Petrified Wood

I guess the best place to start when undertaking something new is the beginning. I am new to blogging, but I am not new to guidance and counseling. I hope to provide a forum for discussing relevant career guidance and counseling issues and the connection they have to technical education.

If you would ever have an opportunity to visit me in my work environment, you would notice that I keep a small pile of rocks on my desk. The rocks are unique and beautiful. They have lovely, bright quartz crystals that gleam in the light. The rocks are both colorful, with salmon pink portions, and dull, with mud brown streaks. As I looked at these rocks that have a definite wood grain and an outside covering that looks like bark, partially exposed in a dirt yard in New Mexico, I knew I needed them. I knew I needed them for a few reasons.

The first need was personal. I never want to become a piece of petrified educational wood. I think you can understand what I mean by that, but let me give you some details. I was given an opportunity last year to move from the comfortable position as the guidance counselor at my part time career and tech ed center to a position that was somewhat undefined, but would include using my counseling skills working with Perkins’ students, doing career counseling with 8th graders, and using my writing skills to compose grants for the school.  What a dilemma! Leave the comfort zone that I created and loved or take a leap of faith into the unknown? Stay in a position that could possibly sneak up and petrify me or continue to become educated and share new knowledge with a whole new group of people? I took the leap and am so glad that I did.

A new counselor, who is not even close to becoming tempted by petrification, is doing a wonderful job with the students and the staff. I am learning all types of new things from the very people I had worked with for years. I have opportunities to investigate new career and tech ed ideas and maybe, if we are both skilled and lucky, get some grant money to implement the ideas. I am trying my hand at new skills, like blogging!

The other reason I keep the petrified wood on my desk is to remind me of the unique role I have everyday. I am an educator. My mission is to take what appears to be a pile of rocks, clean them up, and make them shine.

CTE is an amazing place. I hope you have an amazing day.

Joyce