Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 125 - Are You Excited About the New School Year Or Are You Dreading It?

August 19, 2021 Kitty Boitnott Season 1 Episode 125
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 125 - Are You Excited About the New School Year Or Are You Dreading It?
Show Notes Transcript

The time for going back to school is fast approaching for millions of teachers and students, and in fact, millions are already back in some parts of the country.

I know we had all hoped that this year would be better than last, but because of COVID and the delta variant, it is already shaping up to be a bad year for kids and their teachers.

This week, I wrote a post entitled, "Are You Excited About the Upcoming School Year? Or Are You Dreading It?" The link for the post is https://kittyboitnott.coachesconsole.com/newsletters/are-you-excited-about-the-upcoming-school-year--or-are-you-dreading-it-.html?modify=1&coach_preview=1.

If you aren't anticipating going back with excitement and enthusiasm but feel a sense of dread instead, it may be time to start looking for something new to do with your life. It may be too late for this year, but you can start creating your exit plan now. The sooner the better.

If you would like to talk about making a change, schedule a complimentary Discovery Session at https://teachersintransition.com/calendar.

Also, I am offering a free, live Masterclass on August 19, 2021, at 7:00 PM EST on "How to Leapfrog from the K-12 Classroom Into a Brand New Career." If you would like to attend or have a friend who might be interested, feel free to share the registration link:  https://event.webinarjam.com/register/40/xo9xnhmr.

I would love to see you there!


Speaker 1:

There he is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burn out teachers, just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty. Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to episode 125 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel. My name is kitty Boitnott. I am the owner of Boitnott coaching and the founder of teachers in transition. I specialize in working with burnout teachers who are ready to make a career change, but don't know where or how to begin. I am also a certified stress management coach. And if you have listened to this podcast in the past, you already know that on alternating weeks, I talked about stress management strategies for teachers and busy professionals. And on the other weeks, I talk about career transition and how to conduct a successful job search this week. We're talking about career transition, although I guess it's also probably intermingled with the whole notion that teachers are getting ready to go back to school, totally stressed out and not sure what's going on. So I wrote an article this week. It is a part of my weekly newsletter, a service that I provide to all of the people on my email list. And I entitled it. Are you excited about the upcoming school year or are you dreading it? And the reason I thought to write it is that here we are, it's the middle just past the middle of August. Some school systems already gotten back and are in full swing. Some are starting this week. Some will be starting next week. Uh, others will be starting after labor day, but everybody is within a few weeks of getting the school year back underway. And I can recall years when I was so excited about going back, you know, I've always said that the teaching profession is unique. It's unique in a lot of ways, but it's unique in that we are the, we were, are the only profession where we get do overs. Every year we get to start a whole fresh year with a blank slate and we can plan to make it whatever we want. And I don't know of any other profession that gets that kind of fresh start every year. At the end of the year, you put a period on it, you have your summer vacation for either vacation or professional development, and then you plan for a brand new year. And in the past, at least back to school, evoked anticipation and excitement and enthusiasm. Now you'd go shopping for your new school shoes or your sneakers. You you'd buy a new backpack, lots of school supplies. I mean, it was, it was fun. I used to love as a, as a school librarian. I used to love to go to the little school supply shop in my town and buy up with my own money posters and bulletin board kids and office equipment for my office. I mean, I loved it and I would be excited about going back three old to see my colleagues at the first faculty meeting and excited about the first day of school. I always volunteered to walk the kindergartners from the school bus to their classroom, gave me a chance to meet them, to help them settle their nerves, to help them find where they were supposed to be. Some of them were crying along the way, but by the time they got to their classroom, they were feeling better. And this year, last year, it's a whole different, a whole different experience. We all had hoped that this year would be different from last year that we wouldn't be going into another school year with as much uncertainty about how the school year was going to progress. You know, last year we were under the impression that kids didn't carry the same virus load and that they weren't as communicable and didn't carry the virus as, and that they were relatively safe from COVID. It was the adults that needed to be concerned. And school systems did the best they could to try to protect their staff. Uh, I know in my area, the school districts started off virtual and then ended up going back for some form of in-person or hybrid model of teaching. And it was tremendously stressful for the teachers, regardless of how they were teaching. It was stressful. And I taught a class at the university of Richmond where I'm an adjunct professor, and I had students in my class on, uh, issues, ethics and policy education policy. And they shared with me their weekly experiences of new mandates being handed down daily, practically, um, not knowing exactly from day to day what they, what they were going to be expected to do or what would be demanded of them. And they were all stressed to the max. And so we had all hoped that with the vaccine coming out in the spring and people, you know, rushing to get their vaccines, the hope had been that this year could be a more normal year, but for a variety of reasons and not everyone is choosing to get back stated. And so now we have a new strain of COVID the Delta variant that is impacting our children. And so here we are right back to square one with school divisions, trying to make tough choices and sometimes within tough political environments where their hands are being tied and they can't always make the best decisions that they can to keep students and teachers safe. So the question is, are you excited about going back to school this year or are you dreading it, and if you are dreading it it's likely too late to do anything about it. You'll unless, unless you get the jackpot or won the lottery or you are financially well off enough that you can consider just quitting your job. Most people don't have that kind of freedom or financial flexibility. So if you didn't find a new job over the summer, like one of my clients did, you need to plan to go back, but it may be that this year will be the last straw for you. And you will want to be looking for an alternative for next year and possibly to, even if you can something within this school year to go ahead and leave before the school year is out. My mantra is that life is too short to stay stuck in a job. You don't love. I truly believe that you may or may not know if you've listened to me in the past. My brother passed away this spring at the age of 63, very unexpectedly, um, out of the blue, we, we, I don't think he was sick. He had a heart attack, literally your one day gone. The next, my father died in an accident in 1986, literally here, one day gone. The next, I am acutely aware of how fragile life is and how short it is and how I made a decision when I turned 60. And I didn't want to sit and spend another day of my work life doing something that I didn't love doing that I couldn't be fully invested in. And I knew that that wasn't teaching for me. I was done with teaching as a profession, which is ironic because I loved my job as a school librarian. Most of the time, I always felt like I had the best job in the building, but I was going to be assigned to a middle school English position. And I wasn't thrilled about having to do that. It, that, that I was too tired. I was burnt out from my job at the DEA. I was, I felt like, uh, a piece of cloth that was wet and had been run dry. I was just no, in no shape it off physically, mentally, or emotionally to go back, to try to learn the standards and involve myself in the testing regimen that I don't even believe is in the best interest of children, frankly. So I was done. I had been filled with such dread at the idea of going back for the few days that I was assigned to go back, that I would cry every time I thought about it. And if you are in that position, if you feel like crying, or if you actually cry, when you think about going back to school this year, it's time to make a change and it's time to start making a plan. And that's where my company comes in at teachers in transition. What we do is we teach teachers how to look for a new career direction, starting with deciding what is it that you want to do, not necessarily what you think you're qualified to do. That's important, but what are your true unique aptitudes strengths and talents that would lend themselves to a career that you could love? Again, the way you probably loved teaching when you first started and for each client that I have, that I'm working currently with, it's different. Nobody wants to do the same thing. And thank goodness, but I have had some teachers who are interested in the human resources, field, others interested in curriculum and design others interested in instructional design, others interested in graphic design, some in blogging, some in lifestyle, coaching, some in nutrition and wellness. It runs the gamut. And what my program does is it helps to give you the resources that you need to find where those jobs are that you might be interested in and then to develop a strategic job search plan so that you can be successful once you've targeted. The specific job that you're looking for, that includes writing a relevant resume and a compelling cover letter and a stellar LinkedIn profile. It includes honing your interview skills, but it also includes lots of other things like learning, how to manage the applicant tracking system, learning how to rebrand yourself, how to talk about yourself differently as you are aspiring to become someone new, not a teacher anymore, but some other career professional networking, a social, how to manage your social media during your job search. All of that gets packaged in the program this Thursday on the 19th of August. Um, um, we'll actually, by the time you hear this Thursday will already be here. So let's say tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern, I'll be offering a free live masterclass on how to leap frog from the K-12 classroom into a brand new career. I'll be offering specific tips and strategies for how you can get a job search underway. I will also be promoting my new cohort that will be forming, uh, next month. And I'll be offering a very special price on the program, along with a series of bonuses to go along with people who purchase tonight and people who purchased before I closed the cart on Sunday, if you are interested, or if you have a friend or colleague that you think would be interested, check the show notes for the link to the registration for tonight's presentation, seven o'clock Eastern, um, four o'clock Pacific time. I would love to see you there. I know that I'll be offering important information that if you're just now thinking, you know, I don't, I don't think I can do a full year this year, given how we're starting off. And maybe you have other reasons for needing to leave. Maybe you have a chronic health issue that hinders you from being able to go return to your building, or maybe there's something else going on with you that keeps you from wanting to go back. But here's what I know for sure. If you are dreading going back to school this year, or if you're already back in your field with dread at the idea of finishing the school year, you need to start making a plan and tonight's presentation will help you with that plan. So sign up using the registration code in the show notes, I'll also offer a link to the newsletter that I wrote this week, so that you can have access to that as well. And I hope that you'll you'll listen and, or read the newsletter posts so that you can get some ideas for your own career change if that's what you're wanting to do. So that's it for this week. I hope you stay well and stay safe, whether you're back at school or still enjoying the last couple of weeks of summer vacation, as always, if you have any questions or comments, email me@katieboitnottatgmail.com, uh, offer a review of this podcast to help other people find it. And if you would like for me to cover a particular topic, let me know that as well. That's it for this week, have a wonderful week and I will see you again next week.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it, an episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me@kittyboitnottatnotcoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Katie Boitnott and this is teachers in transition.