Preface
Oprah Winfrey cried when she saw her fourth-grade teacher, Mary Duncan, as a surprise guest on her stage.
“I always, because of you, felt I could take on the world. You did exactly what teachers are supposed to do, they create a spark for learning that lives with you from then on,” Oprah told her teacher.
“One of the defining moments of my life came in fourth grade—the year I was a student in Mrs. Duncan’s class at Wharton Elementary School in Nashville,” she later wrote. “For the first time, I wasn’t afraid to be smart, and she often stayed after school to work with me.”
Bill Gates says he, too, partly owes his success in life to his childhood teachers—particularly his fourth grade teacher and librarian, Blanche Caffiere. “When I was a student, I was lucky to have some inspiring teachers—including a wonderful librarian when I was in the fourth grade and a chemistry teacher in high school—who challenged me and brought out my best. They helped make me the person I am today” (Gates 2018).
And while you may know Bill Clinton for being the 42nd president of the United States, he’s also known for his love of playing the saxophone. He credits his high school band teacher, Virgil Spurlin, with not just teaching him how to play his beloved sax, but also for mentoring him and teaching him organizational and leadership skills. Clinton was quoted in multiple media outlets as saying he has thought of Spurlin as his mentor all his life.
Exceptional teachers can be the catalyst to inspire trailblazers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs who forever change the world. Having this kind of impact is why teachers do what they do. Nearly all of us can think back to our favorite K–12 schoolteachers and find a point at which one of them changed our perspective or touched our hearts. Yet, like any job in public service, teaching requires some give and take.
I am not a teacher, but I, too, thought that if I followed what I perceived to be a lifelong passion, I would be fulfilled. Growing up, my family moved around quite a bit. We were never in one place longer than a few years (sometimes months) before we packed up and moved again. I became very adaptable (some might say a bit nutty)—but because of this upbringing, I also get bored very quickly. Having few constants in my childhood years, I clung to books, my parents, and my brother, Paul, when he wasn’t off setting things on fire.
My love for the written word led me to an English degree, then a master’s degree in journalism, and ultimately a writing career. After spending about 10 years in journalism, I realized that while my passion for learning, talking to new people, and writing were realized, my extroverted personality was not a good fit for a research-heavy profession—especially with the addition of three little kids all in a row. I was bored, broke, and uninspired.
Similarly, some teachers may find that though their passion to educate young minds has been fulfilled, the drawbacks of their situations have left them bored, broke, and uninspired too. Teachers are leaving the profession more now than ever before. A passion for teaching can only take a teacher so far if they cannot live with the current realities of the profession. While this was true even before the coronavirus pandemic, the exit rate is even more pronounced now than ever before. One in five teachers announced in May 2020 that they would not return to the classroom, according to a USA Today/Ipsos poll. The move to online instruction, constricting already-low budgets and worries over their health, have left teachers reeling.
No amount of passion will change the predetermined pay scale for a teacher in their county or state, the temperamental parents, often unruly students, overpopulated classrooms, the move to e-learning, or standardized testing requirements that continue to dictate curriculum. Teachers today are leaving their profession at the highest rates since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started recording those figures. Some of the main reasons before coronavirus hit the country were pay scale, feelings of being overwhelmed and unsupported by their peers and school system, and workplace conditions—which include everything from lack of respect to the quality of the buildings and classrooms.
Moving to another school or to an administrator role like principal or assistant principal may be options for those who cannot reconcile the sometimes harsh realities of being a K–12 teacher, or for those teachers who feel unfulfilled. Other teachers leave the profession altogether to find rewarding work as lawyers or in the medical profession. But for those who are looking to take their passion for education and teaching to a different demographic—this book will show you the way.
About This Book
Teachers to Trainers: Apply Your Passion and Skills to a New Career offers a view of an entirely different education system—the corporate world of talent development. Here, former teachers recount how they made their career switch, describe their current roles, and share resources and tips. You will find out why these former teachers decided to seek a change, gain valuable insight into how they made the transition into their talent development roles, discover what they wished they had known when making the switch, and examine the obstacles they overcame as well as rewards they achieved in their transformations.
The most important element to take away from these former teachers’ experiences is that their passion for helping others and reshaping lives for the better still runs strong in all of their current roles. By moving into talent development roles, you can still tap into that deeper sense of purpose and the skills you acquired in education—you just won’t have to chase your students off the monkey bars.
Each chapter includes sections on job market research, what you need to go forward, transferable skills, and final thoughts on what to consider when mulling this career change. Also included to guide you are a full range of resources—websites, links, research tools such as skills assessments and worksheets, reading recommendations, and a professional resume sample. Here is a brief description of the chapters.
Introduction: Why Teachers Leave offers data on teachers leaving their profession—who they are, why they leave, and where they go.
Chapter 1. Talent Development = People Development describes the growing field of talent development, introducing the variety of roles that K–12 teachers might pursue—instructional designer, e-learning professional, trainer, coach, performance consultant, and talent development manager or director.
Chapter 2. At a Career Crossroads, Choosing Corporate Training introduces you to the diverse world of building performance capability within the corporate arena. Besides snippets of how three teachers made the transition there are myriad tips, techniques, and ideas for your journey.
Chapter 3. Instructional Design: Transform Your K–12 Skill Set is for those curious about opportunities outside teaching. A former teacher describes her journey to instructional design.
Chapter 4. The E-Learning Professional introduces you to an e-learning expert who describes how she’s blended a love of computers and education to become an instructional designer focused on instructional technology and e-learning.
Chapter 5. Serving Through Coaching features a leadership coach who describes how she partners with clients and shares the many roles of coaching in the business world.
Chapter 6. Consulting and Presenting: Focus on the Big Picture shares the story of one teacher who struck out on his own after a full career in K–12. He relays the skills and drive needed to sustain a long second career as a consultant and public speaker.
Chapter 7. Academia: Higher Education’s Risks and Rewards demonstrates that although career paths in higher education are fewer today, universities offer unique benefits for those who remain enthusiastic about in-classroom teaching.
Chapter 8. A Step Up: Management and Leadership shares the story of how passion is the link for one teacher-leader who became a director of learning at one of the U.S.’s largest national retail corporations.
In the conclusion, we consider the growing talent development field and what the future might hold for this industry.
Let Teachers to Trainers be your guide toward discovering the world of talent development. If you are considering a shift in your career but still love to educate and cultivate individuals, then you have picked up the right book. You can keep your purpose and passion. You can be impactful and create a spark for learning, and still have the flexibility, compensation, and growth you crave in a career. Meet teachers who have done just that—transformed their careers from K–12 into the corporate world. None of them regrets it. We will inform you of the many options available, and the realities and the triumphs that come with the transition. We hope we can help in your quest!
—Lisa Spinelli, Senior Content Manager, Career Development, ATD