Reply to Transition from teacher to new career

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "Transition from teacher to new career"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm sure a lot of people will be following. Average "life-span" of a teacher is five years. That says way more about the system than the individual.  [/quote]

I have a mentor of sorts who has been in education for about 40 years, in literally every single role- special education teacher, typical classroom teacher, administrator, counselor. All grade levels as well. She doesn't think the current teaching climate is impossible to adapt to or work under- she thinks there's a mindset that people nowadays have where if a job is ever hard or unsatisfying or difficult, they'll just quit and move on to the next thing. Her position is that any job takes a good 3-6 years to really get your footing, begin to excel at and reap the rewards that you can see after putting in hard work. She doesn't think the current teaching climate is fully to blame for teachers dropping out after a couple years, she thinks it's this instant-gratification mindset that, and I hate to pile on to them, millennials have of "this isn't currently filling my bucket so it's time to move on to something else." 
[/quote]

When I was getting my teaching degree 15 years ago, we were also quoted the statistics that about 50% of teachers leave within the first five years. Burnout was common in this job well before the testing climate got way out of hand. High stakes testing was already around when I first started teaching (NCLB was already underway), but the "increased rigor" took the pressure to new levels. Regardless of that, many burn out in this job for a variety of reasons. [/quote]

Could you list a few reasons why you think? Do you think that statistics is particularly higher in THIS area? The parents here are a special breed, almost TOO involved, and I wonder if that pressure is what does teachers in. I'm still in the student teaching phase, so I admit I am not fully aware of what all teachers deal with day to day, but I just love the teaching part. I love when the kids get it, when they're into it, when they're contributing, when you see it click for them. I love that I get to teach something I'm passionate about. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics