I Want to Leave Teaching: 5 Steps Unhappy Teachers Looking to Leave Teaching Can Take Now
I Want to Leave Teaching: 5 Steps Unhappy Teachers Looking to Leave Teaching Can Take Now
The other night I received a message out of the blue from a teacher who’d just wrapped her first week back in the classroom.
”I should have figured something else out over the summer, but I was avoiding it, and now I’m miserable with a whole school year ahead of me. I feel trapped, and all I know is I want to leave teaching - now! What can I do?”
I think it’s easy to beat ourselves up when we’ve avoided taking action toward our goals. It’s harder to acknowledge that we’ve put off making a big decision because we know that making a directional change, especially about something as important as our career, is risky.
I felt this unhappy teacher’s pain. While the start of a new school year can be exciting and filled with potential, it can also be intimidating. And if it’s becoming clearer to you that your heart isn’t in teaching anymore, a new school year can be even more daunting. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and pessimistic.
I’d argue that this desperate, trapped teacher is actually at an advantage right now. She’s realized that she’s ready to make moves and leave the classroom with a whole school year ahead of her to plan and execute the switch.
If you’re in the same boat — a teacher wondering how to know when to quit teaching, or trying to get a handle on the transferrable skills teachers can bring into their next career — take a deep breath and relax. We’re going to talk about five steps you can put into motion right now so that when this school year ends, you’re able to successfully move on to your next opportunity confidently and at peace with your decision.
1. Reevaluate your goals
Take the time to reflect on your current situation and think about what you really want out of your career. Ask yourself why you're feeling unhappy and what you can do to make yourself happier. I wrote a while back about exercises I’ve used in the past to get clear on what I really want for myself and my life. I’ve actually returned to these exercises at different points in my own career and they do help provide clarity.
Take some time for self-reflection to identify the specific reasons for your unhappiness in teaching. Is it related to workload, classroom management, or other, personal factors? Maybe you’re sick of the administrative work, or you’re feeling endlessly exhausted. It could be a new curriculum being introduced, or a new admin who just doesn’t get what it’s like to be a teacher. Or, it could be that you’re ready to start making changes in your personal life but it seems impossible to find balance when teaching is taking every last ounce of your energy.
Think about why you became a teacher in the first place. Have there been positive moments that felt like you’d thought they would when you were training for your role in the classroom? Be honest with yourself. Try to think of the positive moments over your career and the impact you've had on students' lives. This might remind you of the difference you can make and might help reframe some of the struggles you’re facing now. Maybe teaching really is worth it to you, and you want to stay in the classroom – maybe it’s a different setting or environment you need.
Once you've pinpointed some of the identifiable pain points, it’s time to set some goals. These goals could be related to teaching specifically: adjusting classroom management strategies, trying to collaborate more with your grade team to balance planning, or finding someone at your school with a similar mindset to brainstorm how to approach admin specific challenges.
But this dedicated reflection time can also serve as a reality check.
2. Get clear on your values
Maybe you can’t remember why you decided to become a teacher at all. Or, maybe you didn’t have as much of a role as you would have liked in shaping your career, and it’s never been your passion. If that’s the case, then it may actually be an easier decision for you — you’ll have less attachment to the notions you had about teaching, and you can move right into brainstorming what’s next for you.
Or, you might realize that no matter how much you care about your students and their well being, and as much as you once felt you could make an impact in the classroom, you’re done. I think it’s really important to stress that this is not something to feel guilt or shame about.
It’s actually you getting clearer on what you value when it comes to work. I’ve actually taken values quizzes specifically about career goals, and it’s helped a great deal in helping to determine the facets of a position that have the biggest impact on my overall job satisfaction. For example, my highest value when it comes to work is freedom/independence. Knowing this, teaching was never going to work for me — for the majority of teachers, you are rarely free to make independent choices about how and you approach your teaching practice. if I’d identified these values earlier, maybe I wouldn’t have gone into teaching at all.
3. Define your boundaries
It's crucial to develop boundaries around your time and begin enforcing these boundaries NOW, as early into the new school year as possible. Why? Because you are going to need time this year you can dedicate to planning what’s next for you, and if you aren’t strict about your boundaries now, it won’t get any easier to start enforcing them.
Ask yourself: what amount of time are you willing to offer to your school community versus your own well being and your future planning?
I know this is especially difficult when it comes to teaching. The amount of pressure, side-eye, and judgment around how late you stay after school, your level of volunteerism for after school responsibilities, and your time spent prepping can be overwhelming.
If you find yourself second guessing your boundaries when it comes to coworker reactions, try to reframe your situation. Of course, you have to define what you’re comfortable with, but I’d recommend asking people outside of education their opinions about your time commitment to work. Let me tell you, their reaction to the amount of unpaid labor you provide might be enough of a reality check of how above and beyond you’re going for your school to help come up with some stronger boundaries.
And why are we so worried about implementing strong work boundaries? Because we are going to move onto Step 4.
4. Concrete career planning
After you’ve identified your career values and carved out regularly scheduled time dedicated to figuring out what’s next for you, you’re ready to get introspective. I have some specific exercises that can help you get specific about what you’re looking for in your next career here. What are your strengths? When do you find yourself in a flow state, where everything you’re accomplishing is happening almost automatically? Are there aspects of teaching that you do actually like? Write it all down and see if patterns begin emerging.
Based on your strengths and what you want your next career to look like, start researching. At first, cast a wide net. Look into the industries that seem most interesting to you. Look up companies or organizations that feel like they’d be a good fit, and find out a bit about their hiring process. Find out what you can about their current employees, a typical path to getting hired there, and identify what interests you about each of these companies.
Sometimes you can reach out for informational interviews via LinkedIn with a current employee that appears to be fairly junior. Asking for some advice based on your current situation respectfully can’t hurt. Important though, don’t get discouraged if someone doesn’t respond — not everyone on LinkedIn uses it regularly, or checks their inbox, etc, etc.
Be honest with yourself during this research process. What would a position in this new career demand of you? What skills would you’d need further training in to get hired? If you’d need additional training before getting a full time job, what would that look like? Consider each potential career shift with the big picture of your life in mind. Like with any life changing decision, there will be trade offs. You have to decide if you’re willing to take the risk and the action that this new career will require of you.
5. Develop a timeline
The reason that the beginning of the school year is a great time to begin taking action is because if gives you until next summer to get your ducks in a row. Is it realistic given everything you have on your plate at work and in your personal life for you to be ready to make this change by then?
If training is required in order for you to make the shift, is there a way you can do it virtually? For example, I completed Springboard’s UX Bootcamp while I was still teaching. It was definitely difficult, and might not be feasible for everyone, but it gave me a chance to develop the skills I needed for an entry level UX job while still getting a regular paycheck.
Can you come up with your own curriculum comprised of online learning resources? Depending on what you are looking to learn more about, there might be online courses offered from different universities virtually, or relevant Skillshare or Coursera courses.
Create goals and set realistic timelines for them. Check in with yourself as time progresses — are you on track to hit each milestone? If not, you have to shift how you’re spending your time or extend your timeline.
I can’t lie — it isn’t easy to face another school year when you’re not happy about teaching. But I’m here to tell you to have hope!
You can start moving toward a more fulfilling career now so that you have plans in place to make a change. Sometimes just being aware that you’re taking action and making progress toward a goal is enough to change your attitude and perspective. You have options — they just might not be clear enough to you yet. That’s why you’re starting now — so you have time to get clear and take actionable steps to build the career you want!
Considering Leaving Teaching? Read These!
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