#igniteyourstory

What an incredible experience. 20 slides. 5 minutes. Present to a crowd of strangers what IGNITEs you. I had the pleasure of presenting MY STORY at #igniteyourstory on February 11th at the Coquitlam Cactus Club. Thank you to the ad hoc like or shall I say random Twitter DM invitation from my friend and teacher colleague @rosepillay1 from #CISVA. It’s these opportunities that make teaching and learning fun.

Try to challenge any teacher with 20 slides and 5 minutes to say something that could be transformational and meaningful. That night, I presented side-by-side many of my #PLN buddies (and some heroes) in addition to some new faces to the scene… talking about WHAT WE ARE LEARNING. We had the option of speaking about work or not. I chose to present about my recent candidacy in the 2014 municipal elections.

My presentation was about RUNNING FOR MAYOR. It was an excellent opportunity to examine the experience and what did I learn. My message was… “why not?” I had good intentions. I am inspired by good governance. And, I wanted to make a difference in my community. To step forward required courage, a clear vision, and values I could stand in. Certainly the experience was a challenge particularly when I am (relatively) young, female, visible minority, and a new candidate. Furthermore, my campaign budget equated to no more than 10% of my mayoralty candidate counterparts who were the mayor and former mayor. I was not set up to win.

What I learned is the following: if I was planning to run again in the next 4 years, I would definitely do things a bit differently; I was a viable candidate and able to contend with two experienced politicians and hold my ground; and, I was meant to serve for another 4 years as school trustee with SD46 and continue my work with BCSTA. In the end, RUNNING FOR MAYOR re-ignited my passion in education.