Kismet?

Fate?  fortune?  God's will?
Serendipity?
coincidence?

The power of positive thinking...
giving it up to the universe.

I am not completely dismissive of forces beyond my comprehension, but generally, I am happy to take happiness where I can get it,  In fact, I will claim that I have created my own happiness whenever it is even remotely plausible.

I have been a little troubled recently by the troubles of a colleague.  I am the friend, the close colleague and, in fact, the coach for this educator.  And this person's job performance was not adequate. 

And I feel that on many levels I could have, should have, and didn't know how to do more.  I am not by any means taking responsibility for the current state of affairs- obviously the job of a teacher requires almost infinite responsibilities and a certain outlook that is less common than many assume.

But I think I could have seen more, done more.  Did I need to be less of a teammate and more of a coach?  Did I need to be more blunt?  Did I need to be more inspiring?  Should there have been more direct modeling?

In any case, my dismay led me to request more professional development for working with adult learners.  I am FOREVER requesting this kind of pd, and forever met with more SCIENCE METHODS pd.  But a good science teacher does not necessarily make a good cognitive coach.

In a long overdue meeting with my principal and my own coach, I said as much.

Between the two of them, they discussed several possible courses of action.
And within two hours, I was booked for a 4 day professional development conference!
I will be attending with four close colleagues from my school. 

Kismet?  Luck?  Asking for what I wanted?
Hey, whatever works.