
Today, as I work towards my Administration Degree, I am learning how collegiality fits into building trust in a school, a district and a community. I realize the 18 years of collegiality I have built up in the district in which I work has given me the strength and foundation I need to go on this journey. The support, encouragement, and respect I feel from my colleagues and friends is about as far from competition or jealousy as one can get, it’s just a lot of pride and happiness that I am doing well and that I am doing what makes me happy and fulfilled. That is collegiality, that is collaboration, not competition.