It's okay to change your mind about teaching. Fortunately, with advances in technology and employers hungry for the skills that teachers hone through their everyday routines, educators who wish to exit the classroom now have viable, fulfilling options for alternative employment. If you've honestly lost the will to return to your classroom, it's important for you-and perhaps more important for students-that you settle down with this short book and think through your options. After reading the author's perspective, you may find that teaching in the classroom is still the best fit for you. Or not. Either way, you'll have some guidance for your next steps toward fulfillment in your chosen career.Bestselling novelist Michelle Stimpson has taught English and math in public elementary, middle, and high schools. She endured both confusion and a sense of loss when she walked away from the system many of us have been in since pre-school. But after a string of experiences in corporate America, Michelle finally found her groove writing books and training English teachers. She hopes to help other educators find their best fit as well.

Teachers Make Great Trainers Schoolteachers are leaving their profession at a higher rate than ever before—and for myriad reasons. Passion for teaching is generally not one of them. If you are a schoolteacher thinking about making a career change, knowing that your passion and purpose for education will transfer with you to your new career may be the assurance you need to make the shift. Knowing that you can be effective and create a spark for learning as well as still have the flexibility, compensation, and development you crave in a career could be the motivation to step into a new role. Teachers to Trainers: Apply Your Passion and Skills to a New Career introduces you to career opportunities in the growing industry of talent development, where all those aspirations are possible. This first-ever volume offers you a view of a different education system: the world of talent development. In each chapter, former teachers recount the stories of how they made the career switch, describe their current roles, and share resources and tips for success. You will discover why these former teachers decided to seek a change and gain valuable insights into how they transitioned into talent development roles, including what they wished they had known when making the switch and the obstacles they overcame. You will also learn about the rewards they achieved in their transitions and, most importantly, see that their passion for teaching remains. The book includes a full range of resources to guide you—skills assessments, worksheets, descriptions of certifications and certificate programs, and print and online reading recommendations. You’ll also find tips about: transferable skills job market research resume creation what you need to go forward.

Read Rafe Esquith's posts on the Penguin Blog. The New York Times bestseller that is revolutionizing the way Americans educate their kids-"Rafe Esquith is a genius and a saint" (The New York Times) Perhaps the most famous fifth-grade teacher in America, Rafe Esquith has won numerous awards and even honorary citizenship in the British Empire for his outstandingly successful methods. In his Los Angeles public school classroom, he helps impoverished immigrant children understand Shakespeare, play Vivaldi, and become happy, self-confident people. This bestseller gives any teacher or parent all the techniques, exercises, and innovations that have made its author an educational icon, from personal codes of behavior to tips on tackling literature and algebra. The result is a powerful book for anyone concerned about the future of our children.

TheJob-Search Resource for Teachers Considering a New Career Teachers, are you ready for a career change? Today, turnover rates within the education industry are skyrocketing. Teachers as a group have extraordinary skills that are highly valued in the marketplace. But where does that leave you? Exactly where doyoubegin the whole vocation-switching process? In101 Career Alternatives for Teachers,you'll discover: -How to assess your career goals -The best fields for your particular teaching skills and expertise -Practical and effective ways to launch your job search -The most attractive and lucrative career alternatives -And much more! Unlike most career guides, this one-of-a-kind resource is geared specifically to you, the teacher. You'll find more than 100 exciting job alternatives ranging from adventure travel specialist to wedding consultant. Whether you're retiring from teaching or simply leaving the profession, experienced educator Margaret Gisler will provide you with everything you need to successfully make the transition from teaching to your new vocation.

Thich Nhat Hanh shares teacher-friendly guidance on bringing secular mindfulness into your classroom—complete with step-by-step techniques, exercises, and insights from other educators. Discover practical and re-energizing guidance on caring for yourself and your students! The Plum Village approach to mindfulness in schools stresses that educators must first establish their own mindfulness practice as a basis for their work in the classroom. These easy-to-follow, step-by-step techniques are designed by teachers to help their colleagues cultivate this important foundation and better support their students. You’ll find: • Basic mindfulness practices taught by Thich Nhat Hanh • Guidance from educators using these practices in their classrooms • Ample in-class interpretations, activities, tips, and instructions • Inspirational stories from teachers, administrators, and counselors With motivational anecdotes from colleagues and tried and true mindfulness exercises from Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village community, this loving and supportive guide is an invaluable tool for educators to calm, focus, and reenergize their classrooms.

Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers’ careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers’ voices are essential for understanding teachers’ lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers’ lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers’ lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.

This book addresses one of the most persistent issues confronting governments, educations systems and schools today: the attraction, preparation, and retention of early career teachers. It draws on the stories of sixty graduate teachers from Australia to identify the key barriers, interferences and obstacles to teacher resilience and what might be done about it. Based on these stories, five interrelated themes - policies and practices, school culture, teacher identity, teachers’ work, and relationships – provide a framework for dialogue around what kinds of conditions need to be created and sustained in order to promote early career teacher resilience. The book provides a set of resources – stories, discussion, comments, reflective questions and insights from the literature – to promote conversations among stakeholders rather than providing yet another ‘how to do’ list for improving the daily lives of early career teachers. Teaching is a complex, fragile and uncertain profession. It operates in an environment of unprecedented educational reforms designed to control, manage and manipulate pedagogical judgements. Teacher resilience must take account of both the context and circumstances of individual schools (especially those in economically disadvantaged communities) and the diversity of backgrounds and talents of early career teachers themselves. The book acknowledges that the substantial level of change required– cultural, structural, pedagogical and relational – to improve early career teacher resilience demands a great deal of cooperation and support from governments, education systems, schools, universities and communities: teachers cannot do it alone. This book is written to generate conversations amongst early career teachers, teacher colleagues, school leaders, education administrators, academics and community leaders about the kinds of pedagogical and relational conditions required to promote early career teacher resilience and wellbeing.

An illuminating guide to a career as a teacher written by acclaimed journalist Melinda D. Anderson and based on the real-life experiences of a master teacher—essential reading for anyone considering a path to this profession that changes lives. Go behind the scenes and be mentored by the best in the business to find out what it’s really like, and what it really takes, to become a teacher. Educators are the bedrock of a healthy society, and the exceptional ones have a lasting impact. The best teachers surpass mere instruction to cultivate and empower students beyond school. In LaQuisha Hall’s classroom, students are “scholars,” young ladies are “queens,” and young men are “kings.” The Baltimore high school English teacher’s pioneering approach to literacy has earned her teacher of the year accolades, and has established her as a visionary mentor to the young black men and women of Baltimore. Acclaimed education writer Melinda D. Anderson shadows Mrs. Hall to reveal how this rewarding profession changes lives. Learn about Hall’s path to prominence, from the challenging realities of her rookie year to her place of excellence in the classroom. Learn from Hall’s inspiring approach and confront the critical issues of race, identity, and equity in education. Here is how the job is performed at the highest level.

We've all been told to "follow our dreams", but what happens when those dreams aren't working out? Part personal memoir, part self-help, Follow Your Detour will inspire you to embrace the unexpected, let go of your pain and fears, and find the courage to create your own path.