E-mail, e-mail, e-mail...doesn't always work!

So, e-mail doesn't always work. There have been 2 instances in my life where somebody wrote me an emotional e-mail and it was wrong of me to reply, with emotion. How easily things get misunderstood!

I have a yoga teacher buddy who, for the longest time, I assumed just wasn't resonding to my e-mails....so unyogalike!

Recently, as I started my sabbatical, I e-mailed all 3 elementary school principals to tell them I had begun and I was available to work in their schools. I heard back from one principal and assumed the other was busy and not interested, at that time, in what I had to offer. Two months later, my home school principal went to a all-principal meeting and this principal who never responded to my e-mail complained that she hadn't heard from me. I e-mailed her again. I heard nothing back. Recently, there was a news article about my sabbatical and the programs I have developed. Two of the schools I am in were listed in the paper. The principal who never called me called our assistant superintendent and angrily told him I had never contacted her! Her name (not really) is Carol Tulane (not a common last name). I sent both of my e-mails to her to c.tulane@my school.com. Makes sense, right? Well there used to be a Cynthia Tulane (what are the chances of that...we're not talking about Carol and Cynthia Smith here!) in our district who has been long gone. Seems Cynthia Tulane's old e-mail account may be a huge and interesting depository of Carol Tulate's wayward e-mails! So, in fact, Carol Tulane never received my e-mails and we never connected about my coming to her school to work on programs for her students who are gifted in math.

Lesson learned? If you don't hear from somebody via e-mail in a reasonable amount of time....pick up the phone! If you sense any emotion in an e-mail, pick up the phone! E-mail doesn't always work!