From Amber herself:
I started teaching instrumental music fresh out of college at the age of 22. I knew I loved music, loved kids, and was good at teaching, but I had no idea exactly what being a teacher would require. I would often put in 60-70 hour work weeks, staying at school until 10:00 pm some nights. I had no life outside of teaching at all.
My physical and mental health suffered, and I ended up having to go on medication because of that. After 4 1/2 years at two different schools, I decided that I was never going to be able to live any sort of healthy, balanced life while being a teacher, and despite many obstacles, I left.
Months later, I am now in a new job as a supervisor for a behavioural health company that provides support to students in schools. I work with a wonderful team and am able to utilise many of the strengths and skills I developed as a teacher in this new position. My mental and physical health have exponentially improved, and I am no longer on any medication at all! I am so blessed to have been able to transition out of teaching and into a life that I am learning to love. I want to express my gratitude to Elizabeth for having me on her podcast and giving me a platform to share my story! It was a pleasure!
From Amber herself:
I started teaching instrumental music fresh out of college at the age of 22. I knew I loved music, loved kids, and was good at teaching, but I had no idea exactly what being a teacher would require. I would often put in 60-70 hour work weeks, staying at school until 10:00 pm some nights. I had no life outside of teaching at all.
My physical and mental health suffered, and I ended up having to go on medication because of that. After 4 1/2 years at two different schools, I decided that I was never going to be able to live any sort of healthy, balanced life while being a teacher, and despite many obstacles, I left.
Months later, I am now in a new job as a supervisor for a behavioural health company that provides support to students in schools. I work with a wonderful team and am able to utilise many of the strengths and skills I developed as a teacher in this new position. My mental and physical health have exponentially improved, and I am no longer on any medication at all! I am so blessed to have been able to transition out of teaching and into a life that I am learning to love. I want to express my gratitude to Elizabeth for having me on her podcast and giving me a platform to share my story! It was a pleasure!
Welcome to Season 2 of the Get out of Teaching podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises. I'm your host, Elizabeth Diacos. In this season, we'll meet ex-teachers who have taken their hobbies and passions from outside of Education and created a new career for themselves. We'll talk to people who can support and inspire us as we make the transition and work on identifying the legacy we want to leave in the world. So come along for the ride as we get out of teaching. Episode One. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the show. On today's show, I'm interviewing Amber Blaylock from the United States. Welcome to the show, Amber.
Amber Blaylock :Thanks for having me.
Elizabeth Diacos :It's great to see you. So tell me, Amber, what got you into teaching in the first place?
Amber Blaylock :Ah... yeah, so in kind of a roundabout way, I was a really awkward kid in middle school (like, no friends). So socially awkward, and very, very self conscious. I did not have a good experience from about fourth grade through seventh or eighth grade. And in 8th grade, I started two things. I started getting more serious about music: I joined band and choir in 6th and 7th grade. But I realized that if you practiced you got better. So, I started getting more serious about that in eighth grade. And then I also started playing volleyball. And those two things together, but specifically band is where I flourished the most. Just... it did wonders for my confidence and the community part of that really helped me to make friends and connect with people and, you know, band in the United States, we travel together, we go to different competitions, we stay overnight in places. And so just the community aspect of that gave me some of the best memories that I'd ever have. It developed such leadership skills in me that like were NOT there before I started that. And so I just really wanted to continue in that atmosphere and also there was... there was a point at which I realized, "I'm good at this". So maybe we should see where that goes.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yep.
Amber Blaylock :And so I realized that I was good at music. I really liked that community atmosphere. And I ended up being good at relating to people. And so it was kind of just natural for me to study music education, and I eventually became a band director.
Elizabeth Diacos :So it sounds like way back in year eight, you found your tribe? Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Okay, and so... how did that translate? So, that when you say you're a band leader, you're a band leader in the school? Yes. So in the US, typically, you start band (if you wish) between 5th, 6th, sometimes 7th grade, but that's a little late, and then you can go all the way until 12th grade when you graduate. And so in smaller schools, which is where I got my first teaching job, the band director does all band stuff. And so I was the band director through from sixth through 12th grade. So I did the beginners, I did the intermediate, I did the advanced bands, and then I taught a few other classes as well. I was gonna ask you, did you have to teach English or something else as well? Well, technically if you're not certified, you're not supposed to be able to. You can get provisional things, but I wasn't technically qualified to teach those kinds of classes, but we did offer other music electives that I was qualified to teach, because I was technically qualified to teach K through 12 - any music. Right.
Amber Blaylock :And so I did. I think my last year there I had kindergarten, first grade and sixth grade general music once a week. And then I had two classes of middle school general music that I taught which was anything from music history to music reading and notation to teaching a little English through music, we studied lyrics and we looked at, you know, just different things with that. I tried to make it cross curricular because it was an elective, but my main jobs were sixth grade band, middle school band, and high school band.
Elizabeth Diacos :Awesome. So it sounds like that was a pretty intense job and lots of different things going on. Lots of moving parts, like literally moving parts. I've watched some bands rehearse - my own children, and also when I was working in schools with "Teach for Australia", and it's a crazy place to be. It sounds like it was right on for you, though: perfect place for you to be. So how long? How long did you do that for, Amber?
Amber Blaylock :Yeah, so I was, I was at my first school for four years. It's a rural school, I think the community population inside the town is like 700 and something. Now outside of the city limits, there were quite a few kids that would get bussed in. But still, it was a very small community. I had about 40 kids in each of my bands. And so it was not super small, but it wasn't the biggest either. I ended up getting pretty burnt out at that job. My first year was hell, like straight up, like it was bad. I didn't know if I was going to get through it.
Elizabeth Diacos :What was it about that that was hell for you? Well, I think there were quite a few different things. One was mental health. For sure. I'm not sure if teaching cause mental health problems or if it just exacerbated things that were already there. But there was definitely depression to the point where I had to go on medication, it was, it got pretty serious, but also not being able to meet any sort of expectations. I was always, even though I'm type B, I was also a high performer.
Amber Blaylock :So getting A's, having high GPAs, winning all the things, getting leadership positions, like that was what I did, and then you get into teaching and you realize you cannot meet people's expectations for you. Like - at all. You can try your best to succeed in certain areas. But there will always be these other areas that you cannot spend enough time on because you're trying to succeed in these other areas. And it just got to be so... overwhelming that I was just, like... I'm trying over here really hard because I thought that's what my main job was was to teach kids and to get them to achieve high results. But you're yelling at me for putting in a transportation request wrong, or because I didn't call you one time because I accidentally forgot or something like that. And so, realizing that and all of the confrontation that came with that made my first year very, very difficult for sure.
Elizabeth Diacos :So are you telling me that someone actually yelled at you? In the workplace? For a reason like that?
Amber Blaylock :Oh, 1000%. Yeah. Parents... in my first school specifically, behaved worse than my students, for sure - and I understand I'm not a parent and so, it's difficult for me to completely relate. But, I understand there's a point of like mama-bear-ing where your kid is put in a position that maybe they shouldn't be in, okay, but instead of communicating that respectfully, they just freaked out. I also think it's a parent's responsibility to stay sane and not freak out in those situations. And so, my first year actually (I think it was my second month there, second or third month), a parent communicated to me that if something did not change, she could guarantee I wouldn't be back next year. And then... I cried for the whole weekend over that. And then another parent, she told me, her kid had been wanting to quit and just like expressing to me over and over, that she wanted to quit during class, over and over. And so finally, I mean, I probably shouldn't have done this in front of the class, but she was just keeping on and so I finally said, "Okay, go to the counselor, change your schedule. Go. If you want to quit, I don't want you here." And her mom comes in the next morning and is like... "In my family, we don't know what the word quit means. We're not quitters." And I'm just like..
Elizabeth Diacos :(Laughs)
Amber Blaylock :Exactly, exactly. And so... I was chastised quite a bit for a lot of things that were ridiculous. My last year there, I got chewed out on the phone for 30 to 45 minutes from an older man, who was not happy that one of my students sent him an email to donate to one of our fundraisers. So, I actually ended up having to talk to the president of our school board about that, because they were really good friends and he was very supportive. He was great. And my administration too has always been great, which I'm super lucky for because I know that's not always the case.
Elizabeth Diacos :(Agrees)
Amber Blaylock :Well, yeah, parents were difficult.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so then you had all these little, I guess these little barbs all along the way. What was the tipping point that actually made you decide to leave teaching?
Amber Blaylock :Right. So, when the workload got to be just completely too much: putting in 60-70 hours a week - many weeks, because I was the band director. I realized that I needed to either leave or find a new position. And it had been recommended to me by many people, especially on Facebook groups, "Instead of leaving the profession as a whole, change schools and see if that helps." So I started interviewing for a bunch of different schools, and I was offered a position at one school in a big city. And the city has had a reputation for being rough, kids go through a lot there, so, it's understandable. But it was a magnet school, which is basically an offshoot of the public school system here, where they focus specifically on something. And so for example, there's a vocational high school, magnet school, that focuses on getting teenagers trained into vocations as they get their normal high school learning.
Elizabeth Diacos :So, is it like carpentry or being an electrician, something like that? Is that what you mean? I think the main ones there. I know there were culinary. There was some tech, and there was some nursing and a few other things. But it was along those lines, yeah. Right.
Amber Blaylock :My school specifically, it was a fine arts school. And so it was a performing art school. They had a giant theater in the middle of everything - it was so nice. And I was under the impression that (and I think it was explained to me this way too, but I don't want to put words in somebody else's mouth), but that they had to meet certain GPA requirements, behavioural requirements, and attendance requirements to be able to attend that school. That's because I would not have accepted a position at a typical public school in this area, because I just didn't think that my personality could've been able to handle that. Turns out that those requirements are only for high schools, they are not for middle schools. And so this was basically just a typical public middle school. And behaviours were really bad. Really bad. I mentioned that parent's behaviours were worse than my students' behaviours at my first school... definitely not that way in my second school. Like I said, admin were great, my fellow teachers were great, and I had some students that were really great too, but they went through so much. There's a lot of gun violence in that area. It's an inner city school and one of the students, not my students, but one of our student's younger sisters got killed at a football game - just in crossfire. Another one of the students at the school was hit by a police officer accidentally during a high speed chase, and she died: like, tragedy after tragedy that you can't even imagine. And so like every day when they would drive me to the brink of freaking out (sometimes I did). In the back of my mind, there was still that, "But I can't blame you for any of it. Like, we can try to work this out together... but I cannot blame you for the way you're acting at all." However, because of the place it got me to in my mental health, I ended up having a bit of a breakdown in December. And I knew by August (like, middle of August) that I wasn't going to be able to hold on until the end of the school year, but I knew I was going to try really hard. But by December... I just... I had talked to a teaching mentor (who was my teaching mentor in college), and I explained to her the situation and she tried to give me some support, but after I hung up the phone with her I just cried. Ugly cried, not pretty cried. I ugly cried for about two hours. I actually ended up taking a picture of myself that I think you saw, just because I was like, "A job should not cause this much pain, like it should not cause this much trauma in somebody's life." And so, that was the point where I realized like, even if I needed to work at Starbucks for a little while and live paycheck-to-paycheck and pinch pennies as much as I can, I was almost thinking about moving back in with my parents for a little while, just to get some sort of handle on things - because it was to the point where I was crying in my car before work. I was crying in my office after work. It was not good.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. You know, it's funny that you say that. I've had some recent discussions on LinkedIn, with people who accuse me of trying to lure teachers out of the profession. And yet: you say something like that, that you crying in the car both ways. Like, I don't need to help you decide to leave. If you're in that state, you know, it's gone way beyond anything I could influence. Do you know what I mean? Like I just find it... it's like there's some teachers have this really intense experience of that despair, and other teachers just don't get it at all. And I just think it's really... so thank you for sharing that because, I know that there are... there are many teachers out there who feel that way, but they think they're the only one. And there's some shame around that and grief as well around... I thought this was going to be THE profession for me, and it's not. And so it's like a bad marriage or, you know, a bad relationship where you think "You know, I thought you were the one and you're not the one, and now what do I do?" And so yeah, thank you for you know, being really honest about that.
Amber Blaylock :Yeah, exactly. And you only stay in it for the kids, really. And... you have so much guilt leaving. I actually saw a therapist, I started doing it in September because I realized I wasn't gonna be able to make it if I didn't, and I expressed that to her. And I even was like, asking around at colleges while I was in the process of leaving to see if any of their new graduates at semester might be looking for a job so I could get them because I knew my district has a really hard time finding candidates, and I didn't want those kids to be without a teacher even though I had to leave. And my therapist was like, "If this was a relationship, would you have done that?" "Like, you don't go to find a replacement for your ex". (Laughs) But still, you really care about those kids. But I've had since I've left I've had teacher friends reach out to me basically saying, "Wow, that's amazing what you're doing. I'm in the same place. I think I'm leaving after this semester."
Elizabeth Diacos :Yep, yep. So in a way, you were a bit of a beacon of hope for them that that there are possibilities beyond teaching.
Amber Blaylock :I sure hope so.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so, when the moment came, it sounds like you were in a pretty bad state. Was there fear around leaving for you?
Amber Blaylock :Oh, 1000%, Yeah, I... one of the biggest fears was finances, finances for sure. In my district, (and this is not that way in every district in America, I think it's just specific ones). I had to pay $3000 to buy out my teaching contract. And then I knew I needed to relocate as well because I was living alone in this city, and I knew nobody - I tried really hard to make friends, but I knew nobody. And I really needed to go somewhere else. And so I had to buy out of my apartment lease as well. And then there's costs for moving expenses. And then I wasn't exactly sure... I technically quit without a job offer. I had two interviews for two different places, but I hadn't received any official job offers. And I'm Christian, so I believe in Divine Providence. And this just the way this lined up was just like... it was really cool to me. I had two job offers by 6pm the night that I quit. So it was, it was incredible. One was with my alma mater, and then the other is what I'm currently doing. But yeah, it was amazing, but I ended up having to take out of my retirement for those expenses.
Elizabeth Diacos :Oh, okay. So you delved into your superannuation? Is that what you mean - your retirement fund?
Amber Blaylock :Yeah.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, okay. And so the fear was around money, but then in the end that actually was okay, except that you had to cover that debt. Right. And I'm actually making more now than I was as a teacher, which is crazy to me in this in this job, but another fear was definitely just "What am I qualified to do?" And I think that's really common for teachers. I had gotten my master's degree in educational leadership. So basically, if I took the test, I could be a principal if I wanted to be. But then I just up and leave Education and so it felt like all of my skills and my qualifications and my degrees were getting wasted. But it turns out that having a master's in this field helped me to land my new job. And so it's really lined up for me. Tell us what you're doing now then. Yeah, so I am a supervisor with a company called Burrell Behavioral Health. And it's basically a giant mental health company. They have a bunch of different departments. I supervise the school-based department or a section of it, where different professionals go into schools and provide mental health services to kids in schools. And so I have a team of six and they go out into schools in the area, and it's great. They each serve about 20 to 25 kids. So there's a lot of kids being seen. So you're like the puppet master. How does that work? When you say you have a team - are you the supervisor? I think it's more... technically I'm their "boss", but that's very loose quotations. I think it's more of just like somebody who can come alongside them when the fires come up, which they do every single day. Especially in mental health, there are so many different fires that you have to put out. And, you know, come alongside the kids while they try to put them out too. And, yeah, it keeps you on your toes, but I have that expertise where I'm able to kind of come alongside my support specialists and help them see the situation, get perspective on their different situations, and explore the options they have to address that situation. Yeah. Okay. So you're really there in a supportive role for them?
Amber Blaylock :Right.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. Okay. And so what skills would you say you brought out of teaching into your new role, but and how long have you been doing that for? Yeah, so I just left, I actually left mid-year, so I left in December, and then I started January 6 in this new job, and so I've been there for... what is it, a little over two and a half months? Something like that. Okay, so this is really quite recent for you.
Amber Blaylock :Yep.
Elizabeth Diacos :And it sounds like you're pretty happy like, it seems like you've, you've landed on your feet. I love it. It's amazing. Actually, there are quite a few former teachers who were working for this company now. My boss is actually a former teacher, and so she likes to hire former teachers because she knows the skill sets that we have, and she knows we care about the kids too. And so, those two things combined, she knows makes for really, really good employees. And so, for sure, just leadership. You can't be a teacher if you're not a good leader, especially a band director whenever you're over a program.
Amber Blaylock :I learned real quick that it wasn't just teaching that I was doing, I had to delegate different responsibilities. I had to develop my Student Leadership Team, which that was like my pride and joy of what I was able to do. Yes, we got first places by the time that I left and like we got wins at contests, and it was they were performing so well. But, I also had kids, my student leadership kids who would come in and volunteer to clean up the uniform closet after school - just because it was dirty! And I would have other kids, "Hey, can you come into school early on Friday at like 7:30? We want to have a sectional so we're prepared for our performance" or whatever. And it's just like, "Yes, of course I'll do that." And so being intentional about developing leaders, and communicating for sure. And also putting out little fires. That's literally what my job is now, and what my job was then. There were always so many little fires that had to be put out and so being able to work well under pressure and really let your expertise, be confident in what you know, and be confident in your ability to problem solve.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah. Okay, so, so right now we're in a worldwide crisis with the Coronavirus. How has that impacted on your current work? And also, would it be different if you were in teaching? Like how would that be different now? Oh, for sure. So we're actually in like the beginning stages of it getting real real, where we're all transitioned to working from home and that just happened this past week. And so, when we got that word, I actually had to do some damage control because an email was sent out and it didn't go through us first and everyone was confused. And so I had to have a team meeting and like, I had to hear out all of their concerns. So I could take it to my bosses and everything like that.
Amber Blaylock :But it just made me so happy because- I have a friend who actually recommended me for the job. She's on my team too. And she told me later that one of the other people on our team told her "Man, this is crazy. But Amber is leading so well, she's doing such a good job." And I was like, "Yes!" So just learning confidence and stepping up to the plate when things get hard. I had to do that in teaching a lot. And it kind of forced me, I was not that confident when I started teaching. And through a trial by fire, I learned how to be much more confident. And so I'm definitely using that right now. Just... I don't know what I'm doing. Nobody knows what they're doing in this era. But just being confident in your ability to problem solve throughout it. And to come alongside, you know, in teaching, it was my students, but right now it's my support specialist and coming alongside them and figuring out "Hey, now we're going to get this done. What do you need? What problems are you facing? Let's brainstorm. Let's be creative." So yeah, we're all working from home. We're all trying to provide telephonic and video chat services to our students. And we've never done it before. And so we're not sure how successful it's going to be. Really, yesterday was our first day to try that. And so, yeah, we're all flying by the seat of our pants, but we're doing a really good job. We're working hard and I'm really proud of my team.
Elizabeth Diacos :That's a great way to, you know, feel about your workplace instead of sitting in the car crying on the way to and from. Exactly. So, Amber, with this new role, it sounds pretty amazing. But before we started recording, you were telling me that you still got another job on the side. So can you tell us about what else you're doing. So I started at the end of my fourth year teaching so I was as I was working to transition into that other teaching job, but I didn't end up staying at, I started teaching online through a platform called VIP kid. And it's a little bit difficult to get hired, I will admit. And then you have to kind of put on a business mindset to make sure that you get customers because it's kind of just a free for all. They can choose whatever teacher they want.
Amber Blaylock :But if you can get some faithful regulars and have fun with it, I make... before taxes, I make about 1200 dollars a month. And that's just teaching in the mornings before work, and I don't have to prepare for it or anything. And so I'm really grateful that I found that because as I was transitioning out of teaching, when I didn't have any job offers yet, I knew that I'd probably be able to - if I had to work at Starbucks or if I had to, you know get a retail job or something for a while - that I had that that I could also supplement my income with.
Elizabeth Diacos :Okay, so how does that work? What does your day look like? Yeah, so I wake up at about 4:50am - I roll out of bed, I put on solid color. I usually try to make sure that my hair is somewhat decent. But I also wear a pretty big headset while I'm teaching that covers my ears and so it's kind of easy to fake decent hair. And sometimes I'll put on lipstick because it helps with enunciation of words. And then I have a little setup with lighting and a cute little background. And then I log in and I teach from about 5 - 8. I have a little break in there in the middle to get ready for the day and eat breakfast. And then after that, I do some finishing touches and I head off to my other job. Amazing. So as you were leaving, Amber, did you need to do any further training or develop any new skills on your way out? I mean, you said that you picked up some extra work, but that was already teaching. So what else did you need to do as you transitioned out of your Education role? Right, so I'm so grateful that it all worked out like it did. I just, because I felt like it, I didn't really have a good reason, but I decided to get my master's degree about halfway through teaching. So my third and fourth years of teaching, I was also getting my master's degree online during that. And so that's an extra two years worth of work in a specialized area, and that was in educational leadership. And so basically, I could become a principal or assistant principal or anything like that afterwards. I didn't want to be a principal. But, it just seemed kind of like a natural progression in my education.
Amber Blaylock :And as I was trying to leave teaching, it almost felt like I was wasting it to a point. Because, you know, I paid all this money, I had worked really, really hard to get this degree. And I was going to leave Education. And it turns out for this new job, it required you to have a master's degree in a related field. And so that could be psychology, that could be Education, social work. There were a few other ones, but anything related to kids, child development, stuff like that. So, I was qualified, which was very, very exciting. However I did... there's a learning curve. And so I had to come alongside. I work with amazing other supervisors and so they were able to teach me a lot. I'm still learning as I go. There's a lot of law that I had to brush up on. I did take school law, which is good. And sometimes it translates to family law. And because I'm working in the schools, I also have to know that, for example we have HIPAA, which is basically like privacy laws. And so you have to make sure that all of your clients information is protected, and what can happen if it isn't, and then just how you relate to the schools. But there are a lot of things family specific, when it comes to guardianship, when it comes to child abuse, when it comes to even finances to a point that I have to... I've had to call social workers quite a bit to be like, "I'm not exactly sure how to approach this situation because I don't know exactly what the law says about that." And so, just trying to learn the ins and outs of that, and then also learning the ins and outs of managing adults. It is so much easier than managing kids for sure. They also all have at least bachelor's degrees and so they're educated professionals. But they also have issues that kids don't have too. And so coming alongside them and trying to help them, whether that's family stuff that comes up that affects their job or, you know, just different things like that. But I will say, I prefer supervising adults over kids right now. Definitely.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, it sounds like you've, you know, you're in a great, great place there. So, if... you were talking to someone who's feeling stuck, they're stuck in their Education roll. They're thinking of getting out. But there's all these fears coming up around money, around grief and feeling like they don't know what else they could possibly do. What advice would you give to someone in that situation? First of all, I would make sure that they knew that they weren't alone. Because a lot of times isolation is one of the biggest factors in just completely falling apart. So you're not alone if you're feeling like that, if you're crying in your car or on your office floor or into your lunch because it's too short, and you have to go see kids again, you're not alone.
Amber Blaylock :I would also, I've encouraged them to just... I just watched Frozen 2, yesterday for the first time. And one of the things was "Do the next right thing." Like that was one of their phrases that they mentioned in that movie. And I think that's so important, is to just break that down. You might have no idea where you want to go or what you want to do or what you even can do. But you can reach out to that mentor that helped you in college, or you can reach out to your friends to see if their companies have any openings. That's how I found my job. You can just start looking on LinkedIn, and seeing what options are out there and brainstorming, and in Education, we have a lot of buzzwords. I don't know if you guys do this in Australia too, but in America, they're just buzzwords, buzzwords, buzzwords, buzzwords, like all the time. And so one of those is growth mindset. But I love that buzzword or those buzzwords, because just problem solving approaching things not as insurmountable obstacles, but as, "Okay, how can I learn from this? How can I grow from this? What is this teaching me in my life and how can it get me to where I want to go?" And so really trying to take all of the negatives that are happening and reframing them into, "Okay, how is this preparing me for what I'm doing next?"
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, yeah. And I think right now with the Coronavirus and people starting to move into the online space more and more, I've noticed with the teachers that I connect with, first of all there's some fear and sort of trepidation around doing that, but there's also the opportunity to build up a skillset that might actually be really great transferable skillset into another role. A few people have talked to me about creating some online content that they could, you know, create video modules to share with other people. And so part of this going online is actually helping them prepare for creating their own stuff and having their own, you know, like platform where they can deliver content from. And so in a way, there's some really great opportunities arising that we couldn't have imagined even a year ago.
Amber Blaylock :Oh, 1000%. And a lot of times in the everyday of teaching just because you have so much stuff to do, there's no time for creativity. And so this almost forces you into being more creative, which can be a good thing because - you know, the most amazing things came from a place of creativity.
Elizabeth Diacos :Yeah, absolutely. And I think when I when I talk to teachers, the things that they the things that they lament or that they regret the loss of his autonomy, respect and creativity, they're usually the three that are that are missing in Education. And every teacher I know is a creative being at their core, you know, they want to find new ways to share the love of learning. And so, when these opportunities arise, I think actually we teachers step up to that and it gives us the opportunity to really shine. Okay, so Amber, as we wrap this up, I have a question I ask all of my interview guests, "What is the legacy that you want to leave in the world?"
Amber Blaylock :That is definitely evolving, for sure, as I get older, I'm only 27. And so it's just starting to enter into my everyday thoughts of like, "What is the legacy I'm leaving?" But right now, I think it's definitely that I was a person that was really good at serving others and serving herself, or maybe taking care of others and taking care of herself. I think so often we can get too heavy in one or the other in that, but I feel like the people that I've always respected the most, were able to live a life that was in service to others, while also figuring out how to take the time to care for themselves, so they can do that to the best of their ability. Whenever I was a teacher, I couldn't do that. I was pouring all of myself into my job. It was my identity. I made myself sick because I worked way too hard. I wasn't able to adopt healthy lifestyle choices or anything like that. And now, you know, I'm with the Coronavirus it's throwing a wrench in things but like going to the gym for four to five days a week, I'm making really healthy nutritional choices. And so it's you know, I'm being able to be intentional about being social. And, I'm developing - when I was a band director, I didn't even perform very much or practice my instruments just because I was so busy doing everything else. And now I can get into that creativity and get back into doing that. And so, yeah, I just want to be able to take care of others and take care of myself well.
Elizabeth Diacos :Amber Blaylock, thank you so much for coming on Get Out of Teaching Podcast today. It's been wonderful to talk with you.
Amber Blaylock :Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Elizabeth Diacos :You've been listening to the Get Out of Teaching Podcast presented by Larksong Enterprises with your host Elizabeth Diacos. Do you know someone else who could benefit from hearing more stories of hope and transition from teachers all around the world? Please take a moment to share this and other episodes via your podcast app. Each share helps me reach listeners just like you who can benefit from this content. The Get Out of Teaching Podcast is proud to be part of The Experts On Air Podcast Network. For show notes and other resources, please visit larksong.com.au/podcast