This morning I was comparing a trauma event to teaching. A few years ago I was shot at, and when you're running for your life, you feel such helplessness. Nobody can help you, not even yourself. That's kinda how teaching feels on a daily basis. Admin makes it feel like life or death, they sure ain't gonna help you, you can work 7 days and nights a week and still not complete everything or get the results you want. We had no support from community/schoolboard, they all hated us and when out of the way to make it hard on us. Even are elected officials that were former school teachers loaded us up with 80 extra hrs of unpaid work because apparently it's always our fault if schools are struggling.

It makes you feel helpless, overwhelmed and unlike a one moment trauma event, it happens every single day year after year. Come summer break, we all seem to have the 1000 yd stare. Anyway, curious to see how others feel on the topic. Can you relate? Has anyone quit and trying to get their mental/emotional/physical health back but really struggling?

I have been working in a school for three years now. Does anyone here feel like the adults at your school make you feel more miserable than the kids do? I often find most of my stress comes from the adults, and not the kids.

Okay y’all my doctor told me to take paid family and medical leave. I think I’m going to take her advice. I know I could make it but this feels like a gift from the universe.

I want to optimize my time off though. I want to try my best to have another position secured during my medical leave so I don’t have to return. Any suggestions?

A little background, I have a masters in teaching and a bachelors in communications. I’ve taught for the last 7 years and I’m beyond burnt out. I NEED TO GET OUT.

Thank you all for any help you can provide.

I didn’t know this sub existed until 10 minutes ago— what a godsend. Thank you all for all of the amazing posts and comments already!

Has anyone transitioned into a non-classroom student support role (I’m thinking GT specifically) and found that it cured the bad juju? I know I absolutely cannot take another 5 years in the classroom, and my latest exit strategy has been to do a master’s in GT and pursue positions doing that. But now I’m second-guessing if it would be equally as soul-crushing and I should just leave education entirely.

Thoughts/experience?

Looking to start fresh in a different career. I am 31 years old and took my sweet time graduating college (graduated at 28) and then decided teaching wasn’t for me 😅. Now I’m back to working warehouse jobs that I swore I would never work again after I got my degree and subbing at a private school. The private school I sub at is the best in the state and the kids are 1000X more cooperative than the local public schools so I took this job to see if my heart was still in it. I’m not sure it is.

I still want to make a difference and I like working with kids. I figure being a soccer coach is my true passion and doing that on the side will help me fulfill the “working with kids” and “passion” of my life. Now I just need a good paying job and to settle into adulthood. I’m just not completely sure what I could do with an Education Degree. Any tips or experience would help!

Wanted to know if anyone ever had this feeling and maybe hear advice on how to cope with it:

I teach English in private school, I came just a month ago and already want to quit. I'm a young teacher and though I've had experience working in school, I can't keep doing it in this particular place. I spend lots of time preparing for classes to make them interesting, but it is not worth it at all, completely unrewarding + zero discipline and respect.

But I feel so sad even for thinking about quitting to the point it makes me cry only because of this one 2nd grade student. He has ASD and he is a very lovely and sincere boy, and we built a very strong bond. I feel like he would be very upset if I quit and I'm scared that he would be neglected in some way or just generally feel alone. I feel like he truly needs my support.

I don't even conduct lessons in his class, but I'm in charge of their after-school care, helping them with homework.

I have no idea for how long I'd be able to bear with all the disrespect, and I have no idea if there is a possibility for me to work only as after-school care teacher, but I'd feel gnawing guilt for leaving this boy behind and I just can't stop being emotional about it.

This is only my first year and I just resigned 9 weeks in. I am so miserable and my mental health is so bad. All I did every day was work and have panic attacks (both at work and at home). I think I had a full mental breakdown and the last 3 weeks I felt like I was in a waking dream, in full survival mode.

I feel so guilty but at the same time I just needed out. The workload is so unsustainable and as nice as my team was I feel like I didn’t have the guidance I needed in some regards. I didn’t feel like myself at all. I had no free time, and the slivers I had were not enjoyable. I fear that HR is going to take their sweet time finalizing my resignation but at this point I don’t care about the consequences.

I’m hoping the relief and freedom will set in soon. I at least have a plan for what I’m going to do, but I feel like I’m disappointing everyone in my life. I have to clean out my room today and I wish I could just leave my stuff there, I can’t bear to face any of my team.

This job will suck the life out of you. I know I’m not the only one who’s ever left mid year but I feel like such a failure.

For a little bit of context, I’m typing this out in my classroom at the end of another slog of a day. I’m 27 and this is my 9th overall year working within education. After leaving high school, I took up an apprenticeship working as a teaching assistant, which then became a permanent TA position. This ended up being 3 years. I then graduated university and got my QTS and BA Hons, and went straight into working within international schools. I’m currently in the midst of my sixth year as a qualified teacher, and I feel as though I’ve hit a wall.

In terms of management, organisation, students etc, this school is by far the best that I’ve worked at. Things run relatively smoothly, I have a good relationship with my colleagues and the behaviour of the students/parents, by and large, is excellent. And yet I’m still feeling the most jaded that I’ve ever felt within my teaching career. I can’t think of an occasion that I’ve arrived home from work since the beginning of this term and not felt absolutely wiped by the day that I’ve had. The class I have this year are perfectly nice, but exceedingly low across the board and incredibly demanding for attention and support. This means that I’m having to rewrite all of my planning, spend my free periods finding and adapting resources and meeting with parents or members of the SEND team. They are just a draining class in general. I’m tired of being bombarded with thousands of questions an hour, or repeating instructions over and over, or explaining to parents why they aren’t seeing instantaneous progress, or dealing with the absolute constant telling tales which seems to occur after every single break or lunchtime. I’m not enjoying teaching my lessons because the students seem to have little, if absolutely no enthusiasm for learning unless it’s done via iPads. It’s really draining and unmotivating to try and present lessons with as much effort, differentiation and activities as I’m doing and to be met with a complete lack of interest or engagement. Even at my other schools, if everything else was going terribly, at least I could take solace in knowing that my lessons were effective and rewarding, but at the moment, that isn’t happening at all.

Aside from that, the workload seems to be creeping up constantly. Events, deadlines, administrative tasks that serve no purpose nor benefit to students nor teachers, book scrutiny, meetings which present no actual meaning nor solution, enforced CPD sessions. It’s just piling on and it’s completely eaten into all of the time that I would otherwise spend working with students, or planning, or creating feedback. It’s become a pattern at every school that I’ve worked at, and it’s really made me question if I want to keep teaching as a career.

It just doesn’t feel like I’m getting enough enjoyment out of my job at the moment to justify the amount of work that I’m doing. I’m leaving the house at 07:30 and returning at 17:15 feeling like I’m running on nothing but fumes, without any of the job satisfaction that I would’ve previously had. I’m feeling incredibly burned out. I’m not waking up in the morning with a sense of dread, but I’m really not enjoying leaving the house knowing that in a few hours time, I’m going to be completely worn out. I miss having the energy to want to do things.

I have other interests that I would like to pursue as a career, but no other experience or qualifications aside from teaching. I’m really interested in sports writing, journalism, research projects, creating articles and history but I haven’t a clue how I would even begin to go about trying to turn these interests into actual careers. Working in international schools pretty much means that my residency is tied to my job, so whilst I know that I’ll see my current position out until the end of the academic year, the last few months have really had me questioning if teaching is something that I can do, and feel passionately about, in the future.

Any advice / suggestions / feedback / moral support would be much appreciated. Maybe this is just a slump that I’ll eventually snap out of, but at the moment, for the first time, I’m feeling very unsure about teaching as a profession.

A few years ago, I was at a super stressful school and thinking about leaving the profession. I moved schools to a much more organized, supportive building and have been doing a lot better.

Over the summer I wrote a curriculum for ESL students that's been adopted by the district, which is a large urban district, and have presented it to some peers and it's apparently being referenced with my name in principal meetings.

I am not in a crisis so much as want some next steps to try and build this kind of experience and transition to curriculum design. Any advice is appreciated!

I’ve posted in this sub before so if you need more context you can go to my previous post here.

Since I’ve posted here I have called my union and he gave me some good advice. I initially told him I was looking to resign at the end of the semester but I don’t think I can make it to that point. I can’t picture myself at this job that far ahead and my mental health has gotten worse (I have had to text crisis lines multiple times). At our district we have fall break next week. Should I send in my resignation on Friday (last day before break) or wait until the Monday we return? Or should I really try to stick it out until the end of the semester?

This is my first year of teaching. I’m a 7th grade science teacher at a charter school and am overworked and mistreated day to day. Since starting 3 months ago, there’s only been a handful of days where I haven’t cried. I have been thinking of quitting since the first day on the job but have been too afraid of the consequences. I also can’t tell if I’m just dealing with normal first year struggles or if this field genuinely isn't the right fit for me. I just feel like I can’t do this for the rest of my life.

I'm burnt out. I have ADHD and I get impulsive when I'm burnt out. That'll lead me to not know for sure if a decision is something I'd regret, so I tend to think things over longer in these moments. I wanted to see what reddit thinks.

I'm a Texas theatre teacher at an inner city title 1 school. My district is essentially staring at a state takeover. The writings on the walls. Every year, fine arts programs are slashed and dozens of schools close.

Of the high school theatre programs, only a couple remain that have a tech theatre teacher/assistant director onboard. I'm by myself with no assistant, and there's also no choir program to boot.

My classes are full of 30+ kids. I experience all of the things we all know- fighting phone addictions, disrespect, more work than I possibly have time for, unsafe and overstuffed classes, and constant direction changing from administration.

And the usual again- I love working with my students, and I am afraid to hastily abandon them. But I'm beginning to feel like I can never be the director they deserve- not because I am not capable, but because the system doesn't allow me too.

Obviously this subreddit would probably encourage me to quit, lol. I guess I'm just looking for a little validation. I feel gaslit by admin and some peers that seem to not grasp how badly things are going right now. I don't want to be stupid and be stuck as things get worse.

teaching involves explaining things clearly, reading a room, answering unexpected questions, and staying composed when things go sideways

but job interviews outside education can have a completely different set of expectations. being good at talking to a room full of students doesn't automatically mean knowing how to sell your experience to a hiring manager

which part of interviewing outside education has taken the most adjustment for you?

I resigned 3 weeks ago and I'm still having nightmares almost every night about school. Admin walking in and me being in trouble for something out of my control. Kids not listening/following directions, getting hurt and it being looked at as my fault. Not being able to find my classroom and getting lost on campus.

Last night I dreamed I was trying to get to my classroom after dropping my class off at lunch over 30 minutes late and kept getting stuck in a garden filled with thorny bushes.

I (27F) am currently enrolled in alternative certification program and am almost finished with it (need to finish approximately 20 hours of observation and take my content and PPR exams). I also currently work as a SPED inclusion para at an elementary school, mainly with 3rd and 5th graders. After seeing what goes on behind the scenes for teachers I’m not sure I want to go into teaching. They have to deal with so much between parents fighting them, literally scheduling a bathroom break, barely any planning time and so much more. I have not experienced education at higher grade levels so am not sure if anything would be different.
At the end of my program would be certified to teach science 4-12 if I pass both content exams for grades 4-8 and 7-12. I have a background in science, I graduated with my bachelors in public health and masters in biomedical science. Prior to working as a para, I worked as a clinical research assistant in clinical trials.
I do not want to work as a para forever and would love to have a pay increase sooner rather than later.
I am mainly looking for advice and personal experiences. Thank you for anything you have to offer!

Hi teachers- I have had a rough start to my teaching career. 2 years of teaching 1st grade and a consulting teaching position that haven't worked out (3 years total teaching). Last job let me go because it wasn't a fit (no explanation). So this year I had several teaching job offers but didn't take them as they were not conducive to our family's location/schedule (no teaching positions available in my current district). I took a job in our current district (5 min away) as a paraprofessional in a SDC thinking I could build some relationships/get my name out there (I have zero connections in a small town where many are related/have been here for generations) this year so if a teaching job comes up I might have a chance....but am now rethinking this strategy as I am realizing SPED is an island and it may be challenging to transition back to Gen Ed....so my question is...do I leave my current position and apply to be a substitute teacher in the district now to make more Gen Ed connections or do I stay in my current job and apply to full time jobs for the 27-28 year?

I want to transition but I need to be financially ready to. I have ideas but no set plans. Anyone here have a successful routine that helps them with transition goals?

…to send tomorrow afternoon when I’ll be away from my email and can’t second guess my decision! (I would have sent it tonight, but tomorrow will be busy for me and I can’t be distracted…teacher life, right?)

I only just started at this school, but it’s been miserable for me. 8 years in and today’s classroom is nowhere near the classroom I was once a student in.

Wish me luck on my new journey to happiness!

I feel like I am mentally on the edge. I can't handle the bs that is our education system anymore. I need to find something that is not classroom teaching. If anyone knows of anywhere that is either remote or in the Philadelphia area that is hiring I need to apply and get out of here. I have a Masters in Educational Technology and yet still am struggling to find jobs. When I do find jobs I can't seem to even get a callback. Im at my wits end I really need help from anyone that can provide it to get me out of this living hell.