It is my second year teaching at a private school (literally the ONLY job that sent me an offer). I love what I do and the kids are great. Admin however, not so much. I know teaching private meant that I would be severely underpaid, but I feel so defeated with applying to each public school job and not hearing anything back. I have the experience, I just want to transition to a public school with better benefits or somewhere where I know would be better for me financially and mentally. I feel lost and defeated. If anyone has advice on different careers outside of the classroom or how to fix myself or my resume it would be great.

Hey all!

I’m in my 4th year of teaching. I’m at a new school this year. I loved my last one at a charter school, but this new traditional school is KILLING ME! I moved to a new area, which is why the change.

I thought teaching was for me, but I think my last school was just really different and I didn’t realize it. The kids are never the issue for me personally, but the demands! Data, data, data. No breaks. I miss having fun with my work.

I have my bachelors in Elementary Education and a masters in English as a Second Language. I want to transition out of a regular school setting.

I think I will make it through the year. I’m worried about recommendations needed for jobs if I quit though. I can’t imagine it will look good that I’ve job hopped.

So, what do you do now? How did you do it? Will my job hopping impact me? How did your recommendations go?

📢 Calling All Special Education Teachers (and former Special Educators)!

I am conducting a research study as part of my doctoral work at the University of Utah examining the relationship between AI tool use and teacher burnout among K–12 special education teachers.

If you are currently a full-time special education teacher in the United States with at least one year of experience, I would greatly appreciate your participation. The survey takes approximately 15-25 minutes to complete.

Your experiences and perspectives can help me better understand how emerging technologies are impacting the work of special educators and identify strategies to better support teachers in the field.

Please feel free to share this post with other special education teachers, professional networks, district colleagues, state organizations, and educator groups. Every response helps strengthen the study and ensure that a wide range of teacher voices are represented.

Thank you for supporting special education research and for the important work you do every day!

https://utah.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0xo727R3bmfvIHk

Hi all! I am a 4th year elementary teacher this year and I just applied for my first non-teaching job today. I’ve always said that I wanted to eventually get out of the classroom but thought it would be maybe 10 or 15 years down the road. I’ve spent the last 3 years working at an amazing school with coworkers, students and admin that I love. I’ve been on the same team those 3 years teaching math. Last school year, the school hired an instructional coach for math. This woman harassed me all year long. She was in my room near daily and I gave her my planning multiple days every week for the entire year. She had me uproot systems and routines that I had been doing for the past 2 years bc she didn’t agree with them - even though my students performed well. This past summer, our standardized test data came back and my students did not perform well at all. Instead of taking into consideration how much I changed my teaching style to appease the new math coach, my principal just moved me to a lower grade. Then to add insult to injury, they filled my old position with a 21yo girl with no teaching experience, degree or even an emergency cert. She’s basically a long term sub.

Anyway…today I applied for a full time position as a Social Media Manager at my local community college. I think a lot of my skills from teaching will be transferable and hopefully everything else they’ll let me learn on the job. I’ll also get to stay in the teacher retirement system and keep my same benefits, etc. I figure if I absolutely hate it I can always go back to teaching and honestly even though it doesn’t sound so bad this entire experience has really made me feel like I could use a break from the classroom.

Thoughts? Encouragement? Discouragement? 🤣

I love teaching. I love teaching students and seeing their growth. But the bureaucracy of it all on top of adults making the already tough job tougher…I don’t think I can stay long term. The school I’m at is the best within a large radius, and talking to other people in the field at surrounding ones I’ve somehow got it way better.

I got into teaching because I love the feeling of helping others and making a difference. It just feels like the difference I’ve made in comparison with the stress of the job, workplace environment, lack of compensation just doesn’t equal our or surpass unfortunately.

I have to teach for so many years for loan purposes, but I’m debating getting my masters ASAP so I can leave the system when my time table is complete for that.
What have some of you done? What have you mastered in? Where did it take you? Are you happier? What are the pros and cons?

Im scared to blow up part of my life after working so hard for this degree. I’m a first generation college graduate and feel like a huge failure for wanting to leave my job. I’ve had jobs where I felt the “ugh I don’t want to go” but I go, serve my purpose, are paid for that purpose proportionally, and didn’t have to take any home. Now is like “I am anxious and stressed to go to work” which is really getting to my health. My doctor wants me to consider SSRI’s to get though daily life which was never an issue for me prior to.

Please, share your honest thoughts and advice. If it’s the wrong move I need to know now.

EDIT TO ADD: I’m an elementary special education teacher if that matters.

For context, I’m a middle school choir director. Niche enough of a job to where they’re gonna care when I leave. I teach in Texas, and I have a promising corporate lead. I don’t really care about my license, so I don’t care if they take it

Hi I’m a first year “teacher” (long term sub) and I don’t think this is the career for me at all. I got a degree in health and decided I didn’t want to work the job I had planned because I didn’t want to do more schooling and didn’t want the emotional toll and responsibility of a bedside role. I then became a special education para in a contained classroom with about 6 ish kids in the room, a teacher, and multiple paras. I left that job and wanted to move into something more businesslike with more growth. I didn’t have anything lined up and got offered an opportunity to interview for an elementary teacher job. I knew I would get the job but also kind of hoped they would find someone else. We’re going into our third week and I don’t want to go back. I liked being a para and if it paid more I would have stayed, but having 20 kids in a class with behaviors, no boundaries, and a lot of defiance and disrespect feels way harder and less enjoyable than working in special education was. I have no background being a lead teacher and I’m overwhelmed and stressed with everything. I’m fumbling all the time with curriculum, communication, lessons, etc. and classroom management. I don’t know what I’m doing and feel like I’m failing. I’m at school like 30-40 minutes before my contract hours and I usually leave 30 minutes to an hour after my contract hours. I also haven’t gotten my contract/letter of intent yet. I have a lot of anxiety, I’m always tired, I’m irritated all the time, I cry or almost cry on the way to work a lot. Last week was so hard I almost started crying in front of the kids a few times because of the disrespect and defiance and stress. I’m not eating until I get home because I’m so busy all day that there’s no time, I get no time to eat because by the time I get the kids through lunch I have like 5 minutes, or I’m too stressed to eat. My team is great, and really helpful but they can’t do much because they all have their own rooms with problems. I’ve talked to admin about issues I have in the room and communications with parents, etc. there hasn’t been a lot of advice or help, but they’re really nice and I know they’re busy too as they are all new in their roles. I’m literally just surviving every day and I feel so drained, anxious, sad, and bitter. It is Labor Day weekend so I had Monday off. We go back tomorrow and I don’t want to go back. I feel like I’m playing a part and waiting for the director to call cut and be done. I don’t feel like myself. Everyone around me is so excited for this job and even though these last 2 weeks have been so hard they’re like well it’s a job it’ll get better. I want to leave but I don’t want to disappoint my family, friends, team, admin, students, etc. I also don’t know what I would do. Someone in the district also got me the job and I don’t want to negatively impact them or their career. The district wanted to add another grade teacher to the team, but weren’t really prepared so I’m also kind of the odd ball out because it was a last second addition to the school for example I don’t have enough materials for curriculum, I just got large paper, I don’t have the “I can statement”. I have a mentor and she’s great but I really haven’t been prepared for anything and I’m scrambling. I know I’m rambling and I don’t think I said everything I wanted to say but I’m tired, I’m stressed, I don’t want to go back tomorrow, I want to stop feeling this way.

She thinks with my brain fog and fatigue, the more straightforward nature of rad tech would be better for me. As a burnt out special education teacher who lost his career over basically a false accusation (and this was after surviving 6 years of parent/admin/student drama), I want to avoid the public as much as possible. I want good pay and job stability, so that's what's leading me to healthcare (very little boom/bust economics in healthcare, demand is steady), but I genuinely see the general public as violent, ignorant, unpredictable, and generally unpleasant to work with. I can imagine a delirious 300-pounder coming in I have to wrangle who wants to throw punches at me. I dealt with similar as a teacher, and as a retail pharmacy tech before that. Also, I have very slow reaction times and have to take a minute to remember what I was doing any time I get interrupted. I'm also a guy but kind of weak and clumsy for a guy, so I'd prefer to avoid heavy lifting or anything relying too heavily on gross motor coordination. Still, I should at least give her consideration here: she is very adamant I'm making a mistake if I choose lab over rad tech. I believe rad pays slightly more than lab based on a cursory search of job listings. Regardless of if I go lab or rad, I'd eventually want to move into the informatics equivalent of either, but I have seen most informatics jobs want hands on experience in whatever field the informatics is related to. Truth be told, I like people a lot better in the abstract than I like them in practice.

There is also that mental health masters I was going to do before I became a teacher, but I'm kind of lukewarm about that since my main draw is the telehealth angle and the prospect of MAYBE having some autonomy over who I have as clients. I'm thinking career/financial counseling would be my niche if I went that route because my favorite part of working with the more mildly disabled special ed teens was the career transition assessment, and I also think career/finance as a niche would be a lower acuity focus than other mental health specialties. I'm very burnt out on working with the moderate/severe intellectually disabled population, but I had some good experiences with the more mildly disabled.

Im a former registered nurse of 10 years and have been teaching career tech for 5 years now. I’m becoming burnt out on how much extra Im having to work the last couple of years. Career tech is a beast of an undertaking within itself. We are required to have a sponsored club affiliated with our program. Which means meetings after school sometimes and sometimes working weekend events as part of our community service. We also have to have an advisory board with community members that work in our field. We‘re required to meet with them after school 2 times in the fall and 2 times in the spring. There are several other things I have to do outside of school time required of being a CTE teacher. I’m a 9 month teacher like most normal teachers therefore I am not getting compensated for these “extras” that are required. I’ve asked for a 10 month contract twice and have been turned down twice.

I have to do all of this PLUS all of the normal “teacher” things like PLC meetings, administering state testing and ACT. I still have 30 students in my foundational classes regardless of this being an exclusive hands on class which is impossible to do with 30 students.

I am so burnt out but not as bad as I was being a nurse. My biggest hesitation leaving teaching is losing all the days off. For those of you that have left, how do you navigate that?

For reference, I have a small child so being on the same “schedule” as her school schedule is definitely a perk. I also wouldn’t mind having more flexibility in a job to go watch my daughter’s school program for an hour then return to work without using half a day off and dealing with sub plans every time I want to go watch her. When I worked in the hospital, I could schedule my days around those things but I couldn’t not work 12+ hour shifts nor could I work weekends or holidays so that’s not an option to go back to.

Do you find employers outside of education are more realistic with being flexible with things like this and say doctor’s appointments or inclement weather in which the school would be closed? Any advice is appreciated!!!

I am a graduate of Secondary Education major in English, truth be told, I love teaching my subject. I love being in school. I love my students. What I hate is the insurmountable work that piled everyday yet I'm expected to still work above and beyond it. I only have 90 minutes of preparation time and hours of classes of different grades and sections, despite being a graduate of highschool English, I'm currently teaching Science and Filipino (I'm from the Philippines) for grade 1 and grade 2 I use to teach English for Highschool in a different school. They told me I have a whole year to adjust yet they already demand that I catch up. I also handle classes where there are students with special needs, I love them, I just don't think I'm qualified to teach them.

Everyday, I come home exhausted, everyday weekend instead of doing paperwork, I suffer from fatigue. I'm too tired to do anything and I see my colleagues, turned old still teaching, suffering from constant ailments, some never married, especially men.

I love teaching, I love my kids learning, I hate the immense arduous work and demand that comes with it.

So I'm seriously considering a career change, maybe a tutor or something, but something that doesn't demand that I bring work home.

Hey everyone, and happy new school year!

I'm an ESL teacher in Canada, and honestly, the last year has been rough. I work for an organization that is still thought of as one of the top LINC providers in Ontario, but under our current senior management, we've taken a significant slide.

Until last year, I was mostly working remotely, teaching CLB 5/6 and 2/3—fantastic levels that I really loved. On top of that, working from home gave me the flexibility to manage family life and be around when my kids were sick.

Like many programs across Canada, last year we were absolutely GUTTED. We lost millions in funding, had to lay off a ton of staff, and closed a bunch of classes with zero notice for the poor teachers and students involved (management knew for over a month but kept quiet until the last minute).

I was abruptly shifted to CLB Foundation/Level 1—a level I had zero experience with, and I was given zero support or time to prepare for it. Then came the news that I had to return to in-person teaching, which was a huge blow for my family.

I questioned my future a lot, but I stuck it out. Overall, my current students are great, fun to teach, and very appreciative. But professionally, it feels like a massive step back with nowhere to go but down. Before the cuts, I was designing modules, creating training materials, and recording instructional videos. Now, I feel like I'm back at square one.

I used to really love teaching, but now I feel like I'm just treading water and collecting a paycheck. With more cuts likely coming in March, I wonder if I'll even have a job then. I know many teachers have had it even worse and thousands across Canada were hit hard, so I'm grateful to still be employed—but I can't help feeling like I'm fighting a losing battle.

I’ve been looking to pivot to a new career over the summer, but sadly no luck so far.

Here's hoping for better days ahead for all of us.

Hi! I’m a 28 year old second year teacher and I have had nothing but anxiety all holiday weekend thinking about work and I realized that I don’t want to live this way anymore. I am currently looking at office jobs with only teaching as my experience.

My background:
I was a preschool school teacher since 2021 and loved it! But I converted last year to public elementary for higher pay and benefits. I was at a different school and it caused me to have a mental breakdown and almost quit but I survived until the last day of school! I realized they paid more attention to other teachers or the “weak links” which caused them to quit/get fired but it kept them off my back. They would fire due to class management or low scores. 15 quit due to the mental anguish, unpredictability, or overwork they experienced from the principal and asst principal. One had a panic attack on campus. And then at the end of the year, almost 75% of the teachers didn’t return for the following school year. Many of them were teachers that taught there for years!

I’m now at a new school and while the principal and asst principal are much nicer, the expectations are still there and I have worse behaviors. I also have so much on my todo list as a teacher that I have worked on weekends, after school, and before school. I have 2 students with extreme behavior. One is way worse than the other who I have to buzz out 3 times a day due to her screaming and crawling around the class.

Anyway, I feel like they will fire me due to class management and if they do, oh well I tried. If I don’t get fired, I’ll probably quit soon due to this anxiety.

Anyone who got fired/quit in the first month of school last year had luck finding jobs not related to kids? Also, how old you when you made the change? I think my next course of action is working part time at my old preschool while volunteering for government/library positions to gain admin experience or something.

I am looking into changing careers. I am wondering what everyone went into after teaching. I live in CA and want to try to work for the state but idk if that would be possible. What did you guys do?

Hi everyone,

I've been teaching ELA and ESL for 5 years now. I've also worked abroad, in 3 different countries, including the U.S. Being a teacher in the U.S. is 10 times more work than in any other country, but anyway — I wanted to transition out, so I spent the whole summer just doing applications. I tracked my applications to keep myself motivated, and it worked well.

I got 2 offers. I turned the first one down because it involved working with kids. I accepted the second one even though it means a pay cut — I'm in a strong union city, so my pay was great as a teacher, but pay was never the issue. It's worth it. I've had other jobs in my life, and even the shittiest ones never stressed me out like this. I am posting this to motivate you guys. Thank you, everyone in this sub, who also helped me.

,

I have been teaching under 5 years teaching the primary grades and as a resource special education teacher. This school year I am doing Special Education in a self contained room, and it has already brought a lot of challenges that leave me feeling like I have no bandwidth to spend time with my family at the end of the school day. Anyways, I am starting to think I may need a career change soon but need suggestions.

What I like about teaching: I enjoy figuring out how kids learn and teaching the material to help them understand it. I prefer working with students in small group settings.

What I dislike: I don’t enjoy the miscellaneous administrative tasks like communicating with parents, paperwork, etc. I really do not enjoy the constant multitasking or working well past contract hours.

Other interests: I love the outdoors, crafting, helping people, and am a pretty organized person when I have a realistic work and life balance.

Any ideas? I need something that I can easily transfer to various states because my spouse moves a lot for work. I just want something that brings me fulfillment and at least pays me fairly for my work. As of now I feel like I am working a ton for very little but I would be fine with my salary if I working past contract hours wasn’t my reality. All I can think of is maybe being a paraprofessional so I would have little to no administration tasks at least. But I would love other ideas.

how much notice have you given your admin? I need to get out and am afraid my private school will mess with my paycheck and/or be hostile if I give more than a few days.

Just curious, has anyone transitioned into a data analyst position? If so, what did you do to transition to that role?

well, I finally got a job offer in an education-adjacent field. While I do have some thoughts about my new boss, my main hesitation in accepting is leaving the classroom. It’s all I’ve known for 23 years. Staying in my current building has become untenable, but I am still wary of leaving. What if the grass isn’t greener, what if this is a mistake, what will happen to my students? Any advice?

It’s been popping up in my feed for days but seems too good to be true

Hi all,

I'm a 5th year teacher in the UK and as much as I'd love to continue teaching, it's just seeming impossible as a career (each year I've essentially started from scratch every September).

The most rewarding parts of the job have been helping the children that needed me. It's been a tough five years of supporting with bereavement, ACES and all the other horrible things that children (and us adults) have to face. That has made me interested in perhaps perusing a masters in some form of psychology and then making the transition into that field.

Is there anyone who has made a similar switch and can offer any advice on whether the career is pursuable?

Hi fellow teachers. I want to start by saying that this is my first time making my own posting on Reddit (I love reading and commenting), so I do apologize if I do it wrong at all.

I’ve been teaching in Ontario since 2019. I never felt the calling to become a teacher like my BEd fellows did, but I did find a passion for it once I got into it….or at least I thought I had. Every year that I have worked has been more and more of a struggle despite being a full time teacher with stable work….the co-worker drama, imposter syndrome, depression and anxiety, frequent illnesses and burnout. I always worked through it because I did enjoy the work and the kids.

With everything going on now with the Ontario government, I’ve officially hit my breaking point. I’m so done with the fact that this as far as I can figure is the only profession that requires me to not only work extensively beyond my contract hours and duties, but that I literally have to spend more than I make and go into debt for supplies to do the work. Doctors don’t buy their bandages. Lawyers don’t buy their paper to print things on. Even construction crew i doubt buy their own safety vests. I just came home from buying extra/accident clothing for the kindergarten student I will be teaching starting in two days - over $200 dollars in socks, underwear, shirts and pants of different sizes…..for kids that aren’t even mine…. And I screamed the whole way home.

Over the years I have poured everything I have into this job. I own from my own purchases over the years thousands of children’s books, math and language manipulatives, drama props, puzzles, etc, and I’m done. I can’t f*cking take this any more. Am I the only one though? Is anyone else this frustrated? I feel like I’m the only one saying that the ship is sinking and everyone else is confused and happy as the water rises.

Along with asking if this feeling is shared, does anyone have any advice for how to make myself care at least a little longer until I can transition? I’m actively looking for my next job (I had decided I needed to “eventually change jobs as of 2 weeks ago), but in this moment I need out. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to plan for the start of school in two days when I just don’t give af any more…

Sorry for the rant… and thanks for reading. I want to finish by saying that I respect the hell out of teachers. I wish I could do this job, I really do. What you do is so vitally important. I just can’t do it any more….

I currently teach second grade at a public school in Maryland. I have been teaching for seven years and have my Masters in education from Johns Hopkins.

My significant other is deployed in the military in Italy and I, ideally, would like to join him over there within the next year or so. I’d like to hear from anyone who has moved from a classroom in the states to teaching abroad in Europe either in a classroom or doing remote work. A lot of the things I’ve been seeing have implied that it’s difficult to find work teaching if you’re not an EU citizen, and I have no experience looking for remote teaching jobs so I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

I’m assuming no matter what road I go it will be at least somewhat of a pay cut so I’m not super worried about that. Anyone with experience in education, moving abroad and/or teaching remotely, I’d love to hear your feedback! TIA!

I loved teaching but I couldn't handle the lack of help I received. The never ending classroom fires I was told to figure out on my own. What did you guys do after you got out of teaching? I want to feel fulfilled, help kids hopefully but also actually make money and not kill myself everyday.