September 4, 2024 • 32 mins
There is absolutely no shame in coming to the conclusion that you no longer want to teach. However, how one does it is important. Burning bridges by telling your principal how you really feel about her decisions or having removing your filter to talk with a parent is not the way. In this episode, I share with you tips to quit your teaching job the right way.
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Help us spread the message that Teachers Are Leaders - https://bit.ly/3ry8nGQ
Visit our Amazon Store Front and Shop Curated products - https://t.ly/ugE0Q
Check out the latest and trending education news - https://t.ly/Wx328
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As I've researched and interacted with teachers across the country,
what I am discovering is that it is definitely not
uncommon for teachers to decide to leave the profession altogether.
Another interesting thing that I'm finding is that many more
(00:20):
younger teachers, first year teacher, second year teachers, third year
teachers are making the decision to transition into another career.
And because of that, what I want to do with
this episode is I want to want to I want
to give you three tips to transition out of education,
(00:46):
three things that you need to know as you begin
to make your transition out of education. I feel no
I believe in my heart that every teacher should feel value,
they should be respected. I carried that with me as
an administrator. As an administrator, I would always tell teachers
(01:09):
that I take great pride in the fact that I
never ever, ever forgot what it was like to be
a teacher. I was never ashamed. Well, I was never
shy to tell this story that kind of made me
ashamed of myself. When I was a teacher, I almost
lost a friendship with another teacher over a piece of
(01:32):
furniture because both of us had laid claim to a
piece of furniture, and there was almost a falling out
between friends who were teachers over a piece of furniture.
So I'll never ever ever forget what it's like to
be a teacher. And I'll never forget what it was
(01:52):
like to want my administration to respect me, to respect
my time, to allow me to have the time that
I needed to to to be a professional, to plan
my lessons, to to to to work with students, to
(02:13):
to call parents, to to to do my job. That's
what I wanted and I do. It is my prayer
that the teachers that I work with, they they they
get they can give that testament that I was respectful
to them, and I I I didn't. I wasn't in
(02:35):
an ivory tower of administration with without a thought or
without a care of what it was like to be
a teacher. So let's talk about let let's talk about things.
I want to give you these three keys to to
help you, to help you transition. If this is if
this is what you're thinking that that you want to do,
(02:57):
let's let's do it the right way. Let's do it
the right way. So Number one, what I want you
to do is I want you to give yourself time
to think it through. Give yourself some time to think
it through, because you know, our feelings are temporary. We
could be feeling one way at a certain point in time,
(03:17):
but as time goes on, maybe we feel a little
bit different. And that's how that's our emotions work, that's
how our feelings work. So what I want I don't
want you to do is I don't want you to
make a long term decision based on short term feelings.
So understand the thoughts that are running through your mind.
Give it, give it some time, meditate on it, think
about it. Take some time, take a couple of days off.
(03:39):
And that's one thing that I told teachers as well
when I was an administrator. You have time, use it.
Like you had a rough situation here, I think you
need to take a mental health day. Take some time. Yes,
I know tomorrow's Friday. Still go ahead and take your day.
You have time off, use your time off. So well,
(04:00):
that's what I want you to do. I want you
to take some time and think about it. Next up,
I want you and you gotta be careful with this.
I want you to talk to a trusted colleague. Okay,
talk to a colleague about what you're feeling, ask them
to help you navigate through those feelings, through those thoughts,
(04:26):
because again, it could be something that's very temporary, something
that's typical that many teachers they go through. It could
be that dip. For me, it was February. February of
each school year, I hit this, I hit this low
(04:47):
point where I just felt like, Ah, I just feel
like I'm not making a difference, because it's like it's
the same a lot of times. You're challenging your students,
who your students who are challenging students who pull on
your ability to lead a class, manage a class. You know,
sometimes it could just seem like, oh, I'm not getting
(05:08):
anywhere with this student. I'm giving this student my best
stuff and I'm not getting anywhere, and it's just frustrating.
And so I knew that about myself, that when February
came along, I was going to be feeling this kind
of way and I was going to be battling this.
So at the very least I knew that about me.
I knew it was coming. And so if I had
(05:29):
a thought of, oh, maybe I shouldn't do this anymore,
I knew that this is just temporary. Maybe take a
day or two off, which I wasn't shy about doing,
and then get your thoughts together, process things correctly, and
then get back at it. So, yeah, talk to trusted
colleagues because one thing that I missed about being when
(05:51):
I was an administrator, one thing I missed about being
a teacher is that teachers support teachers. I love getting
in that circle during passing time with the rest of
my fellow teachers. I love, you know, we talked about
a number of things and we supported each other and
I love that. Now with that, talking to a trusted colleague,
you need to understand who you can talk to because
(06:12):
teachers support teachers, but there are those teachers who also
talk about teachers, and you need to know. You need
to know the difference. You need to know people. You
need to know who's not going to if you tell
them something, they're not gonna run and put your business
out there, and then the rest of the school knows,
and you know, eventually it gets back to your administrator.
(06:32):
You just don't you don't want that. So you need
to find a trust a colleague that you can talk to,
bounce ideas off, and they're gonna it's gonna be a
safe space most times. Your your department leader is going
to be a good person for that because they are
They've been tapped as a leader for a reason, because
(06:53):
they've they've been trusted by the rest of the teachers. So, yeah,
you want to you want to talk that through, talk
that through with someone. Now, if you can't find anyone
in your building, you perhaps perhaps you can go to
another teacher from another building, or maybe an online community
and anonymously just post your thoughts and get some feedback.
(07:16):
So there's a number of ways that you can that
you can do that, get some advice, allow someone to
speak into your life and give you some feedback. But
you definitely want to do that. You want to give
yourself time to really think it through, like is this
what I really want to do or is this something temporary?
(07:38):
All right? So the other thing along with that giving
yourself time to think it through is I want you
to be certain that this is what you want. I
want you to be certain that this is what you want.
I remember when I was a first year teacher, I
would worry about things that were just out of my control,
things that are out of my control and what I
realize is that just that just took a way a
(08:00):
lot of my energy. I took away a lot of
my energy, and so there were times when I wasn't
able to give my students the very best because I
was worried about things that were not within my control.
Like I can't, I don't. I have no control over
what happens once the student leaves my classroom, once they
(08:21):
go home, I'm giving them my best stuff, my best advice,
I'm motivating them, I'm working hard. But once they leave
my class I have no control over that. And that
is that is frustrating because oftentimes I felt myself, I
like I'm turning the corner with this student. I mean,
I'm giving them my very best stuff. This is good stuff,
the students actually thinking about their decision making. But then
(08:45):
once they leave, they that my words and my influence
and my motivation just kind of kind of wears off
a little bit. And that's just natural. But I have
no control over that. So you need to be certain
that this is what you want. So do not worry
(09:06):
about things that you can't control. You know, sometimes you're
gonna have traumatic things that happens, such as maybe a
fight that happens in your classroom. That's traumatic. That's traumatic,
and so you need to give yourself time, give yourself
permission to take some time away from that. Or maybe
(09:27):
it was a it was a situation with a parent
and the parent was just completely out of line and
they were just unloading on you because they're frustrated with
their inability to correct their child and they're unloading on you.
And that's not cool either, And so you need to
take time to really think that through, to make sure
(09:52):
because you don't want to you don't want you don't
want to leave. You don't want to leave this. You
don't want to leave this, this commitments. You don't want
to leave this service because of because of one incident
with a parent, Because as time goes on, you're gonna
you're gonna you're gonna realize that you know what this is.
(10:17):
This is not such a big deal that that would
require me to leave this service. I love doing what
I'm doing. Yes, we had an isolated incident with a parent.
We worked through it. Principle was very supportive. I can
put this in the rear view mirror and I can continue.
I can continue leading my classroom. Okay, and you know what,
(10:39):
ladies and gentlemen, there are just those other things we
can't control. We can't control what admin is gonna do
for PD. Okay, you know, sadly, yeah, a lot of
it is it's gonna be at times that are not
convenient for you when you have other things that you
could be doing. I got papers, grade parents to call,
(11:02):
lessons to plan. You know that that's always going to
be the case. And you know, amazingly, when you think
about it, it's just amazing that with these distractions us
as teachers were able to get the job done. We're
able to do an excellent job. So hats off to
you if you really think about that. With there's just
(11:25):
a ton of distractions. I gotta you know, I gotta,
I gotta spend some of my planning time to go
to this IEP meeting. A parent wants to come in
for an in person meeting. They said, no, I don't
want to do virtual I want to come in for
an in person meeting. Oh I got this, got this
PD that's been on the books for months, and then
when I go in it it appears that the administrator
(11:49):
didn't fully plan things out. It's just a bunch of
sit and get so those distractions, we navigate those distractions,
were able to still do a great job. So again,
kudos to you. Give yourselves a round of applause that
you're able to do that. That just that just hit me.
That isn't even in my notes, but it's just amazing
(12:11):
what you're able to do. And the other part of that,
when we talk about the distractions and things that we
can't control, you know students, you know, times have changed,
Times have changed, and when we talk about student behavior, yeah,
(12:31):
student behavior is largely it's a deciding factor for many
teachers and in terms of why they either leave the
profession or they're thinking about leaving the profession. It's just
it's a it's a different world that we live in,
ladies and gentlemen, it really is. And I I remember
(12:57):
I had trouble under standing parents and where they were
coming from. And then I made up my mind that
I was gonna check myself and remind myself that hey, Marvin,
you haven't raised the teenager. You have not done that,
So don't judge this parent too harshly here even though
(13:18):
this student is just really really pulling on your energy
and perhaps distracting your trying to distract your class or
not doing what they need to do in class. You know, yes,
that can be frustrating, but it's just really interesting because
(13:38):
now I have children. They're about to be ten years
old in December, and still I go back and I
think about some of the things decisions made by parents,
and I just like, I come back and I start
to think, you know what, I was right. I was
righting my judgment of that parent. I mean, you know,
perhaps you you, perhaps you should with hold some privileges
(14:02):
and benefits from your children if they're not doing what
they're supposed to do in school. No, I'm not crazy.
I'm not crazy. You should do that as parents, And
you know, let me not go let me not go
down that road. I don't. This is not about We're
not talking about parents and what they could do to
help us in the classroom as teachers. So we have
(14:23):
no control over those things. So I want you, I
want you to keep that in mind as you give
yourself time to really think it through. We don't have
control over those things, but we can still we can
still navigate those things. We can still deal with those
things and be excellent teachers. You can do that, So
I want you that's number one. I want you to
(14:45):
give yourself time to think it through, all right. Number two,
when we talk about how to if you want to
leave the teaching profession, this is my second tip to
help you do it the right way. Number two, I
want you to plan your exit strategy. Plan your exit strategy,
ladies and gentlemen, And this is what I mean by this.
(15:09):
I want you to do it professionally. Okay, there is
you know this past year, twenty three to twenty four
school year that was that was my last years as
an administrator. I'm taking some time off and I'll get
into that a little in another in another video, but
(15:33):
I'm taking some time off. So this school year is
going on and I'm not a part of it, and
it's just really crazy because I have moments. I have
thoughts in my mind where I'll check the clock, Like
right now, as I'm recording this, it's ten thirty nine
in the morning. The bell is going to ring in
four minutes, and four minutes lunch is going to begin.
(15:56):
I know that, like lunch is gonna go begin, and
I'm gonna have to go to my duty. As a
matter of fact, what i'd be doing now is, I'd
be grabbing a microphone, and I'd be the MC. During lunch,
there's kind of greeting students, letting them know, hey, here's
what's for lunch, giving them some announcements about what's happening
on campus after school. Anyways, it feels really good when
(16:22):
you do this the right way and you make the
decision you're about to go out. It feels good because
then you know it's just all about you can just
really really focus in on serving others. And I really
really enjoyed that when I made my decision. Okay, I'm
(16:42):
not coming back, so let me maximize the time that
I have with these individuals, my colleagues who I'm working with,
the students who I'm serving. Let want I want to
leave them with a smile. Let me give them the
best possible service. Oh gosh, I feel so good. That
feel so good. So okay, let's get back to number two.
(17:04):
You want to plan your exit strategy. It feels good
when you're when you when you made your decision and
you're at peace with it, because then you can really
go in with people. So you want to do it professionally.
Ladies and gentlemen. And here's what I mean by that.
I want you to write a letter of resignation, write
a letter, a formal letter of resignation. And then I
(17:24):
want you to I want you to make sure that
you you're you're thankful for the opportunity, like in this letter,
you express your gratitude, lots of gratitude, ladies and gentlemen.
And then what I want you to do is, I
want you to make sure that you you maintain positive
relationships throughout the remainder of that year. When you make
(17:47):
the decision that you're going to leave, also, I want
you to I want you to do make sure that
you make this decision in a timely manner. So what
because what you don't want to do is you don't
want to leave the school in a buying where they're
struggling and they're shuffling to try to find a teacher.
(18:09):
You don't want to do it two weeks before the
school year is supposed to begin. That's why I've told
you in the first tip, I want you to give
yourself time to really think it through and just you
need to meditate and be it intentional about that time
prior to when your contract is due, so that the
(18:29):
school can they have enough time to find a good
candidate to take over your position. Of course they're not
going to be as good as you, but still give
the school some time to take over, to do a
nice search to find someone who's going to take over
your position, so professionally or professional or writing a letter
(18:52):
of resignation. Overall theme in that letter gratitude as you're
going maintain those positive relationship. That's what I really enjoyed
after I made my decision that I wasn't coming back
for the twenty four to twenty five school year. Now
it's just about, Hey, I want to spend some time
with you. I want to you know, let's let's what
(19:14):
can I do for you during the remainder of my
time here? What can I do for you? What can
I tell the next person about you and your needs? YadA,
YadA YadA. That's that's what it was all about. So
you maintain those positive relationships and leave people with a smile, Like,
leave them with a smile, leave them missing you and
(19:35):
wanting you to come back. And then oh, also, I
want you to make yourself available for an exit interview.
Make yourself available for an exit interview. Now, it may
not happen. It may not happen. I think it absolutely
should happen whenever a teacher leaves, leaves the profession or
decides to go to another another school building. I believe
(19:59):
that's just meory that administration requests an exit interview to
get feedback from the teacher. Like, I don't know, I
don't know why that doesn't happen very often. It feels
like it doesn't happen very often, but within my bubble.
But I think that that's something that's mandatory. You need
(20:21):
to have that information, You need to have that feedback.
That's valuable feedback from someone who is leaving. All right,
So underplan when we talk about planning your exit strategy,
what I want you to do as well as I
want you to count the cost, and what I mean
by that is I want you to consult your consult
a financial planner or at the very least review your budget.
(20:45):
Because what I want you to do is I want
you to know and be sure of, Okay, this is
this is what my life looks like now with this
with X amount of money as a teacher, and I'm
going to need this amount of money in order to
at least maintain my lifestyle, because I also want you
to remember that, you know, it's with summers we have
(21:09):
a little bit more flexibility. You know, even if we
do teach summer school, you still have a little bit
of extra flexibility. And I can I can imagine that
if I was a new teacher now, I would probably yeah,
I would probably do summer school. Even though I salute
(21:30):
to all of you who are still doing summer school.
I salute you, thank you so much for your service.
I appreciate you for doing summer school. But yeah, if
I was a new teacher, I would do summer school,
and I would probably be doing some gigs as well,
because we have to you know, we have to. We
have to we have to account for inflation as well,
(21:52):
and so I can just only imagine how that affects
a new teacher single. So yeah, that's what I would
probably be doing. So when I say, you know, count
the costs, I want you to consider that, I want
you to consider potentially losing that flexibility to do gigs
(22:12):
for a few weeks during during the summer. So just
it's just it's a wise thing to do. Ladies and gentlemen,
It's a wise thing to do. At the very least,
if you don't want to get a financial planner, at
the very least, just review your budgets so that you
know what kind of situation you financial, what what kind
(22:35):
of financial requirements you have before you just go into
a new profession. Now, if you can get something that's
going to pay you significantly more than there, you go.
So you're good there. But I want you to I
want you to be wise about this. I don't I
just I don't want you to make this, make this
decision just quickly, just with with just a lot of emotion.
(22:59):
I want you to be very thoughtful in everything that
you do. Because remember the title of this podcast, Teachers
are leaders. Teachers teachers are leaders. That's what we believe
here the Marvin Bird Show. The teachers are leaders. So
you definitely you lead your classroom, but you also have
(23:20):
to lead yourself as well. Now, so that's two. Third one.
The third one this is this is this is very important.
Number three. I want you to I want you to,
oh before I share with you the third one. What
I do want I want to share with you is this.
(23:40):
And I'm going to give you the link to this
post I made a post. You know there when you
go into an interview. Let's say you do decide to
leave teaching. You go into the interview, one of the
first things that you're going to be asked is, so, hey,
tell us why you're leaving the classroom. I made a
post on marvinbird dot com. The short, simple blog post
(24:01):
won't take you very long to get through this title
five things to tell potential new employers about why you
left teaching. So it's very, very simple. And I think
that if you have something, if you have a strong
statement to give that employer, that's going to help the
(24:22):
rest of the interview flow very well. And I'll be honest,
let me tell you this right off the bat. You know,
telling them that you want more money, that's not good.
You don't want to do that. You don't want to
so tell us why you left teaching. Well, I wanted
to make more money. Don't do that, Ladies and gentlemen,
don't do that. So I encourage you. Link is in
the description section. Go check out that blog post. It'll
(24:45):
take you ninety seconds to read. Ninety seconds of your time.
That's Marvinbird dot com. It's a blog post. Link is
in the description section. All right, let's get to number three.
This is the third and last tip to help you
leave the teaching profession the right way. So number three
(25:06):
is you want to go out on top. Go out
on top. And I spoke about it a little bit
earlier when we talk about going out on top. You
want to go out on top because you want people
to You want people to wish that things were different, that, Oh,
I wish you could come back next year. I wish
(25:26):
things were different. I'm really going to miss you. I
hope the next person is just like you, and I
want you to remember too that yes, they're there, They're
They're definitely challenges in education. There are definitely challenges that
we as teachers face and a lot of these challenges
they're not going to go away, and it's going to
(25:48):
feel like we're not supported. And a lot of times
it feels that way because administration they just they don't
have the answers themselves. They're struggling. They're struggling. But I
want to remind you that there are kids in your
class who are listening and who do want to learn.
(26:12):
And so my challenge to you is, if this is
what you desire to do you desire to leave teaching.
No judgment against you for that, but my challenge to
you is to continue to give those kids your very best,
because ultimately the year is coming to an end. And
(26:33):
I've been there. I've been there numerous times where it's
just just felt like the years dragging on, I just
wasn't feeling it. I was feeling frustrated. Felt like there
were times where when I did feel like, man, I'm
just not making a difference because I'm looking at these
few students who I'm just really trying to turn around
(26:57):
their decision making because I know what happens. I know
what happens if they continue on on that path, and
and it it frustrates me for them, And you know,
just ultimately I had to get to a point where
I had to remind myself that hey, I can't if
I care more than them, I'm going to burn myself
(27:18):
out and I'm not going to be any good to
the rest of the students. And that is really that
thinking is really what helped me my last five years
of teaching. That that helped me get through at last
five years of teaching, or else I probably would have
been wanting to do something else. So the year is
(27:39):
the year is coming to an end. So I want
you to go out on top, give it your best.
Let everyone see that you have. You've Even though you've
made this decision, you're still you're You're giving it your best.
You're still doing your doing your PD, You're still trying
different things, you still are trying to grow as an educator.
(28:01):
Even though your time as an educator is coming to
an end, you are leaving. You're leaving everyone with a smile,
and you're leaving the profession with no regrets. You can
look back and say, you know what, whoo, Johnny drove
me crazy sometimes, but you got the very best of me.
(28:23):
So I have no regrets when I look back on
my time working with Johnny servant. Johnny gave Johnny my
very best. So keep that in mind. You can you
can be unhappy. You can be unhappy and do and
do an excellent job on your way out the door.
(28:45):
It's it's it's possible. It is it is definitely possible,
and and this and and why is that possible? It's
possible because you understand your personal mission. This is why,
this is why we you know, as administrators, we talk
about the why in the PD sessions, and I really
(29:08):
do feel you know, we talk about that here with
this podcast because I think it isn't it is very
important because that's going to help propel you when things
get tough. When you understand your why, your why, it's
it's still it still stands, It's still relevant no matter
(29:33):
what is what is going on to serve your students.
That's always important. Even though you're frustrated with administration. Even
though you may have a few students who are just
really really making it tough and and they're pulling on
a lot of your attention, they're there are still a
(29:53):
lot of a lot of students to be served. Your why,
that mission statement is still relevant. There's still a job
to be done right in front of you. So even
though you're leaving, I want you to go out on top,
never losing sight of that mission statement, never losing sight
(30:14):
of your why, and with each and every day remaining
that you have as a teacher, really living pushing yourself
to live up to that mission statement, to honor your why,
(30:35):
because again, they're still those kids in your classroom and
they deserve nothing but the very best from you because
they only have so much time with you as their teacher.
That time is it's ultimately coming to an end. So
(30:59):
my challenge to you is, I want you to go
out on top and you give it your very very best,
because when you look back, you're not gonna have any regrets. Well,
thank you so much again. To those of you who
are thinking you're you're you're thinking about thinking about doing
(31:19):
something different, definitely I pray for you, no judgment towards
you at all. You've got it. You've got to take
care of yourself. You gotta take care of yourself so
that you can take care of others. But I would imagine,
I submit to you that if you go through those steps,
you're gonna be in a You're gonna be in a
(31:41):
better place. Once you've made that decision, or after thinking
about it, you may decide that that's not exactly what
you want to do, and that's okay as well. So
thank you so much for your time here. Thank you
so much. I appreciate you. Don't forget to check out
the link in the description section that's gonna give you
some value as well. Those some power statements that you
(32:03):
can tell your potential new employer about why you left
teaching and also don't forget to check out our other
YouTube channel, Birdlinks for the latest and trending news in education.
So once again, thank you so much for your time,
and until we meet again, please don't forget that teachers
are leaders.
As I've researched and interacted with teachers across the country,
what I am discovering is that it is definitely not
uncommon for teachers to decide to leave the profession altogether.
Another interesting thing that I'm finding is that many more
(00:20):
younger teachers, first year teacher, second year teachers, third year
teachers are making the decision to transition into another career.
And because of that, what I want to do with
this episode is I want to want to I want
to give you three tips to transition out of education,
(00:46):
three things that you need to know as you begin
to make your transition out of education. I feel no
I believe in my heart that every teacher should feel value,
they should be respected. I carried that with me as
an administrator. As an administrator, I would always tell teachers
(01:09):
that I take great pride in the fact that I
never ever, ever forgot what it was like to be
a teacher. I was never ashamed. Well, I was never
shy to tell this story that kind of made me
ashamed of myself. When I was a teacher, I almost
lost a friendship with another teacher over a piece of
(01:32):
furniture because both of us had laid claim to a
piece of furniture, and there was almost a falling out
between friends who were teachers over a piece of furniture.
So I'll never ever ever forget what it's like to
be a teacher. And I'll never forget what it was
(01:52):
like to want my administration to respect me, to respect
my time, to allow me to have the time that
I needed to to to be a professional, to plan
my lessons, to to to to work with students, to
(02:13):
to call parents, to to to do my job. That's
what I wanted and I do. It is my prayer
that the teachers that I work with, they they they
get they can give that testament that I was respectful
to them, and I I I didn't. I wasn't in
(02:35):
an ivory tower of administration with without a thought or
without a care of what it was like to be
a teacher. So let's talk about let let's talk about things.
I want to give you these three keys to to
help you, to help you transition. If this is if
this is what you're thinking that that you want to do,
(02:57):
let's let's do it the right way. Let's do it
the right way. So Number one, what I want you
to do is I want you to give yourself time
to think it through. Give yourself some time to think
it through, because you know, our feelings are temporary. We
could be feeling one way at a certain point in time,
(03:17):
but as time goes on, maybe we feel a little
bit different. And that's how that's our emotions work, that's
how our feelings work. So what I want I don't
want you to do is I don't want you to
make a long term decision based on short term feelings.
So understand the thoughts that are running through your mind.
Give it, give it some time, meditate on it, think
about it. Take some time, take a couple of days off.
(03:39):
And that's one thing that I told teachers as well
when I was an administrator. You have time, use it.
Like you had a rough situation here, I think you
need to take a mental health day. Take some time. Yes,
I know tomorrow's Friday. Still go ahead and take your day.
You have time off, use your time off. So well,
(04:00):
that's what I want you to do. I want you
to take some time and think about it. Next up,
I want you and you gotta be careful with this.
I want you to talk to a trusted colleague. Okay,
talk to a colleague about what you're feeling, ask them
to help you navigate through those feelings, through those thoughts,
(04:26):
because again, it could be something that's very temporary, something
that's typical that many teachers they go through. It could
be that dip. For me, it was February. February of
each school year, I hit this, I hit this low
(04:47):
point where I just felt like, Ah, I just feel
like I'm not making a difference, because it's like it's
the same a lot of times. You're challenging your students,
who your students who are challenging students who pull on
your ability to lead a class, manage a class. You know,
sometimes it could just seem like, oh, I'm not getting
(05:08):
anywhere with this student. I'm giving this student my best
stuff and I'm not getting anywhere, and it's just frustrating.
And so I knew that about myself, that when February
came along, I was going to be feeling this kind
of way and I was going to be battling this.
So at the very least I knew that about me.
I knew it was coming. And so if I had
(05:29):
a thought of, oh, maybe I shouldn't do this anymore,
I knew that this is just temporary. Maybe take a
day or two off, which I wasn't shy about doing,
and then get your thoughts together, process things correctly, and
then get back at it. So, yeah, talk to trusted
colleagues because one thing that I missed about being when
(05:51):
I was an administrator, one thing I missed about being
a teacher is that teachers support teachers. I love getting
in that circle during passing time with the rest of
my fellow teachers. I love, you know, we talked about
a number of things and we supported each other and
I love that. Now with that, talking to a trusted colleague,
you need to understand who you can talk to because
(06:12):
teachers support teachers, but there are those teachers who also
talk about teachers, and you need to know. You need
to know the difference. You need to know people. You
need to know who's not going to if you tell
them something, they're not gonna run and put your business
out there, and then the rest of the school knows,
and you know, eventually it gets back to your administrator.
(06:32):
You just don't you don't want that. So you need
to find a trust a colleague that you can talk to,
bounce ideas off, and they're gonna it's gonna be a
safe space most times. Your your department leader is going
to be a good person for that because they are
They've been tapped as a leader for a reason, because
(06:53):
they've they've been trusted by the rest of the teachers. So, yeah,
you want to you want to talk that through, talk
that through with someone. Now, if you can't find anyone
in your building, you perhaps perhaps you can go to
another teacher from another building, or maybe an online community
and anonymously just post your thoughts and get some feedback.
(07:16):
So there's a number of ways that you can that
you can do that, get some advice, allow someone to
speak into your life and give you some feedback. But
you definitely want to do that. You want to give
yourself time to really think it through, like is this
what I really want to do or is this something temporary?
(07:38):
All right? So the other thing along with that giving
yourself time to think it through is I want you
to be certain that this is what you want. I
want you to be certain that this is what you want.
I remember when I was a first year teacher, I
would worry about things that were just out of my control,
things that are out of my control and what I
realize is that just that just took a way a
(08:00):
lot of my energy. I took away a lot of
my energy, and so there were times when I wasn't
able to give my students the very best because I
was worried about things that were not within my control.
Like I can't, I don't. I have no control over
what happens once the student leaves my classroom, once they
(08:21):
go home, I'm giving them my best stuff, my best advice,
I'm motivating them, I'm working hard. But once they leave
my class I have no control over that. And that
is that is frustrating because oftentimes I felt myself, I
like I'm turning the corner with this student. I mean,
I'm giving them my very best stuff. This is good stuff,
the students actually thinking about their decision making. But then
(08:45):
once they leave, they that my words and my influence
and my motivation just kind of kind of wears off
a little bit. And that's just natural. But I have
no control over that. So you need to be certain
that this is what you want. So do not worry
(09:06):
about things that you can't control. You know, sometimes you're
gonna have traumatic things that happens, such as maybe a
fight that happens in your classroom. That's traumatic. That's traumatic,
and so you need to give yourself time, give yourself
permission to take some time away from that. Or maybe
(09:27):
it was a it was a situation with a parent
and the parent was just completely out of line and
they were just unloading on you because they're frustrated with
their inability to correct their child and they're unloading on you.
And that's not cool either, And so you need to
take time to really think that through, to make sure
(09:52):
because you don't want to you don't want you don't
want to leave. You don't want to leave this. You
don't want to leave this, this commitments. You don't want
to leave this service because of because of one incident
with a parent, Because as time goes on, you're gonna
you're gonna you're gonna realize that you know what this is.
(10:17):
This is not such a big deal that that would
require me to leave this service. I love doing what
I'm doing. Yes, we had an isolated incident with a parent.
We worked through it. Principle was very supportive. I can
put this in the rear view mirror and I can continue.
I can continue leading my classroom. Okay, and you know what,
(10:39):
ladies and gentlemen, there are just those other things we
can't control. We can't control what admin is gonna do
for PD. Okay, you know, sadly, yeah, a lot of
it is it's gonna be at times that are not
convenient for you when you have other things that you
could be doing. I got papers, grade parents to call,
(11:02):
lessons to plan. You know that that's always going to
be the case. And you know, amazingly, when you think
about it, it's just amazing that with these distractions us
as teachers were able to get the job done. We're
able to do an excellent job. So hats off to
you if you really think about that. With there's just
(11:25):
a ton of distractions. I gotta you know, I gotta,
I gotta spend some of my planning time to go
to this IEP meeting. A parent wants to come in
for an in person meeting. They said, no, I don't
want to do virtual I want to come in for
an in person meeting. Oh I got this, got this
PD that's been on the books for months, and then
when I go in it it appears that the administrator
(11:49):
didn't fully plan things out. It's just a bunch of
sit and get so those distractions, we navigate those distractions,
were able to still do a great job. So again,
kudos to you. Give yourselves a round of applause that
you're able to do that. That just that just hit me.
That isn't even in my notes, but it's just amazing
(12:11):
what you're able to do. And the other part of that,
when we talk about the distractions and things that we
can't control, you know students, you know, times have changed,
Times have changed, and when we talk about student behavior, yeah,
(12:31):
student behavior is largely it's a deciding factor for many
teachers and in terms of why they either leave the
profession or they're thinking about leaving the profession. It's just
it's a it's a different world that we live in,
ladies and gentlemen, it really is. And I I remember
(12:57):
I had trouble under standing parents and where they were
coming from. And then I made up my mind that
I was gonna check myself and remind myself that hey, Marvin,
you haven't raised the teenager. You have not done that,
So don't judge this parent too harshly here even though
(13:18):
this student is just really really pulling on your energy
and perhaps distracting your trying to distract your class or
not doing what they need to do in class. You know, yes,
that can be frustrating, but it's just really interesting because
(13:38):
now I have children. They're about to be ten years
old in December, and still I go back and I
think about some of the things decisions made by parents,
and I just like, I come back and I start
to think, you know what, I was right. I was
righting my judgment of that parent. I mean, you know,
perhaps you you, perhaps you should with hold some privileges
(14:02):
and benefits from your children if they're not doing what
they're supposed to do in school. No, I'm not crazy.
I'm not crazy. You should do that as parents, And
you know, let me not go let me not go
down that road. I don't. This is not about We're
not talking about parents and what they could do to
help us in the classroom as teachers. So we have
(14:23):
no control over those things. So I want you, I
want you to keep that in mind as you give
yourself time to really think it through. We don't have
control over those things, but we can still we can
still navigate those things. We can still deal with those
things and be excellent teachers. You can do that, So
I want you that's number one. I want you to
(14:45):
give yourself time to think it through, all right. Number two,
when we talk about how to if you want to
leave the teaching profession, this is my second tip to
help you do it the right way. Number two, I
want you to plan your exit strategy. Plan your exit strategy,
ladies and gentlemen, And this is what I mean by this.
(15:09):
I want you to do it professionally. Okay, there is
you know this past year, twenty three to twenty four
school year that was that was my last years as
an administrator. I'm taking some time off and I'll get
into that a little in another in another video, but
(15:33):
I'm taking some time off. So this school year is
going on and I'm not a part of it, and
it's just really crazy because I have moments. I have
thoughts in my mind where I'll check the clock, Like
right now, as I'm recording this, it's ten thirty nine
in the morning. The bell is going to ring in
four minutes, and four minutes lunch is going to begin.
(15:56):
I know that, like lunch is gonna go begin, and
I'm gonna have to go to my duty. As a
matter of fact, what i'd be doing now is, I'd
be grabbing a microphone, and I'd be the MC. During lunch,
there's kind of greeting students, letting them know, hey, here's
what's for lunch, giving them some announcements about what's happening
on campus after school. Anyways, it feels really good when
(16:22):
you do this the right way and you make the
decision you're about to go out. It feels good because
then you know it's just all about you can just
really really focus in on serving others. And I really
really enjoyed that when I made my decision. Okay, I'm
(16:42):
not coming back, so let me maximize the time that
I have with these individuals, my colleagues who I'm working with,
the students who I'm serving. Let want I want to
leave them with a smile. Let me give them the
best possible service. Oh gosh, I feel so good. That
feel so good. So okay, let's get back to number two.
(17:04):
You want to plan your exit strategy. It feels good
when you're when you when you made your decision and
you're at peace with it, because then you can really
go in with people. So you want to do it professionally.
Ladies and gentlemen. And here's what I mean by that.
I want you to write a letter of resignation, write
a letter, a formal letter of resignation. And then I
(17:24):
want you to I want you to make sure that
you you're you're thankful for the opportunity, like in this letter,
you express your gratitude, lots of gratitude, ladies and gentlemen.
And then what I want you to do is, I
want you to make sure that you you maintain positive
relationships throughout the remainder of that year. When you make
(17:47):
the decision that you're going to leave, also, I want
you to I want you to do make sure that
you make this decision in a timely manner. So what
because what you don't want to do is you don't
want to leave the school in a buying where they're
struggling and they're shuffling to try to find a teacher.
(18:09):
You don't want to do it two weeks before the
school year is supposed to begin. That's why I've told
you in the first tip, I want you to give
yourself time to really think it through and just you
need to meditate and be it intentional about that time
prior to when your contract is due, so that the
(18:29):
school can they have enough time to find a good
candidate to take over your position. Of course they're not
going to be as good as you, but still give
the school some time to take over, to do a
nice search to find someone who's going to take over
your position, so professionally or professional or writing a letter
(18:52):
of resignation. Overall theme in that letter gratitude as you're
going maintain those positive relationship. That's what I really enjoyed
after I made my decision that I wasn't coming back
for the twenty four to twenty five school year. Now
it's just about, Hey, I want to spend some time
with you. I want to you know, let's let's what
(19:14):
can I do for you during the remainder of my
time here? What can I do for you? What can
I tell the next person about you and your needs? YadA,
YadA YadA. That's that's what it was all about. So
you maintain those positive relationships and leave people with a smile, Like,
leave them with a smile, leave them missing you and
(19:35):
wanting you to come back. And then oh, also, I
want you to make yourself available for an exit interview.
Make yourself available for an exit interview. Now, it may
not happen. It may not happen. I think it absolutely
should happen whenever a teacher leaves, leaves the profession or
decides to go to another another school building. I believe
(19:59):
that's just meory that administration requests an exit interview to
get feedback from the teacher. Like, I don't know, I
don't know why that doesn't happen very often. It feels
like it doesn't happen very often, but within my bubble.
But I think that that's something that's mandatory. You need
(20:21):
to have that information, You need to have that feedback.
That's valuable feedback from someone who is leaving. All right,
So underplan when we talk about planning your exit strategy,
what I want you to do as well as I
want you to count the cost, and what I mean
by that is I want you to consult your consult
a financial planner or at the very least review your budget.
(20:45):
Because what I want you to do is I want
you to know and be sure of, Okay, this is
this is what my life looks like now with this
with X amount of money as a teacher, and I'm
going to need this amount of money in order to
at least maintain my lifestyle, because I also want you
to remember that, you know, it's with summers we have
(21:09):
a little bit more flexibility. You know, even if we
do teach summer school, you still have a little bit
of extra flexibility. And I can I can imagine that
if I was a new teacher now, I would probably yeah,
I would probably do summer school. Even though I salute
(21:30):
to all of you who are still doing summer school.
I salute you, thank you so much for your service.
I appreciate you for doing summer school. But yeah, if
I was a new teacher, I would do summer school,
and I would probably be doing some gigs as well,
because we have to you know, we have to. We
have to we have to account for inflation as well,
(21:52):
and so I can just only imagine how that affects
a new teacher single. So yeah, that's what I would
probably be doing. So when I say, you know, count
the costs, I want you to consider that, I want
you to consider potentially losing that flexibility to do gigs
(22:12):
for a few weeks during during the summer. So just
it's just it's a wise thing to do. Ladies and gentlemen,
It's a wise thing to do. At the very least,
if you don't want to get a financial planner, at
the very least, just review your budgets so that you
know what kind of situation you financial, what what kind
(22:35):
of financial requirements you have before you just go into
a new profession. Now, if you can get something that's
going to pay you significantly more than there, you go.
So you're good there. But I want you to I
want you to be wise about this. I don't I
just I don't want you to make this, make this
decision just quickly, just with with just a lot of emotion.
(22:59):
I want you to be very thoughtful in everything that
you do. Because remember the title of this podcast, Teachers
are leaders. Teachers teachers are leaders. That's what we believe
here the Marvin Bird Show. The teachers are leaders. So
you definitely you lead your classroom, but you also have
(23:20):
to lead yourself as well. Now, so that's two. Third one.
The third one this is this is this is very important.
Number three. I want you to I want you to,
oh before I share with you the third one. What
I do want I want to share with you is this.
(23:40):
And I'm going to give you the link to this
post I made a post. You know there when you
go into an interview. Let's say you do decide to
leave teaching. You go into the interview, one of the
first things that you're going to be asked is, so, hey,
tell us why you're leaving the classroom. I made a
post on marvinbird dot com. The short, simple blog post
(24:01):
won't take you very long to get through this title
five things to tell potential new employers about why you
left teaching. So it's very, very simple. And I think
that if you have something, if you have a strong
statement to give that employer, that's going to help the
(24:22):
rest of the interview flow very well. And I'll be honest,
let me tell you this right off the bat. You know,
telling them that you want more money, that's not good.
You don't want to do that. You don't want to
so tell us why you left teaching. Well, I wanted
to make more money. Don't do that, Ladies and gentlemen,
don't do that. So I encourage you. Link is in
the description section. Go check out that blog post. It'll
(24:45):
take you ninety seconds to read. Ninety seconds of your time.
That's Marvinbird dot com. It's a blog post. Link is
in the description section. All right, let's get to number three.
This is the third and last tip to help you
leave the teaching profession the right way. So number three
(25:06):
is you want to go out on top. Go out
on top. And I spoke about it a little bit
earlier when we talk about going out on top. You
want to go out on top because you want people
to You want people to wish that things were different, that, Oh,
I wish you could come back next year. I wish
(25:26):
things were different. I'm really going to miss you. I
hope the next person is just like you, and I
want you to remember too that yes, they're there, They're
They're definitely challenges in education. There are definitely challenges that
we as teachers face and a lot of these challenges
they're not going to go away, and it's going to
(25:48):
feel like we're not supported. And a lot of times
it feels that way because administration they just they don't
have the answers themselves. They're struggling. They're struggling. But I
want to remind you that there are kids in your
class who are listening and who do want to learn.
(26:12):
And so my challenge to you is, if this is
what you desire to do you desire to leave teaching.
No judgment against you for that, but my challenge to
you is to continue to give those kids your very best,
because ultimately the year is coming to an end. And
(26:33):
I've been there. I've been there numerous times where it's
just just felt like the years dragging on, I just
wasn't feeling it. I was feeling frustrated. Felt like there
were times where when I did feel like, man, I'm
just not making a difference because I'm looking at these
few students who I'm just really trying to turn around
(26:57):
their decision making because I know what happens. I know
what happens if they continue on on that path, and
and it it frustrates me for them, And you know,
just ultimately I had to get to a point where
I had to remind myself that hey, I can't if
I care more than them, I'm going to burn myself
(27:18):
out and I'm not going to be any good to
the rest of the students. And that is really that
thinking is really what helped me my last five years
of teaching. That that helped me get through at last
five years of teaching, or else I probably would have
been wanting to do something else. So the year is
(27:39):
the year is coming to an end. So I want
you to go out on top, give it your best.
Let everyone see that you have. You've Even though you've
made this decision, you're still you're You're giving it your best.
You're still doing your doing your PD, You're still trying
different things, you still are trying to grow as an educator.
(28:01):
Even though your time as an educator is coming to
an end, you are leaving. You're leaving everyone with a smile,
and you're leaving the profession with no regrets. You can
look back and say, you know what, whoo, Johnny drove
me crazy sometimes, but you got the very best of me.
(28:23):
So I have no regrets when I look back on
my time working with Johnny servant. Johnny gave Johnny my
very best. So keep that in mind. You can you
can be unhappy. You can be unhappy and do and
do an excellent job on your way out the door.
(28:45):
It's it's it's possible. It is it is definitely possible,
and and this and and why is that possible? It's
possible because you understand your personal mission. This is why,
this is why we you know, as administrators, we talk
about the why in the PD sessions, and I really
(29:08):
do feel you know, we talk about that here with
this podcast because I think it isn't it is very
important because that's going to help propel you when things
get tough. When you understand your why, your why, it's
it's still it still stands, It's still relevant no matter
(29:33):
what is what is going on to serve your students.
That's always important. Even though you're frustrated with administration. Even
though you may have a few students who are just
really really making it tough and and they're pulling on
a lot of your attention, they're there are still a
(29:53):
lot of a lot of students to be served. Your why,
that mission statement is still relevant. There's still a job
to be done right in front of you. So even
though you're leaving, I want you to go out on top,
never losing sight of that mission statement, never losing sight
(30:14):
of your why, and with each and every day remaining
that you have as a teacher, really living pushing yourself
to live up to that mission statement, to honor your why,
(30:35):
because again, they're still those kids in your classroom and
they deserve nothing but the very best from you because
they only have so much time with you as their teacher.
That time is it's ultimately coming to an end. So
(30:59):
my challenge to you is, I want you to go
out on top and you give it your very very best,
because when you look back, you're not gonna have any regrets. Well,
thank you so much again. To those of you who
are thinking you're you're you're thinking about thinking about doing
(31:19):
something different, definitely I pray for you, no judgment towards
you at all. You've got it. You've got to take
care of yourself. You gotta take care of yourself so
that you can take care of others. But I would imagine,
I submit to you that if you go through those steps,
you're gonna be in a You're gonna be in a
(31:41):
better place. Once you've made that decision, or after thinking
about it, you may decide that that's not exactly what
you want to do, and that's okay as well. So
thank you so much for your time here. Thank you
so much. I appreciate you. Don't forget to check out
the link in the description section that's gonna give you
some value as well. Those some power statements that you
(32:03):
can tell your potential new employer about why you left
teaching and also don't forget to check out our other
YouTube channel, Birdlinks for the latest and trending news in education.
So once again, thank you so much for your time,
and until we meet again, please don't forget that teachers
are leaders.
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