“I think I’ve had seven principals in nine years. So I was kind of giving them a little bit of grace because the turnover (…) was something I'd never seen before. I mean, a couple were retiring, but some were just not cut out for it. They couldn't handle it as administrators.”
“I definitely have had years where they've promised me, 'Okay, if you do co-teaching, we're going to make sure that we have another person with you all day long.' So then, after the first month, that person's gone. So then what am I gonna do? I still have my kids. I still have myself. And how am I going to move forward? I clearly didn't get the support that I was promised.”
Learned to Be Self-Reliant
“I also can't perseverate on that, because nothing's going to help me but myself (...) Okay, what am I going to do to help me get through every day without that extra support that I was promised that I didn't get again? I look full within myself. I know what I can handle and what I can do. So I’ve really had to stretch myself a lot.”
Staying Positive Because of the Kids
“Of course I cry. You know you cry. You want to leave. I've gone through all of that, but I try to stay as positive about my situation as I can, because if I start falling into that negative—well, the kids didn't do it. So here I am. (…) I always try to look at what I can do in this situation because I don't want to leave. They mean too much to me. What's gonna happen to them if I would leave?”
“I feel so bad because I am such a positive person that I just kind of just suck it up and I just take everything that I'm hearing, and I just keep trying things. And see what works and what doesn't for the kids. But I try not to blame.”
“So I think it's good just to see how you can do things by yourself, but not falling into this negative. I can't control it. I can't control that.”
Surrounding Myself with “Marigolds” and Avoiding the “Walnuts”
“Who are your marigolds ? So those are the positive people in your building. Those are the people that you could go to (…) and you know that they will help you (…) So the marigolds are the ones that are the positive people that you want to spend your time with. Then we have the walnuts . So the walnuts are the people that are very negative. And you know, when you have negative, it feeds on itself. You don't want to get pulled into that.”
“I just felt like it was so important to find those positive teachers.”