How to Transition out of Teaching
© Written by Robyn Shulman, M.Ed., Chicago, 2016

The following is an excerpt from my book, You Can Change Your Career. Please read through it to get a feel for what you may embark on in the near future.

This first book, 30 pages long was four years in the making. Begin reading about how to change your life-using many of my own personal strategies for success.

When teachers are not happy, students are not happy. The mood of the teacher sets the tone of the learning environment. This domino effect translates into a lack of learning and moves from the classroom, to communities, throughout our nation and into the world.

I changed my life and other teachers can too. Today, I am the Editorial Director for MindRocket Media Group, an education writer for the Huffington Post and an official LinkedIn Thought Leader for education and education technology. I wrote this book because I will always be a teacher by heart. All kids deserve a passionate teacher who wants to be in the classroom, nothing less.

I have spoken with thousands of teachers about their careers, future goals and how they feel about their profession. Unfortunately, countless numbers of teachers are simply unhappy in the classroom; some are overwhelmed, others are burned out and many of the best educators leave the profession within their first five years.

And the data speaks for itself. Alternatives to Teaching: 20 Companies that Hire Teachers, an article found on my site, EdNews Daily, generates nearly 100,000 page views per month. This specific article focuses on career options for teachers looking outside the field. These teachers contact me every week, with a community growing close to 10,000 educators.

And, they want to change careers, however, they simply don’t know how to do so. This book covers the span of the most important things I’ve learned over the past five years reinventing myself as an educator, along with strategies and resources. In addition, the book focuses on mindset, how to network, professional branding, and specific ways to use LinkedIn to find success. Teachers who want to reinvent their lives have the abilities to do so. By learning about my story, following tips and taking action, teachers can be on their way to sharing their many talents.

This book covers the following:
Prologue: Why I Created this Book
Chapter One: Why Should You Learn from Me?
Chapter Two: My Story
Chapter Three: How I Took Action
Chapter Four: Make Changes and Take Action
Chapter Five: Clean Up Your Digital Footprint
Chapter Six: Make A Daily Plan
Chapter Seven: Getting Started with LinkedIn
Chapter Eight: How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile
Chapter Nine: Activities
Chapter Ten: Why Companies Should Hire Teachers
Chapter Eleven: The Realities of a New Work World
About Robyn Shulman
Connecting with Robyn through her various social networks

Coming soon in part two:
Chapter Six: Research: How and where to begin
Chapter Seven: Your Brand: How to define, create and manage your brand
Chapter Eight: Get your name out there: where, who, when, how?
Chapter Nine: Connection: The Importance of networking both online and offline
Chapter Ten: LinkedIn: Everything you need to know about it
Chapter Eleven: How and why you must use LinkedIn consistently
Chapter Twelve: Networking: What is it? How helping others will help you

Preface: Why I created this book about teachers leaving the profession
I wrote this book because I am a teacher who realizes there is a gap that needs to be filled. Over the past few years, I’ve received thousands of requests for advice, information, and guidance from teachers all over the world who want to leave the classroom. If you have visited my site, ED News Daily, you may be one of those teachers who signed up for more information or for our upcoming teacher forum. Maybe you found me through a Google search for an article, on Facebook or LinkedIn. Wherever you found me, I thank you for reaching out. I thank you for having the courage to change your life.

My reasons for leaving the classroom are most likely different than your reasons, and that is okay. The issues you face today in the classroom may be more challenging, demanding and overwhelming. If you are new, teaching may not be what you expected. I’m still fully involved in the field, and I know it has changed dramatically over the past 15 years.

In order to understand and self-reflect on your own journey, it is important to read about my journey. It is imperative to understand the trials, tribulations and rewards I’ve had outside of the classroom. I still miss teaching. Although our reasons for leaving the classroom may be different, the end goal is probably the same.

You will have a lot of questions as you read this book. I encourage you to write them down as you go along and reach out to me as needed. I will try and help you as much as possible.

My feelings about the classroom and teaching from a high-level are still the same as they were when I began in 1998. I do not encourage teachers to leave the field unless they are so unhappy that students suffer, because they do. It is unfair for our future generation to be in a classroom with a miserable teacher. As you know, you set the tone of the classroom. You are the most important person in the building to those eyes that look at you every day. You can change lives for better or worse. You have great power, and with that power comes great responsibility. Our children deserve nothing less. I do believe teaching is still the noblest of professions. Our kids need you. If you are absolutely sure that your work is doing more harm than good, then it is time to go. At the end of this book, you should have a better vision about yourself, your career and your family.

As you move along this book, I want you to be realistic and keep these things in mind:

1. You must be able to practice self-reflection and move out of your comfort zone.
2. You must have grit, resilience, and tough skin.
3. You will need to work hard in different ways, especially in the digital world. Resumes are much less important today than they were even ten years ago.
4. You will have to change your mindset about who you are and what you can offer the world. Also, you should be willing to learn new skills that will make you more marketable (there are tons of free classes online to do so).
5. You must have patience.
6. You will have to learn new ways of landing a job and you must follow through.
7. The corporate world is much different than teaching in a classroom-in every respect.
8. You must be able to define your passions and purpose, and have a plan.
9. Before taking this leap, you should evaluate your financial needs for yourself and your family.
10. Be open and stay positive!
    

And remember, there are no guarantees.

Are you ready to learn more about who you are, who you can potentially become and make a change? If so, let’s go. You are ready.

Teachers leaving the profession

If you are interested in learning more about the book, please sign up via our email list form (on all pages) or through our Teacher Forum form found at this article: Alternatives to Teaching: 20 Companies that hire Teachers; this will provide another resource for jobs for teachers leaving teaching and info in reference to teachers leaving the profession.
Here is another good article about teachers leaving the profession too.

If you are interested in reading more about teachers leaving the profession and the national teacher turnover rate, please stop by this article.

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