Colorado Technical University

Alternate career for a current high school teacher?

Currently I am a high school teacher (previously taught middle school), and am pursuing a Master's degree in teaching. Here's the problem - I hate my job (aspects of it). Every day I leave with a pounding headache and my stress level is so high it's impacting my personality and social aspects of my life. I LOVE teaching, but the majority of my day is spent attending to discipline problems, emailing parents that request information about their student, filling out paper work for special ed students, attending meetings, re-writing curriculum, etc. The smallest part of my day is spent teaching. Does anyone know of career options that would be suitable for an educator? I'm willing to work on a college campus and still within the realms of education. Also, I have a high degree of training in conflict resolution, leadership, nutrition and health. Any serious ideas are pleasantly welcomed. Thanks for your time.

Public Comments

1. Look for work at a community college. There are administrative and program director type jobs that deal with conflict resolution, leadership, and nutrition and health. If you do have a masters degree, then you can apply to be a principle at a K-12 type school. You will do more administrative work though. At the community college level, you can teach classes for students who want to be teachers and anything else that you are qualified for. It is not easy to get a full time position. You might have to suffer through a couple of years of part time work before they hire you for a full time position. While you are doing this, make connections and get good references. Find out how the hiring process works.
2. Hello, I "feel your pain." I tried teaching as a second career and experienced the exact same thing. I loved teaching and being in the classroom but could not stand the rest of it (including weird and pointless politics). Here are some alternate career thoughts for you: Think about corporate training. Many big companies have their own internal training departments. You will be paid so much more and the work environment will be so much better. Start looking at the employment pages on Fortune 500 web sites. You might also want to look at Management Consulting companies which typically provide leadership training courses to other companies. If you don't mind travel, look into Franklin Covey. They have a bunch of trainers that go around to corporations and teach time management and such. I've taken the course and the instructors love their jobs. Health you say? Hospitals also have training needs and sometimes internal departments. You might want to think about starting your own business that is education related (that is what I do). The market is huge and I believe there is a lot of room for innovative products and services. Think: How can I make a teacher's life easier? How can I help students succeed? If you can come up with some creative answers to those questions, you just might have a viable and profitable business. Have heart! You have lots of good options. You are welcome to email me.
3. Trust me, I can understand your predicament. I am a new teacher (2nd year) and my first teaching position was much the same as the one you are describing. I taught in a semi-rural area in Greensboro, NC. Without going into specifics, I hated my job by the end of the school year and was ready to hang up the career altogether. ... but I didn't. I began a teaching career in my hometown this fall and things are amazing. (I'm in rural Virginia now.) The students are so much better behaved and I enjoy my job. I still have those headaches that you described, but those are just part of the job. Maybe a solution to your problem would be to try teaching in a different environment. Smaller and more rural environment always have the better behaved students and closer atmosphere surrounding the school. Sure, you have the bad kids there too, but the problems aren't near as severe as in a larger setting. Maybe a change of scenery would help you to find a new appreciation for teaching. Have you thought about moving or switching to a neighboring school system? A second option would be to take a leave of absense to finish your Master's degree. Most school systems will allow you to do that and will ensure that you have a job to come back to when you are finished. They may even hand out some money to help with the cost since your furthered education would benefit their system. The break would give you time to focus on your own studies and would give you time to consider your other options. Time to step back and think is often what helps more than anything. A third option that I would offer is that you go ahead and leave your position and find a new career path. I would, however, advise that you have something in place before you leave and that you leave at an appropriate time (end of semester, end of year, etc.) That will make it much easier on your students. You have to look out for yourself and if you are miserable at work, then you don't need to be there. It is also harder on the students when they have a teacher who is miserable every single day. I became that teacher at my previous job and it just made for a horrible situation. Without knowing what it is that you teach, it is hard for me to advise on another career path. Let me advise on some of the things I tried before I began teaching (during the days when I was questioning what I really wanted to do). I worked as a teaching assistant for a middle school band program. I worked in a group home for juvenile delinquent teenage boys. I also worked as a Diabetes Health Educator for the Department of Health in Virginia. With your background, maybe those types of jobs are things that you might want to consider. You might also want to consider getting into some sort of position involving research on a college campus. There are thousands and thousands of those going on all over the US. Could you apply to be a Teacher Assistant or Graduate Assistant through the school where you are working on your Master's??? Best of luck in making a decision! I'd love to hear what you decide!
4. I have been teaching for 23 years. I know exactly what you are saying. Get out while you can. My first thought was that based on your training, you might do well in a hospital setting. Or any company in their personnel department. You could be a trainer in larger companies. I taught at the college level also...it's a little better, certainly not as stressful, but I had to serve on many committees. I felt a lot of politics there, too....so just make sure you know what your duties would be.