Breaking Up With Teaching

Hey there, fellow educators, or should I say survivors of the wild world of teaching! I'm here to share my journey from chaos 1st and 3rd-grade to the pure bliss I am experiencing in the corporate world. Buckle up, because it's been a bumpy ride, and I'm ready to spill the beans on why I dumped teaching after a 6 year relationship– for something a bit more, well, me. But who am I kidding right? If you are here right now, you probably know exactly why. Let me taking you back in time just a sec.

Picture this: a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 1st year educator ready to conquer the world of 3rd grade. My best friend & I landed jobs at the same school. Dream come true right? That was short lived - the following year I switched to a new school & a new grade level. 1st grade Social Living. I was ecstatic. 3rd grade was so intense. LEAP testing so heavily effected the day to day, and I was excited to be able to maybe actually be able to hand out a coloring sheet or 2. I ended up with the absolute best partner teacher a girl could ask for. She was more than a partner teacher, she was my lifeline, my friend, and my bilage pump-aka she kept me from sinking.

For three years, I danced through the halls, the bulletin boards, and I did the damn thing. Come to find out I was a pretty decent teacher-always considered highly effective. I was enthusiastic, highly motivated, and accepted coaching like a champ. It was like living in a Pixar movie, only with more crayons, less magic, and more tears.

As the years rolled by, so did my enthusiasm. I felt like I was losing myself, these 6-year- olds drained me. The whinning-the tattling-the overall neediness. After school, there was no chance you would catch me at a grocery store, or doing anything productive of that matter. Laundry needs to be done?-Isn't that what laudry baskets are for? I had zero energy to give.

Enter the feelings of needing a change. My oh so logical mind told me that 3rd grade was the safe place to go. Now, I know what you are probably thinking. "Come on Nikki! You already know what 3rd grade is going to be like, LEAP this, LEAP that." I know, I know. But for me it was the age group. I thought, maybe if I can relate more with the kids, I will enjoy this more. I thought "I already know 3rd grade a bit, I know I like the age group. Plus this time I will only be teaching Math, and not every subject like the last time. It will be so much better." So, what did I do? I did what any rational person would do – I switched to 3rd-grade math, thinking, "Maybe the grass is greener on the other side of division."

Spoiler alert: It wasn't.

Enter my exit strategy – a master's degree in educational technology.

My first semester was in June 2021, this is also the month I got pregnant for my son. You don't even have to say it, I know I am crazy. So just to bring it all together for you incase at this point you are like WTF did I just read? For the 2021-2022 school year, I was switching grade levels, pregnant, and a new graduate student. This was also the year of Hurricane Ida. So at the end of August, our worlds were rocked. We did not go back to school until October, and when we did, it was not at our same location. We were having to share a school, and a classroom. All of 3rd grade, 60ish students, all cramed into a computer lab. It was, as you could about imagine, a complete shit show.

One year into my 3rd-grade escapade, and I was still feeling like a fish out of water. I'd become an expert in explaining multiplication strategies, but I'd also become an expert in counting down the minutes until the final bell rang. It hit me like a dodgeball to the face – I didn't want to spend my days pretending to be a human robot. I wanted to be me! And every single day, I grew further and further from myself. Now dont get me wrong, I will give credit where credit is due. I absolutely loved my administrative team. They were rockstars. Everything they said, I completely agreed with. The leader in me understood everything they wanted out of me. Unfortuantely, I could not give them everything they needed from me in order to maintain my complaciveness. I could not stay, or shall I say would not stay at school until 6:00pm anymore to get things done. I refused.

Fast forward to December 2022, and I was holding that shiny new degree in one hand and and my 9 month old son in the other. I was also applying to jobs like a mad woman. Constantly searching for new careers. Researching "good careers for former teachers." Taking whatever "Teacher Career Quiz" I could find.

I know what you're thinking – "But, how do I leave such a noble profession?" Well, my friends, sometimes you have to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others. I realized that I couldn't be the best version of myself in the classroom. It was time to break up with teaching and start a new love affair with a career that embraced my quirks and passions, whatever that may be.

Now, I'm not here to bash teaching. It's a tough gig, and those who stick with it are nothing short of superheroes. But for me, it was time to close that chapter and start a new one.

In the upcoming post, I'll spill the beans on how I landed my dream job outside the classroom. Spoiler alert: I have so much to share with you. So, fellow educator, if you're feeling like a fish in a fishbowl, know that there's a whole ocean of opportunities out there waiting for you. Stay tuned for the next chapter of my post-teaching adventures!