How You Can Get More Out of Your Teaching Career
When it comes to jobs that allow you to give back to your community, the career of a teacher is certainly high on the list. You will be helping kids in your community not only with their education, but also in giving them the confidence they need to excel and make a future for themselves. And while that certainly feels rewarding, it’s normal to reach a point in your career where you just want more. Although you know you’re having a positive impact on the lives of kids, you may be looking for a new challenge, something that pushes you a little further and allows you to get more out of your current job or even open doors to a new career.
If this sounds familiar and you’re ready to give yourself a push and step out of your comfort zone, we’ve got some great ways you can start getting more out of your teaching career. These tips could be all it takes to reinvigorate how you feel about your career, and leave you feeling much more satisfied.
Ask Yourself How You Can Improve Your Teaching Skills
One way to get more out of your career is to start giving more. Give more and get more as they say, so if you can find a way to improve your own teaching skills, you may find that you feel more fulfilled in general. As you see your students engage better and more often, it can help feed your desire to just be better.
Some of the ways you can go about improving your skills as a teacher can be to enrol in any online or technology courses and resources that have been made available to you. When you look at the way the future is heading, it's all digital. This has been made clearer in the year of COVID-19 when so many schools have been forced to switch to an online platform. So, why not become an expert of sorts, and really prep yourself for what the future inevitably holds?
It can also be quite helpful to find a mentor and start having regular conversations with them. A mentor is someone you can turn to for advice and tips, and you can even bounce ideas and thoughts off them. If you can’t find a mentor, then you can connect with other likeminded teachers who are also looking to improve their skills.
And finally, you want to start paying attention to the cues the kids are giving you in class. When they disengage and seem bored with a lesson, ask yourself how you could present it in a more comprehensible and engaging way.
Extend Your Education and Open New Career Possibilities
This can also be a fabulous time to start thinking about possibly extending your own schooling so that you can entertain new career paths. The MA Education Distance Learning Programme could be a great option if you want to stick with teaching but in a different environment and capacity. With this master’s degree you can start teaching in non-traditional settings, which may be the shake-up your career needs right now. Some of the places you could teach include:
- Education departments
- Colleges
- Universities
- Museums
- NGOs
- Training and development
- Prisons
- Curriculum departments
- Youth work
- Education policy development
- Consultancy
Any one of these careers will feel completely different than teaching young children. The curriculum will be different, the way you teach will differ, and of course your students will also be completely different. It can really push your skills to the next level and allow you to feel more challenged overall. If you’ve been feeling bored and unfulfilled in your current teaching position, just imagine how different any one of these locations would feel.
As an added bonus, if you opt for the online version of the MA Education degree, then you can complete the entire course virtually. There is no need to attend any class in-person on campus, which gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to your schedule.
Teach a Different Grade – Step Outside the Box
For some, all it takes is to teach another grade and really step outside the box. That could be enough to have you feeling challenged, refreshed, and ready to take on whatever your career throws your way. It can get rather monotonous teaching the same grade, the same subjects, and the same curriculum year after year.
Build on Your Skills Outside of the Classroom
Sometimes, the solution isn't to do more in the classroom; it is to build on your skills outside of the classroom to feel more fulfilled. You may want to look into volunteering in the community or even doing part-time work that allows you to see a different perspective on life in general. Some great examples could be to volunteer at a local club, create your own club, organise activities and trips for these clubs and associations, and take on a leadership role.
What this does is build your own confidence in your skills, and allows you to see things from a different point of view – more of the management and planning point of view.
Make Sure You’re Really Listening to Your Students
The final tip is to slow down and make sure you’re truly listening to your students. This means watching for signals that they may be in over their head, that they are struggling with the content, and that they need extra help. There is nothing more rewarding than helping a student who feels overwhelmed and giving them the attention that they need to succeed and move forward.
There’s No Need to Feel Stuck in a Job
One of the most unpleasant things that can happen to someone at work is to feel stuck. It starts to eat away at your happiness, job satisfaction, confidence, and really affect your job performance in a negative way. If you’re starting to have these feelings, it’s time to stop, ask yourself how you can make changes in your life, and how you can start to get more out of your teaching career. Each of these tips can certainly help you forge a path forward.
