Teaching isn’t for everyone, but leaving teaching is a big decision.
Here are some things to consider first.
The basic pros and cons of quitting your teaching job
- What are the pros that immediately spring to mind about quitting your job?
- What are the cons that immediately spring to mind that might make quitting a bad idea?
Technically, you could stop here.
But you might not want to.
Here’s a video on the five things to consider overall before you make the decision to quit teaching. Below that, you’ll find more specific questions.
A few items to make sure you’ve considered as part of the pro and con lists above
- How would quitting affect your students, especially if this is in the middle of the year?
- How would quitting affect your future career prospects, and is there a way to make sure you don’t do any unnecessary damage here?
- Can you afford to quit your job right now? What is your plan for the upcoming months?
Attributes of your Ideal Job
Time, money, and quality of life
Which of these are the most important to you, and in what areas are you willing to make tradeoffs?
- Financial needs
- Insurance and other benefits
- Hours
- Level of time flexibility
- Commute
- Summers off
How do you want to feel about your job?
- How important is it to feel you are making a positive difference in the world?
- How important is it to you that your job aligns with your personal values?
- How important is it to feel like you are set up to measurably succeed?
- How important is it to be proud to tell people of what you do for a living?
- How much of a challenge do you want your job to be?
- How much day-to-day variety would you like to have vs. how much predictability?
- What would you like to be doing during a typical workday?
- How important is it that your job plays to your strengths?
Social aspects of your job
- What kind of social interactions do you hope to have with coworkers?
- What kind of interactions would you like to have with clients or the public?
- How important is it that the majority of your interactions are pleasant or positive? (I.E. are you okay with a job where you are the bad guy a lot of the time?)
- How much of your social life would you like to be connected to work? Or would you prefer to leave your coworkers at work and socialize elsewhere?
Leadership
- What kind of power dynamic would you like to have with your boss?
- How important is it to agree with your boss about how things are done?
Anything else? Just start writing.
Get all of your concerns down on paper.
If you think you should make a list about something, make that list.
Leaving Teaching vs. Leaving Your School vs. Changing Positions within Your School
- Are there changes you could make within your current position that might be enough of a change?
- Would changing to a different position within your school solve anything?
- Are you interested in teaching at a different school? Or do you just want to get out of teaching?
Could an education-adjacent job be a fit?
Here are some possibilities
- Here are some possibilities to get your brainstorming started
- Tutoring
- University connected
- School District non-instructional
- Non-profit
- Foundation
- Library related
- Museum or cultural institution
- Park district, recreation, or sports
- After school program
- Training in a non-school environment
- Corporate job aligned with education