Career Change from Teaching

[wemberly]

I wondered if anyone had advice for a former teacher looking to change directions. I’ve been a SAHM for the last eight years, and would like to head back to work. As I think about going back I just don’t know that I want to go back to the classroom. I taught K-2, have a degree in early childhood Ed and my masters in literacy intervention.

How do I figure out what I might be qualified for?😬 Or how to get started on a track so I’m ready to go back at some point in the near future? Has anyone else made this switch and have advice?

[arehopsveggies]

I’m in a similar boat. I think I want to go back to teaching but have been seeing what else is out there. In my community, with an early childhood degree I could work in early intervention, or our hospital has a home visiting program for parents of young children.

Either one is less money than the public schools though. And I’d need to find summer childcare

[wemberly]

Early intervention is something I have considered, I’m not sure if I need more of a special ed degree for that.

I’ve also wondered about instructional design or just more of a Human Resources route but I’m not sure what that looks like for someone coming from teaching, and how you would make that switch.

[tacokick]

Are you interested in any sort of training or help desk work? My husband and I are both former teachers.

My husband had a BA in art, MA in education. He had some experience in IT before teaching elementary. Post teaching he ended up doing IT help desk support and was hired because he has teaching experience and they trained him on the specific specialized program they used. They were looking for former teachers because they wanted someone who was good at explaining things to low info end users.

I have a BA in history/MA in education and worked in market research after before going freelance in a completely unrelated field.

With your degrees have you thought of work at a reading or education nonprofit or small museum? Or doing some volunteering work in those fields to get contacts/experience?

If you are interested in HR, I’ve seen quite a few jobs where they didn’t seem to care what your degrees were in, just that you had them. Your background in teaching could be an asset in a HR that would require you to train people or hold informational meetings.

[orval]

As a parent of a child with learning disabilities, you could private tutor children. With your literacy intervention training, you could get Orton Gillingham trained for dyslexia. MIght be a good fit. Tutors are hard to find that specialize in LD's. We/friends have paid $50-$80 an hour.

[just]

Instructional Design is seeing a HUGE influx of K-12 teachers over the last 5 years, but especially since COVID hit.

I hire IDs for Higher Ed (not recently due to hiring freezes) and I've always liked to see K-12 teachers who had taken an ID certificate. For corporate work, I think the cert/qualification is less needed.

Beyond ID, Higher Education could offer some interesting choices - though of course we're seeing a contraction in positions due to COVID now too and it's far from secure with layoffs and furloughs. Having said that in the next 12-24 months the need for people who can support different constituents online will increase. Tutoring centers, administrative assistance, academic technology support, ESL, Diversity and Inclusion, Accessibility could all offer options. Edit: L&D (Learning and Development) specialties in HR are another option too.

[okla]

Have you thought about becoming a librarian? I many cases, public libraries can hire someone without an MLIS at the “associate librarian” level, and then move to full librarian once you complete the master’s degree. With your literacy and early childhood background, I’d think you be well-suited to be a children’s librarian.

[Cappy]

My neighbor left teaching (2nd grade) for a position at the local hospital training employees on the Epic software system. She said it's heaps better than teaching. She had no prior background in Epic. They taught her on the job and hired her based on her experience as a teacher.

[madringal]

Sept 27, 2020 10:03:52 GMT -5 just said:

Instructional Design is seeing a HUGE influx of K-12 teachers over the last 5 years, but especially since COVID hit.

I hire IDs for Higher Ed (not recently due to hiring freezes) and I've always liked to see K-12 teachers who had taken an ID certificate. For corporate work, I think the cert/qualification is less needed.

Beyond ID, Higher Education could offer some interesting choices - though of course we're seeing a contraction in positions due to COVID now too and it's far from secure with layoffs and furloughs. Having said that in the next 12-24 months the need for people who can support different constituents online will increase. Tutoring centers, administrative assistance, academic technology support, ESL, Diversity and Inclusion, Accessibility could all offer options. Edit: L&D (Learning and Development) specialties in HR are another option too.

How timely - I just made this post over on ML - I'd love your thoughts!


pandce.proboards.com/thread/621911/msed-ldt

[Covergirl82]

I agree with others on looking into instructional design, maybe curriculum design/development, and corporate or HR training/learning and development.

Another thought is becoming a parapro. My mom was a teacher for 7 years (and had her M Ed and permanent teaching certificate (she got the permanent certificate back when they still did those)), and then a SAHM until I started Kindergarten. A couple years after that, she became a parapro at my elementary. While she made a lot less than a teacher (although she was paid at the top of the parapro schedule because of her M Ed), she loved the 1:1 and small group instruction. She could still do what she loved, but could leave at 3:30 and be done with work and still have all school vacations and summers off.

[hermione]

Some libraries are looking to hire Early Literacy Specialists.

[Deleted]

Would you be relying on the money?

If not, you might consider substitute teaching to see if you want to get back into it. My husband is a substitute teacher, and it’s all of the things people love about teaching without any of the things teachers hate. He shows up, teaches someone else’s lesson plan, then goes home. He doesn’t usually have to do much grading, doesn’t do lesson planning unless he’s doing a long-term sub gig, doesn’t have a o deal with parents or attend faculty meetings. He gets a lot of respect from the school because he’s really good at it. The pay is shit in most districts ($100/day before taxes), but it gives him flexibility and he enjoys it.

[keh2oblue]

Ditto the library. Our library has a lot of former teachers. Some are librarians, some not. We also have two reading specialists that work with early reading intervention.

[magpie]

Depending on where you live/what your districts are like, becoming a school librarian might be a good switch. I'm lucky to work in a district with really well supported school libraries and it is the absolute BEST job for me. I'm not from a classroom teaching background (I was a public librarian first), but I feel like I get all the joy of teaching with a much, much smaller percentage of the stress. In my district, you have to have a teaching certificate and a MLIS to be a school librarian, but there are online programs where you can get an MLIS and our district actually works with a local college to get classroom teachers qualified to become librarians because we're always in need of them. That said, it's a dubious position in terms of funding/support and it can be really affected by school leadership in terms of teaching load and flexibility. Also, the pay is basically the same as a teacher salary, which where I live is not great. I made more as a public librarian, but I have more fun and make more of a difference in the world now. I also like having a school schedule because I have all the breaks off with my kids.

[wildrice]

I used to work for a test development company (specifically ACT, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend working there). There were a ton of former teachers who worked in test development. At least at ACT, it wasn't JUST standardized tests but also several other assessments that looked at things like behavior and other social aspects of education that might benefit from identification and intervention. I think there are a lot of other companies out there who do this kind of work.

HR is an option, but I'll warn you it can be really hard to get hired in HR without HR experience. I work in training and development HR and it is hard to find this kind of job even WITH experience. However, I would think a teacher would be well suited for it so if you are open to an entry level job or doing some additional training to get HR education, I think it could be a good fit. There are also a ton of other non-HR training jobs out there, so perhaps I'd just search "training" on job postings and you'll find something interesting. My last job before my current one was training simulated patients to work with students in a medical school. My HR background helped me get the job, but I think a former teacher would have also been a great fit for it - we had a ton of former teachers who worked a simulated patients.

[Deleted]

My mom had a degree in psychology, ran an in home daycare for 5 or 6 years, then got her teacher’s license. She subbed and taught K and 1st for a while. And then she got a job working the reception desk in the ER at the children’s hospital. And then because she was bored sometimes she created her own project to help out with some type of paperwork in the ER, which she eventually convinced them to create a position for (I’m not totally clear on what it was, something with accident records and the consumer product people). In any case she did that for awhile and then she was offered an opportunity to train as a loan officer and she’s been a loan officer ever since. So I don’t think you necessarily need to focus only on teaching or things that are adjacent to teaching.

[notsopicky]

Another plug for becoming a librarian. I've told my story before--classroom teacher for 23 years and was looking for a change--got my MLIS mostly online (90/10 online to in-person) from a soon-to-be ALA-accredited university, for the last 3 years have been working as a school librarian. I do a million other things at my school, but my favorite things are having authentic positive relationships with kids (no grades, no tests, no homework), I still get to teach, often with my best teacher friends in the school, and I get to hang out with kids in the library (well, pre-pandemic anyway)--with them on computers, engaging in makerspaces, reading, just hanging out. During COVID times, I'm busier than ever--I had to stand up a virtual library AND run a curbside checkout (thankfully I have an assistant).

I love it. It's literally the best job in the whole school.

[lizlemon19]

I was going to suggest Early Intervention. If you like children but want to get out of teaching, you could change to social work/human services or child life specialist. If you were burned out, you could get into working for a Training Department. They would like your teaching/public speaking experience.

[imojoebunny]

Sept 27, 2020 8:30:13 GMT -5 orval said:

As a parent of a child with learning disabilities, you could private tutor children. With your literacy intervention training, you could get Orton Gillingham trained for dyslexia. MIght be a good fit. Tutors are hard to find that specialize in LD's. We/friends have paid $50-$80 an hour.

People pay, as much as, $110 an hour here.  We payed $85 for a O-G tutor with experience at an O-G school.  Worth every penny.  My BFF worked in Corporate PR before becoming a teacher, so maybe you could reverse that, and go into PR or Marketing.  Corporate raining is an obvious.  You could do something like Outschool, if you just want part time.  Another friend was in teaching for many years and now works for a testing company in design (she has a Phd.  so might not be as easy to get into that line)  Sales is another place to look.  I know some former teachers who sell things like closet installation, flooring, kitchen cabinet design, real estate, ect. 

[Accountingcat]

I know 3 former teachers, they are now: school administrator (in a district office, FY schedule, not around kids), math coach, and test prep worker.

You might have to hunt for decent pay, but you could probably work in a fancy daycare, church, or private school library. The temple I'm a member of has a retired teacher on staff as the Director of Education for daycare. It's not a huge daycare. She organizes the kid's activities for Sunday school, special holiday programs, and whatnot.

[wemberly]

Thank you, everyone. Lots of great ideas in here. I’m looking into some certificate programs, not sure I’m in a good spot to start a new masters program right now, but if I found something I felt really strongly about I’d be open to it.