On the topic of leaving teaching:
I haven't had a classroom in 8 years. I did re-enter in 2018 but was also consulting. Then I was a coach. I've worked full time in tech since 2022.
When you're no longer in a teacher-facing role, your end game is no longer other teachers. It is the SYSTEM.
And frankly, this is for better or for worse.
There are some situations where this is a net positive and other situations where this is a net negative.
It's up to you to figure out how much you're going to be okay with.
I can tell that he really, really has compassion for his mother and her challenges, but from the outside looking in I spotted the red flags pretty much immediately. She’s like the “boy moms” on my mom forum who are entirely too dependent on their sons for their own happiness.
T-Mobile slashed their K-12 department. PowerSchool did layoffs (in December, but it was so close to the holidays that we still count them in our groups). Prodigy did layoffs. Vimeo laid off a majority of their staff. And now, Renaissance.
We’re speechless. This is a lot.
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This is sometimes an adjustment from people leaving the classroom because you go from having a ton of autonomy in your own space to essentially having to work FOR the system instead of working WITHIN a system.
The feedback teachers give on tech is valuable but only goes so far (to be truthful).
Even when I *didn't* work with folks who held the primary credit card when I was a coach, the goal was to be an advocate for educators but also to work alongside administration to advance goals forward. The job was bigger than a classroom. It was the entire school, and I had to operate accordingly.
Additionally, his father seems completely checked out. Part of the reason why they moved is because his father got a different job. But it seems like that was his ONLY focus. He'd come home from work completely aware that no schooling was done all day and just kind of ignore what was happening.
This goes for all industries--feedback on anything is valuable but at the end of the day, people who work in admin or for corporations generally do what's going to make them money, keep them employed, keep the majority of people around them happy, and doesn't cause a massive scandal.
In my role I cater to decision makers who have purchasing power, and in previous roles I've also had to cater to this as well. The bottom line is that most educators do not have purchasing power. They can give feedback, but they don't hold the credit card. I work with folks who hold the credit card.
So I’m in quite a few professional learning networks and this has been the first time I can think of where at least 10 people have already been laid off this year and it’s only FEBRUARY 5TH.
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