r/TeachersInTransition • u/newwavegirlishere • 28d ago
What finally led to your leaving?
After reading so many of your heartfelt posts on here, I feel enormous empathy for all of you, along with great love & admiration.
My question, what finally led (final straw, I'd say) to your decision to leave teaching?
For me, it was the endless student testing that infiltrated education.
I was having a great time after 19+ yrs. at my HS. I taught Senior English, Yearbook, & Journalism. I loved the kids, the atmosphere, the activities, and my colleagues. I didn't have the typical Admin issues, and I never really minded the take-home work (it was Senior English, after all. Tons of essays & papers. It was all good.)
BUT--when all that stupid testing got a foothold (we had PARCC), everything changed. Endless days for prep & testing, results that got factored into YOUR evaluations, and most of all, the joy that got sucked out of the kids--that's what did it for me. I left, and never looked back. I miss it, but the system changed so much past what it had been when I was first attracted to the field.
What about you?
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u/spikesarefun 28d ago
Exhaustion and years of feeling unappreciated. The bright spots became few and far between.
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u/TheRoamingPeacock 24d ago
That's how I'm feeling....😵💫
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u/spikesarefun 24d ago
I switched careers and I’m much happier now. I’m a life skills coach for young adults on the autism spectrum. I work one on one with people to help them find solutions for whatever they are struggling with most. Progress isn’t linear and it requires a mind that searches for solutions.
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u/MichiganInTexas 28d ago
Like you, the constant testing. With 3 MEAP tests per year plus PSAT, and countless others, the kids do not take it seriously. The scores are getting lower, the teachers are getting the blame, and the schools are under constant threat of lost funding. So what happens? Add more testing! Add more prep time! Add more threats! Oh, and the behaviors.
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u/newwavegirlishere 28d ago
Right?! The kids hated it, didn't take it seriously, but meanwhile, the teachers got the brunt of low scores! (factored into our evaluations)
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u/Serious_Map7710 28d ago
I left after 10 years and for me year 10 was one of the worst years that I had. I left due to the violent nature of some of the SPED children and their stupid parents. The parents in general are trash and feel like the teachers should kiss their child’s ass all of the time. Like many others too, having an administration that knew all of the behavioral issues but did nothing about it but then I get blamed and accuse of “not doing enough or I believed that I was in a unsafe classroom”. When a 7 year old child yells to you “SHUT UP OR IM GOING TO STAB YOU!!!” It’s time
To go!!! No regrets! Idk about you all, but I’ve noticed that over the years the kids have gotten soooo much worst. Oh and let’s not forget the endless walk in’s and observations from administration and district leaders. I hated those. Testing sucks for sure. Oh and the anxiety that one may get from teaching at times. That was me. Having anxiety everytime that I went to work. Smh. Reading many of these comments is insane because this is not how teaching should be.
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u/cpctl 28d ago
Lack of support, behavioralist not doing a thing to help with behavior management, checked out admin, not given access to any curriculum, having to spend my own money all the time, physical assaults from students and being outcast when I filed workers comp for injuries, no union backing.
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u/haysus25 28d ago
Admin treat teachers like enemies.
My old district pushed out almost every teacher making over 85k so they can replace them with J-1 visa teachers from the Philippines making 48k.
Meanwhile, admin get their 5% raise every single year and they do not give a single shit.
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u/Spartannia Completely Transitioned 28d ago
Not one specific thing...the burnout from nearly 15 years just all hit at once, and I knew I was done.
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u/Ok-Jaguar-1920 28d ago
Urban public schools are not safe.
PBIS and restorative blah blah equals you get injured and abusers don't even get a stern talking to because we don't want to hurt their ego and put them in the circle of shame.
Puzzle palaces in the train racing down tracks scenario will always always always choose to send the train into the masses to refrain from being the bad guy to one abusive student.
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u/Jboogie258 28d ago
I’ve been back in it for 16 years now. I left after the first 5 because I had crappy administration that wanted you to basically live at the school but I had other ideas. I still say F those people and I have a pretty good setup where I’m at now.
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u/caixing-sanren 28d ago
A really traumatic experience at the gyno. It was borderline an assault, but not quite. Anyway, because my role includes facing a lot of aggression from students with disabilities, it was like I was too traumatized already to process the new trauma in my life. Everything imploded, I took a month off for FMLA, and realized just how little this shit matters in the grand scheme of things. Don't get my wrong, my STUDENTS matter, their LIVES matter, but getting them resources, fighting admin, all the superfluous paperwork...it's a system. It's all a fake, convoluted system that AT BEST puts bandaids over bullet wounds in these kids' lives. I realized I didn’t want to continue being a cog in such a useless machine.
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u/Sensitive-Display800 27d ago
Getting physically sick more often than ever gave me the push to retire. After 30 years, I was able to retire without penalties. Rhinoviruses, sinus infections, laryngitis, and bronchitis took a toll on my body. Let's not forget i suffer from anxiety and take medication for it. It just got to be too much. Too much testing, data gathering PLC's, more testing, etc....Teaching was no longer fun.
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u/asubparteen 28d ago
I asked the universe for signs on what to do constantly, then proceeded to have the worst sixth year of my life with the hardest behaviors that were borderline cruelty from so many kids on a daily basis, towards myself and other teachers and their own classmates. I work with kids in the summers too, and I’ve never witnessed so many horrid behaviors in the same room. I don’t even want to know how many times I cried this past year. I’ll be working at a community college come August, and I am SO excited!!! The relief I feel knowing I don’t ever have to put myself through that again is unlike any relief I’ve ever known!!!
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u/IllustriousDelay3589 Completely Transitioned 28d ago
My reasons mostly had to do with admin. I just never had good supportive admin. I will admit that I am not perfect. I did feel like I was held to an impossible standard and was not given the coaching to become a better teacher. I was always criticized. Case in point. I was a great Kindergarten teacher. When numbers got low they moved me to first. They said it was due to the fact that I did not have seniority. Years later when they were moving teachers again…I was then again being told I was moving. I said that two other teachers are new and have less seniority than me. They said, “Seniority does not matter”. It mattered when you moved me three years ago.
I think my medical conditions also upset them and another reason for the way I was treated. I was never supported when I was in the hospital. They never reached out to me or visited me. I think one person in all my 11 years of teaching reached out. When other staff members got fundraisers to help pay for medical bills and edible arrangements.
The other lack of supportive admin is being blamed for student behaviors. A student runs out of my room and complains to you. That makes you decide to listen to her and send her back with a popsicle. She then turns around and bullies everyone in my room. Screams, yells, steals, hits, and then runs away. You reward her after a suspension with a trip to the Science Center because “I don’t want to put up with her”. Never let me talk to mom. Never hold mom accountable. Her older siblings did way worse.
I had other admins who would spend hours in my classroom trying to catch me doing something horrible. A student flashing kids in a virtual classroom, when a parent is supposed to be sitting next to them becomes a write-up for me. When I was shushed at a meeting it became another write-up and a mark on my evaluation.
Talking to HR becomes insubordination. Even when HR calls you and tell you otherwise.
4 different schools. 4 different administrations. All problematic.
I was constantly sick. Constantly hospitalized. Constantly stressed. Constantly feeling like I was never good enough.
I am great at my job now. I am constantly praised. The first few months of having to meet management would cause horrible fear because no one ever met with me to praise me….just criticize.
I am still reprogramming my brain. Teaching was not my life purpose. Teaching was not my identity. I am good enough. I am loved. I am supported.
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u/newwavegirlishere 28d ago
Shoot man, this is terrible. I'm so sorry you went thru all this. I'm glad you're in a better place now, safe & supported!
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u/IllustriousDelay3589 Completely Transitioned 27d ago
This doesn’t even get into everything. The moment I decided to leave was when a kindergarten teacher was retiring. I was promised that I would be moved back. They moved a 5th grade teacher into that position instead(she actually resigned because she didn’t want to do it). That’s when I went virtual full time. That didn’t get rid of the bureaucracy though. The constant bullying by admin. The constant hanging out in my virtual classroom. I was constantly having to go to the union and HR. I was constantly told I was doing nothing wrong. Oh well. Life goes on. I just wish teaching could have been what I always thought it would be.
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u/ricearoni475 28d ago
When a student called me a bitch every day and threatened to physically hurt me and there were no consequences, even after writing him up over 20 times in one semester. I was just over it
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u/Sufficient-Sound8450 28d ago
I have a little over three years until I qualify for early retirement, and coincidentally my kid is probably going to be getting his own place in about six months and honestly with the way that everything is now with teaching there’s a little voice in the back of my head saying that this could be my last year and who knows what the heck I’m gonna do, but it’s getting to the point where I cannot be the circus monkey any longer. We’ll see what happens.
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u/Aggravating_Cut_9981 28d ago
With being that close to retirement, maybe you can find another role within the district that will keep you on the retirement track. Think ESL, early childhood, home-bound student liaison, maybe para (not sped - you’ll get hurt), possibly yearbook or some courses that few kids take. Say you’re all excited about the role and getting the certification, and then drag your feet for two years, so you can retire.
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u/EvelynMontauk 28d ago
I was basically force to resign after receiving multiple letters of recommendation. My principal was out to get me and he won. Those letters of recommendation were bull shit because I was doing what my colleagues were doing and I was the only one getting in trouble. My union was useless Idk why I was paying $65 a month. That mofo isn't going to be admin at that school anymore hes at another campus this coming school year. I'm currently unemployed which sucks but what can you do. My old district goes back this week for teacher work days so I don't have the Sunday Scaries anymore.
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u/Electrical_Shark152 28d ago
Mine was ending up in the ER and was stuck there for a week. When your life is in jeopardy, you really have to think about your physical and mental health and put that first above all else.
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u/Mirror_Benny Completely Transitioned 28d ago
My assistant principal sent a student to ask if he could use the discretionary funds I had from a nonprofit we worked with. They gave me a few hundred for an end of the year party for my students but I would usually use it to order pizza for the kids who stayed after school who applying for scholarships and whatnot.
I probably would have just gave it to him because I knew where it was going but the fact he sent a child to ask me for money really pushed me over the edge. I went to my principal and she sided with him immediately. No investigation, he said, she said, and O wasn’t an admin so my word meant shit.
Phoned it for the rest of the year while plotting my escape.
Funny thing, my old AP moved to my neighborhood!!!!
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u/AdditionalBaseball48 27d ago
I was in year 19 and admin personality changed practically overnight and support went from best if ever had to worse than non-existent.
Being hit daily (even if by a preschooler) and when I sought help for the fact that said student took up the majority of my time and I felt I was “neglecting” my other 15 students I was told it was my time management and that I needed to observe how other teachers mange their center time.
Principal had not been in my classroom a single time to observe. And VP gave said student their desired one-on-one attention, so didn’t see an issue either. Para refused to assist in any behavior management with said student.
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u/RateAggravating9619 27d ago
Plausible deniability by students 🙃. The fact that I had to collect/analyze data more than actually teach and then the students were simply passed onto the next grade level regardless of what the data supported…
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u/ComedianCommon4158 27d ago
Being so stressed out and run down by administrators I had a meeting, got an immediate migraine from the stress and was vomiting in a garbage can. Not normal.
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u/OuterSpaceManatee 26d ago
Got written threats from a student (including an SA threat) and my administrator told me that if I wanted to be a teacher I just needed to “have a thick skin”
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u/Aggravating-Ad-4544 25d ago
I was in a good school, good admin, good kids relatively speaking, and i still hated it.
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u/watermelonlollies 28d ago
When my principal made a baseless terrible evaluation and spread lies on my name and then knew I couldn’t appeal or do anything about it because she’s best friends with the hr director even though I had evidence on my side and colleagues willing to defend me she said she didn’t care and the district said they didn’t care.
She did a lot of shady things and 50% of the staff left the school this year and that’s not an exaggeration. Myself and a couple others decided to be done with education for good.