Why I'm Leaving Teaching

so i've just written my notice um in order to call time on a seven-year teaching career and i want to just reflect on some of the reasons that i've come to this decision you know why i've decided to leave my teaching job in the middle of the term during a pandemic during an economic slump without a job to go to and why i think this is a good thing in my life why this represents um progress in my life okay so the first reason that i'm leaving my teaching job and i've taken this decision is that in some ways it's not really a decision at all um in truth i am sort of compelled by the the mental health toll that the job has had on me in recent times um you know depression sleeplessness heavy anxiety and just underlying tension all of the time i dread going into work uh i i really you know sunday evenings are horrific um i i'm not enjoying any minute of the day um so from in that sense it's not even really a decision to leave teaching it's uh it's just a necessity uh i'm at the point of um yeah just have to go really the second reason that i'm leaving um i'm gonna stick with this reasons thing for now um i think whilst there have been good times in my career and i think in teaching you know there are times where you really feel like a champion and you feel like everything's flowing really well i for one have have ignored so many red flags so many um difficult times in my career that i've just turned a blind eye to um either willingly or just subconsciously not not really wanting to confront you know how unpleasant i found it to teach in a secondary school secondary school classroom um there have been a lot of periods where i've dreaded going in not wanted to go in and felt that kind of constant underlying tension and i suppose like where actually does this this underlying tension where does it really come from well for a classroom teacher i think for me it's living on the edge of anticipation all the time you're constantly anticipating student reactions student behavior being interrupted you know how they're going to react to lessons and activities that you've planned you're anticipating all of the ways that your kind of tightly controlled lesson can go awry and can just unravel and unwind at the drop of a hat i think the expectations of the job um and the sheer volume of spanners you know the kind of giant bucket worth of spanners that can that can be thrown into the works every day um completely make the job untenable to me um yeah the environment is just just not something that i enjoy at all it's a shame that's taken me seven years to get to this realization but i suppose it's a better late than never kind of thing and my third reason for leaving is kind of a more positive one and i've written it as a belief in life um i think that a better life is possible i think it's possible to have you know a working life balance and to live a life that isn't sort of beset by stress and tension all of the time like many people i probably stayed in the classroom for the sake of security and the belief that i'd found my career path and could see the way stretching off into the distance of you know a grand teaching career but uh unfortunately i think it just wasn't right for me i haven't solved that problem and it's taken me a long time to kind of face up to that but fundamentally for me it's not really a secure job at all i know people talk about it as a secure job and i think you know coveted seems to suggest that it's like people are desperate for the schools to get back open and really acknowledge the value that teachers bring the role they play in society but uh you know for me despite the security it's there's nothing secure about feeling low and feeling miserable all the time so yeah definitely not a secure one for me the purpose of this video is to track my progress uh leaving teaching in the middle of the year in a pandemic you know in an economic slump with with nothing concrete lined up i've got ideas and things that i want to that i want to do that i think are feasible for the medium term but i want to see what what happens to a teacher who leaves leaves the profession what are the options you know what can i make happen and uh yeah hopefully you'll join me join me on this journey um it's exciting i'm also apprehensive but it's got to be better than just kind of slogging away in a profession that's really not working for me so yeah hope hope you come along for the ride and i'm sure it'll be fun

Channel: Bryn Gilwern

Views: 28,513

Rating: 4.9636774 out of 5

Keywords: Why I'm Leaving Teaching, leaving teaching, leave teaching, why I left teaching, left teaching, leaving my teaching job, quit teaching, why I'm quitting teaching, I quit teaching, why quit teaching, quitting teaching, teacher burn out, jobs for teachers, other jobs for teachers, career change for teachers, careers for teachers, depression in teaching, teacher depression, teacher mental health, teacher anxiety, anxiety in teaching, alternative careers for teachers

Id: UHaLaWx5DQw

Length: 5min 20sec (320 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021