WHY I Quit Teaching │ Q&A - Answering YOUR Questions

I know that I am a good teacher but for me the question is at what expense what am I not exploring or not having in the rest of my life in order for me to be the good teacher that I know I can be and that I have done I guess I'm just looking for more [Music] turns out when you tell people that you just quit teaching they have questions and I'm going to answer them now okay so a lot of people are asking why um why did you walk away why I feel this sometimes lots of the same kind of why for me I taught for 10 years and teaching was all I ever wanted to do my whole life when I was I think about five years old in kindergarten I decided that that was the job for me I used to get my little sister and I used to make her worksheets um basically comprehension worksheets based on the back of different CDs we had in the house and then I would bribe her with bubble gum to do the worksheets I'd made so that teacher was in me from early on there are parts of teaching that I really enjoy I love being creative and coming up with fun lessons and engaging kids and finding exciting ways to approach Concepts I love that side of things I have a bit of a perfectionist personality in some ways I like to do things the right way I like to meet expectations I like to do the best I possibly can if I say I'm going to do something I want to do it well and I want to do it right and so for me teaching is extremely overwhelming there are so many elements that go into being a good teacher it's so much more than just showing up and teaching kids every day and I find that that means that I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a good teacher and to do a good job and that takes time and that takes effort and it puts a huge mental load on me when I am in teaching and it's midterm I just feel that that is my whole life I really don't feel that I have a lot of time for anything outside of teaching I try not to bring work home and that's something that I decided to do very early on in my career so it's not necessarily that I was lacking this work-life balance I wasn't bringing all my work home and lesser planning and marking and doing things late Into the Night but it was the mental fatigue and that just that load that I carried around in my brain of what do I need to do next have I bought these things that I need for this lesson what about that parent that sent you a message have I responded to them what about the parent that wants me to watch their kid on the playground how am I going to find time to do that tomorrow what about that meeting I've got uh have I done the registration for that where am I actually with this programming thing that for me and just the way my brain works and the teacher I want to be it's a lot it's all consuming and I feel like teaching just becomes everything that's why I really felt like I wanted to change so I have other interests I have other things that I would like to explore and for me personally and I know everybody's different but for me personally I don't feel that I could explore the things I wanted to explore while still teaching and for some other people they can for some other people they can be a teacher and they can have a side hustle or they can be doing other things and that's fine for me personally when I'm in teaching I am all consumed by teaching it is everything I'm all in it I needed a break from that I need some space I need some time to explore my hobbies to explore my interests to explore some other job and career possibilities that could be out there for me and I just don't feel like I can do that while I'm teaching so the next questions are kind of asking how and what will I do and there's a few someone there saying that they're thinking of quitting too I made the decision to quit without a solid plan and I know that I am in a privileged position to be able to to do that and not know exactly where I would land but to jump anyway in terms of how I've been able to step away from teaching it's been a process and it's been a long time coming I knew that if I decided to take this leap I am going to be taking a huge pay drop no matter what I end up doing if it's going to be a paid job there's just not jobs in my local area that pay what I was making on an AP salary so I have been saving saving saving putting money aside preparing in terms of what I'm going to be doing now I actually have a job I have picked up work it was not planned and I did not have this work in mind or set up before I let my school know that I wouldn't be returning about oh probably a month after I had told my school I wasn't signing another contract and wasn't coming back to work and maybe three weeks before the school year finished I was on Facebook in a local Our Town page and I saw a local business saying that just like everyone else they were looking for some employees and it happened to be my local dog boarding kennel now if you've watched my last video uh you would know that I while I have been teaching this year I have been studying canine remedial massage which I am now qualified in and I'm currently studying canine hydrotherapy so my dream is to work with dogs that's the space I'd love to get into when I saw this job come up working in the local boarding Channel I thought this is perfect this is the kind of industry-ish that I want to be in this will help me build up experience this will help me become somebody that people I go in I get the work done and then I go home and the mental load that I had for teaching isn't there with this job so I've got some income coming in but I've still got that mental space and that mental capacity to think about other things so I couldn't have predicted that I didn't plan that but it has worked out perfectly that this job just fell into my lap at the right time this question says how are you feeling emotionally I feel really good to be fair it hasn't been that long since the school you finished and the next school year hasn't gone back yet so I've been saying the whole time that I don't think this will feel real until kids and teachers go back to school for 2023 and I don't that said I feel really positive and I'm really really happy about the choice I've made I know that this is something that I needed to do and I needed to shut out the noise of everyone else and society and just everything and just think what do I want what do I want my life to look like and what should I do for me right now and for me right now this is it I've said it before I may end up back in teaching it might be six months it might be a year maybe never but for me right now this space this time this change is a really good thing for me for my mental health for my well-being for just mixing things up and living my life and having fun with it so I'm feeling really really good about it it feels like it's right particularly When Things fall into place so like this boarding kennel job and just the timing of everything lining up so nicely for me that's feeling very much like oh you're on the right track and everything's gonna be okay okay this question was a little bit different advice for teachers just starting out my first year was crazy intense I think if you're a beginning teacher my biggest advice is fund find some supportive colleagues I think that relationship that you build with your colleagues is so important I've had the privilege over my 10 years of working with some amazing Educators and amazing people and I think it's really helpful too to have that colleague that or a couple of colleagues that you can go to and I have a little bit of the of a vent I really do think talking about the things that you're struggling with or that are frustrating you just helps to take some of that mental load off and helps to lighten things one of the biggest things for me this past year particularly when I took on my AP role was just learning to prioritize what is the most important thing what needs to get done and that's been a learning curve for me because I want to do everything the best I can do everything and I've just had to go hey no like these lessons are the most important this kids need has to come over this at the moment and then next week this is what's the priority pick three things that are the most important for that day or that week do them the best you can and then everything else will happen also don't feel like you need to re-embed the wheel I'm also completely guilty of this because I want to make everything so engaging and so exciting and uh but there are so many so many resources out there that are already done I have had a twinkle membership the whole time I've been a teacher I love them I just use their resources constantly uh Teachers Pay Teachers is there I don't love spending a lot of money on there but you know three dollars for a resource instead of spending three hours making it that is a win talk to the other teachers on your stage or your year group or in your school because I bet you they're a wealth of knowledge and they've got heaps of stuff you can use too and reach out and have a chat with me if you've got any questions on this anything you want to know I now have a lot of more time so always up for a chat if you're a teacher and you've got some suggestions for first year teachers or people that are finding teaching tricky or thinking about leaving pop them in the comments let's support each other let's share each with each other I think I've mostly answered the questions if you've got me others pop them in the comments because I'm I'm totally open to talking about this I know when I was making the decision to step away I didn't have a lot of people who had gone before me to watch or to learn from so I think it's a conversation that needs to be had I really do think I'm a millennial and I think for um my generation and the generation is coming that we're far more transient with our careers we don't stick to things for necessarily so long and so I find it interesting that when I approached the topic about leaving teaching people have been quite shocked and I've been called Brave a lot and while I can see why and I I get that I think we need to open up this conversation about the fact that just because you went to UNI or you chose a career or you've made a decision in life you do not have to stick with it you can make changes you can go in a different direction in your life at any point of time so that's why I really want to be really clear about this I'm hoping it'll be a positive but as I've said before one of the best things about teaching is that it will be there to go back to all right until next time see you later guys foreign [Music]

Channel: Karrine Beasley

Views: 368

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Id: NYbVeodqS-k

Length: 11min 41sec (701 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 05 2023