I may be getting ahead of myself with the article title, but yes– I assume that if you quit teaching you will pretty much automatically improve your quality of life. Your mental health. Your physical health. Your overall well-being.
Because teaching can just run you ragged. It seems like teachers on all corners of the Internet are united in their concerns that the field just isn’t what it used to be or what was promised as they entered. I loved teaching elementary school, but that’s my story as well: getting utterly tired of the complications of the career and wishing for alternative paths in my life.
Let’s say you’ve made up your mind about leaving teaching, or at least teaching in your current context (there are so many other ways to teach without being tied to the school system!)
Making that decision to quit teaching is the first crucial step, and it can be difficult, so I’ve written posts about how to wrestle with this choice.
But what kinds of steps can you take once you’ve decided to close one career door to focus on another or move entirely into different life situations (like parenthood)?
Here’s what you need to do:
Get Your Life In Order Before You Quit Teaching
You may feel guilty about leaving your students or principal or school, and those feelings may be valid, but please: Put on your oxygen mask first! Before you let any guilt guide your next steps, take a breather and tackle the logistics of quitting that will most impact YOUR life, like:
Income replacement
If you rely on your teaching income, you will need to figure out how to make up the income gap once your paychecks stop coming in.
Don’t need the income? Great.
Then you can skip to the next step.
Have ideas for replacing, say, 50 percent of the income but not all of it?
There are a few ways to McGyver the arrangement so it works for you. It involves getting creative and sacrificing. If you want to leave teaching for a lower paying job but still need that money, make it so that you don’t need as much. Record all of your expenses and see what you can lower. See if you can make a lower-paying job work with your adjusted budget.
Still stuck?
You can also:
- Rent out rooms of your house until you have enough saved up
- Get married and work as a team to earn a living
- Acquire more than one part-time gig
- Start a small business (I go into detail about how to start a tutoring business as a smooth exit ramp from teaching in this article)
- Pray for a wealthy relative to leave you their inheritance
Once you’ve figured out how to pay for your lifestyle (or adjust it), it’s time to account for all of the extra necessities of life when you decide to quit teaching.
Healthcare
Without your current health and dental plans, how will you pay for medical expenses? Can you switch plans when you switch employers? If you plan to be self-employed, can you join a cost-sharing program or join an insurance company in the general marketplace?
Health insurance concerns are a necessary– albeit annoying– part of planning your departure from teaching.
But you don’t want to get stuck with an emergent health situation and no healthcare plan to help pay for it. I know it’s boring, arduous work, but get this list item checked off before handing over your classroom keys.
Retirement
For all of those thinking, I’m young. It’s okay if I don’t have retirement all figured out.
That may be partly true, but it’s best to have some sort of plan before flying the coop into an uncertain ether.
If you quit teaching, you need some plan for both the near and distant future.
The reality is that unless you’re banking on living off of trust funds, you’ll have to squirrel away money during your working years to support your non-working years.
Be sure to devise some sort of system for saving up, whether that’s continuing your 401K or investing on your own.
If you’ve already been investing in a 401K with your employer, decide if you will keep it as is, continue contributing, take it out, or roll it over into a different account. Try to get someone on the phone to help you out with what you decide to do. It’s tedious, but you won’t regret taking this step for your own future well-being.
Button Up The Job to Best Support Yourself in the Next Stage
There are ways to quit teaching without burning bridges that help further your career goals.
But you’ll need to be proactive and professional every step of the way.
Here’s what I recommend:
- Let your boss your decision know in a timely, positive and professional manner (I share all my best tips for this conversation in this post about notifying your principal of your nonrenewal!)
- Request references from coworkers in a timely manner. Thank them profusely for taking the time to write rave reviews about you.
- Collect any work samples from the classroom that could be useful artifacts in other job interviews
- Let your students know your decision, if you want, in a positive manner.
Make Moves Toward Your New Position
What do you plan to do once you’re out of full-time classroom teaching?
There are a number of ways to generate income using teaching-related skills. Or you could move completely outside of the field. You may decide to leave the workforce altogether and become a stay-at-home parent like I did (more on the stay-at-home mom life here.)
It’s your life.
If you need suggestions for racking up funds fast, I think one of the best transitions from teaching can be into private tutoring. If you have the skills, you wouldn’t need to learn a whole new job or get certified in something. All you’d need to do is create a plan for the logistics of tutoring and start accumulating clients.
I’ve outlined in detail how I would start a private tutoring business on my way out the classroom door.
The post fleshes out actionable steps to creating this potentially lucrative small business.
Whether you move into tutoring or some other profession, start easing the transition now by taking those baby steps in that new direction. That way you’ll have a bit of ground to stand on, a bit of insurance you’ve built up, when your contract ends and the paychecks stop coming in.
Be Proactive and Positive in Your Teacher Transition Journey
The journey from classroom teaching to another profession can come with many challenges and a wide range of accompanying emotions.
By taking proactive steps, having a plan, and staying positive and professional, you can make tthe move to quit teaching more smooth and doable.
I’ve done it myself. I’ve gone back into teaching after leaving, too. I’ve substitute taught after leaving. I’ve tried numerous odd jobs, from babysitting to home baking, and eventually landing on being a stay-at-home-mom and writer.
This crucial decision doesn’t have to be permanent. But come up with a plan to pad the journey. I wish you the best of luck. Hang around the site for more tips on leaving teaching, substituting, and motherhood. Let me know how it goes.
