I have been teaching for 22 years. I have been beat down by an administrator for 2 years. I have been attacked so much that I have walked away in March. My heart is broken but I have so much peace from God that I know he has a plan for me. It was the right decision but not the easy one. I miss my babies but I have left them in good hands. My replacement is praising God because she needed this. Love your work, Linda. Thanks again Rgds M. I just found this post after googling quitting teaching.
I read the post and have even listened to some of your podcasts. You seem like a lovely person. However,I find it ironic that you and others who encourage teachers to stay or create lessons and resources to help teachers are EX-teachers. Sure you love helping teachers- no doubt.
But really I would rather help teachers than be in the daily grind of it all too. Maybe the answer is in another post? I loved teaching and often miss it.
I also love supporting teachers in this way. Neither is better than the other — they are just different. And for many of us, we will experience seasons of both. Hi Linda Thank you for this post. I have been a teacher in a Distance Education campus of our Christian College in Australia for 12 years and with all the changes in procedures and policies, accountabilities etc, the list goes on, I have been informed today that in essence , I do not fit into what the future of the department is heading to become — I am not a clinical teacher and have had a very hard time fitting into the many constant deadlines and rigidity.
I am not looking at quitting teaching, but whether going back into a physical classroom — which is a big difference from my current role. One thing I have not missed is behaviour issues. This is something that would have to overcome, going back into a classroom. I would like to consider staying in the school I am in as my children attend there.
Have you ever had conversations with teachers who have been away from the classroom for such a long time. What is some advice you can give on this? I have used your website for a couple of years to find inspiration — thank you. I bet there are other teachers who have been in your situation! I read through the article and I think that it is a hard decision to quit.
I work in a high school in the biggest district in the state. That compensated for behavioral issues with the students. My contract ended and the number of students registering for my class and I had to search for another school. Everyone has a lot of connections and it was hard to find a job. Eventually I did in September when school already started. I moved on with teaching feeling the burnout with SLO data, observations that I suddenly received low scores on, parent and student complaints, and way too much work for me.
I am an extremely hardworking person and I feel like I know my subject well. Mostly for the money and the stability of actually going to work. The second year now, in January, I want to quit.
There are so many teachers quitting in the school, or they have been taken out for leave of absence and no one knows what happened to them, but in the end, my health is important. I am too good for them. I am even considering going in for therapy. I hate teaching, when before even as as kid, I loved teaching. I love my subject.
But I teach minimally now. Most of my time is spent on data of student perceptions and how they dislike me because I give them a lot of work. I teach grammar and although we do games, I am not a person who invents a story of an elephant and makes a clown of yourself. The administration obviously hates me because there are a lot of failing grades and complaints. Although I completely understand that the achievement gap really exists, I am not a person to give grades as gifts.
Kids have to earn grade. I will be completely honest: I have manipulated grades per administration request, change grades to show everyone has a higher grade and passing, and I am still bad. I have lost the heart of a teacher: kid bullying is REAL. I was going to quiet mid year last year. I kept putting it off because I wanted to make it till May. I was suicidal and depressed. Two weeks into online teaching, I felt better mentally. I was strong enough to now be able to make it to May and quit the profession without quitting mid year.
Sorry in advance for the book. I just completed my 5th year teaching, the second at my alma mater school aka. Because I have struggled to adapt to the expectations of my new position, and have not fully complied with administrators directives despite trying, I have been constantly in trouble, and increasingly put under microscopic scrutiny, and it sucks the joy and creative spark I originally had for teaching here.
Enough bad data has been collected to get rid of me because my creative brain is less good at the logistical side of teaching aka. Having my first child in the middle of this whole situation has made getting out of it harder and I hate that school sucks so much of my home time and energy away from my family. I have been given the ultimatum, learn and apply faster, find somewhere else that is a better fit, or get the boot.
I have been through your management course and the 40hr workweek course once when I was at my other school and am working towards earning credits toward my permanent PA license and an online masters degree with The Art of Education University now. I am stressed, frustrated, and have been burnt out for a long time, but I want to make a wise decision.
But if I stay and still struggle to meet expectations, I will be let go and that could close the door to teaching for me altogether… Many students have told me they have come to love art because of me and enjoy me as a creative, energetic art teacher. If I stay and do well and get good data on observations, specifically on the areas of timeliness especially in elementary land , student engagement and procedures, and regular assessment, then things could start looking up.
What would you do? Praying for guidance to make the right decision! Your family is so much more important. Can you stay home and be a stay at home mom for now? Then look for a job at a private school? Today is Tuesday. I resigned on Friday after realizing that I could not be an online teacher. I tried to change to a leave of absence as a safety net, but it did not go through. I think God is telling me it is time. I have had more hard years than good years recently.
The kids deserve better. I literally felt like I was a prisoner unable to get out until a certain age. I had thoughts of leaving because I was not able to give it all to these kids, but I really wanted to go to full retirement at this point. As I type this I am feeling better about my decision even though it is extremely scary. I am not yet I have no idea what to do with my life now. Is God using the lack of my leave of absence safety net as a complete push out of the nest?
I have no idea. I really need to learn how to listen to God. I feel like I make mistakes all the time and this might be a very big one. I do not know if this is the path he wants me on or if he wanted me to stay and work through my insecurities in that situation. School started yesterday without me. They are now telling me since the leave did not go through, I can rescind the resignation and report back to work. I do not have a desire to go back except for the financial and medical insurance security.
I have to believe those are worldly things and not what God would be pushing on me. Thank you for listening and helping me try to figure it out. Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Just ten more feet. Hold yourself together for ten more feet. The fact other people change careers more often than they used to can add to the feeling of stagnation.
Answering a few questions can help you make up your mind:. Many school districts offer teachers good retirement benefits if they stay for a certain number of years. Some teachers who are getting close to qualifying may run the numbers and realize it would be worth it to stay for two or three more years.
This type of practical consideration can lead teachers to consider ways to re-energize themselves where they are, rather than changing jobs. This depends on what type of new career you have in mind — and how many working years you have left.
Would it require extensive schooling to get qualified? Would it take time to build up a roster of clients so you were earning enough money to live on? Not every new career would require an entire new degree, of course. And there are scholarships available in some situations. I want to be a teacher. Why else would I be here? What else is there? For some people, that will hold true. I was getting restless and wanted new challenges.
I changed grade levels, then relocated from Washington DC to Miami, then changed grade levels again and went to Fort Lauderdale. But I will tell you I was wracked with guilt when I decided after 11 years to leave the classroom. It made no sense, particularly since I was going to be doing instructional coaching, which was my dream job at the time. Moving away from classroom-based work has freed me up to make an impact in education in ways that would have been impossible if I was responsible for a classroom full of students.
I just felt like teaching was something a person did for life. What was wrong with me? Had I lost my way? Not only did it feel like a personal failure to quit, but it also seemed like a disrespect to the profession. Many people feel like Rosie, the teacher I introduced you to at the start of the episode. In order to be present in her family life the way she wanted to be, she needed a job that had more flexibility and less stress. Teaching was never an easy job, but the amount of paperwork, documentation, meetings, and overall pressure on educators has undoubtedly increased.
I think these are really good questions to ask. This is a healthy adaptive strategy that I think reflects how quickly the world is changing. So, what if we thought of our careers as a portfolio of varied accomplishments, rather than one single thing we spent a lifetime building?
What if we aimed to look back on our lives and see a variety of ways we made an impact and made a living? The skills you develop as a teacher are so broadly useful in so many contexts that the time you spent teaching is almost certainly going to be valuable in another profession. If you are itching to break free from the system and carve out a different path for yourself like I was, you can do that, too.
The school needs you! Your students love you! But of course, I could quit. My replacement was hired within a week of me submitting my resignation. Other people wanted me to stay for their own reasons, but I was the only one who could really see a different vision for my life. I had to choose to act on it even when everyone said I was crazy to leave a secure job with a pension that I was really good at.
Staying in your job will feel like a betrayal of yourself. I realize that transitioning out of the classroom is not an easy thing to do.
I know this episode is about you, but can I talk about me for a second here? I would love to help more people beyond teachers. I feel my own sense of purpose shifting and expanding now. Also, I have wanted, for years now, to create some sort of support or training to help teachers move into the next phase of their careers.
I have no plan at this point. If you want support in this area, tell me in the comments here. Introduce me to folks doing this kind of work, tell me what kind of resources you wish I had created or support you wish you had available to you. You are not giving up … you are opening yourself up to new opportunities.
You can use your gifts and talents in many, many other ways and continue to make a positive impact in the world even when you are not in the classroom. I brought Daphne on my podcast to talk about how to transition out of teaching. Check out that episode as a follow-up to this one for tips on updating your resume, finding industries that like to hire former teachers, and more. Daphne has her own podcast now and frequently interviews teachers who have found new career paths.
She also writes excellent blog posts, such as The pros and cons of leaving teaching during the pandemic. One last resource: I recently compiled some more info about Daphne and other resources to help you make a decision about leaving teaching here: Is it real burnout or pandemic fatigure?
How to decide if you should quit teaching in Truth for Teachers is a weekly audio podcast providing encouragement to get you energized for the week ahead. Do you know yet of a group or groups who can help teachers transition to a new career?
I cannot tell you how perfectly timed this is! Just last week I sent in my letter of resignation. I have taken several responsibilities in addition to teaching having to deal with leading, mentoring, and planning.
0コメント