You are 48 and tired of teaching what other career would you pick and why?

Question

and you are female, single parent with 1 child.

this is truly for my daughter who is at the end of her rope with paper work and politics in the school system

Answer 1

we are all tired of teaching but for some reason we keep going bac...hang in there

Answer 2

She may find it refreshing if she can get into the adult system to teach. Possibly she can teach at a community college or teach GED or ESL? Teaching adults is much less stressful than teaching kids.

I know it is not easy, but sometimes just a change or a move is as good as a rest. I don't know where she lives or the situaiton there, but I taught and raised two kids as a single parent and what kept me going was changing jobs often - different grade level, different schools, etc. I also moved to different levels of responsibility sometimes, so I worked as a principal and assistant principal and specialist - I did some upgrading. The upgrading also helped me in terms of salary.

Could she move from the public system to a private school? That would also give a change of scene and a different environment. How about taking a term off and lining up some tutoring for income during that time? My daughter sometimes just tutors for a term.

The only way for her to change anything though is to get started and try to do it. She might be surprised at the change in how she will feel if she just begins looking at new possibilities.

Answer 3

Curriculum development in education or any other field is probably the way to go. Maybe she could take a sabatical? A year off doing some related training might be a great refresher...some districts allow that. She could apply for a job at the district or state office, but the politics is even worse there usually...but the pay is better. Good luck to her, I teach also, but I'm only in my 5th year coming up, so I havn't totally reached a that point yet.

Answer 4

I am actually going into teaching now.... I don't know what to tell your daughter to do because teaching is good because your protect by a union. I have work for major corporations all my life and they treat you like crap, step on you... promote men and younger woman over you.. And kids... forget it, try explaining to a CEO that you have to pick up your daughter sick from school... they don't even are when you are sick and dieing. And I am Lucky to get out of work by 7:00....
Maybe she should look for another school district or try a private school. But no matter where you go you will always have politics and horrible people you'll have to deal with.

Answer 5

Imaka gave a good answer. I would like to add. Do a self evaluation. Why are you tired? Why did you become a teacher to begin with? What can you do to get back to the place of liking teaching? Do you love kids? Do you feel called to teach? You have the answers. You have just got to ask yourself the right questions. After quizzing yourself deeply, and you want to stay, pick out one of the things Imaka suggested and try it. New grade, new school, new subject. Or go get another degree!!!

Answer 6

This question could have been written by me. She probably is getting close to retirement. Maybe she can hang in there. John had a good idea about curriculum development. Another is teacher training. The people from the different book companies, like houghton-mifflin hire former teachers to train other teachers on the new textbooks. It would require traveling but maybe that's what she needs- something very different.

Answer 7

Tell her to apply for a position at a private school. Many of them don't have the red tape and problems of public schools and will give the teacher the necessary resources to make teaching exciting again.

Answer 8

Not me, but a friend of mine got into training at a local health care facility. She develops curriculum and presents various topics in types of health care systems, customer service, telephone techniques, etc.... As a teacher she was in the $42K range, now she earns about $50K and she doesn't have to grade papers!

Tx Guy

Answer 9

I've heard that a lot of ex-teachers are starting tutoring businesses. With the new NCLB laws, parents want their children to perform well on these tests. I'm sure she would have great connections in her district to get something like this started.

Answer 10

Tell her to start her own business.

Maybe open up a day-care center, or maybe some after-school program for kids.

Another good option for her might be to become a real-estate broker.

Answer 11

How about a job in the field that she was teaching? That way she would have a bit of experience.