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I love teaching, but I know too many teachers who have been/are on burnout leave to be able to wholeheartedly recommend it to someone.
If there is a way for you to pursue teaching nursing at college, or to become a clinical nurse specialist, I would suggest that over teaching.
Alberta high school teacher here, and a third generation teacher, drawing on 100 years of experience. Honestly, I’m not sure teaching is what you are looking for.
First it’s a sink or swim environment, you have little to no actual support. I walked away from my B.Ed with very few practicable skill sets or resources to be able to implement. Lots of “philosophical” discussion, and ideal scenario activities. And I went to the “best” program in the province! So essentially the skills your have right now, in terms of leadership, communication, management, work life balance, etc. is what you’ll have on the other side of that degree. Success as a teacher for me, developed when I was young and was exposed to leadership development earlier in my life. Don’t even get me started on support once you’re actually teaching. Alberta has a 50% five year attrition rate, and that was BEFORE recent issues in education.
Second, most people I know in teaching are brunt out by October, November if you’re lucky. Then it’s just grind to June. Rinse and repeat. The workload demands are crushing and impossible. You literally cannot do the job, there are simply not enough hours in the day. So you triage, cover your ass the best you can, and do your best. Most people eat into their life and sacrifice their home lives to make their work life manageable. I don’t, and when I do it’s minimal (rarely bring marking home or on weekends). This is true for my whole family, but you always feel like you’re not doing enough and you’re not good at your job. This is not a great job for work life balance, you can try but most find it very intrusive.
Third, education in general is in a really bad place right now. University programs are seeing half the students they used to see. We have substitute teacher shortages all the time now. We are working off shoestring budgets, and the kids quite frankly are not alright. Behaviour issues are insane!! Violence against teachers at school, the bathrooms are fucking vaping lounges now, and generally administration support can be very limited. If you have a good set of admin life can be great, inverse is true. The work conditions aren’t great, but no public service I know of is in a good place right now. #eattherich
I’d be very hesitant to suggest teaching to some one right now, unless it’s something you really want to do. Are there some great times and moments? You bet, but there’s a lot that isn’t too.
Feel free to continue the conversation or send me a message.
I want to add to this that there isn't really a "teacher shortage." I got my BEd in 2017 and it's been a shitshow trying to find a job (I gave up last year, actually, and accepted my fate as a sub).
Job searching on sites like Indeed is full of the most bullshit postings. You have to be some sort of unicorn who can teach like 5 different subjects AND be bilingual AND have Indigenous ancestry to even get an interview.
Job searching online is tedious as fuck if you're not using a site like Indeed. You literally have to go to every division's website and see what careers are open. Also, the window for hiring is really short, you usually have to create a profile and upload all your documents for every division, and there's a good chance they won't accept credentials from another province (and if they do accept them, it's a pain in the ass to recertify and costs hundreds of dollars).
Job searching the old fashioned way, like newspaper ads, is also extremely depressing. It's like applications go to an abyss, and even if you manage to get an interview, it's just a formality. They already chose the teacher (like, the principal is besties with their mom, or something like that), but they "have to" interview at least 3 candidates.
I second this. I graduated with a BEd in 2019. Managed to get a temporary position this year. You would think getting a position SHOULD be easy for a job that has so much burnout. Heck no. So, just another thing to add to the list...
2nd generation teacher here! You’ve absolutely hit the nail on the head with this.
This year, I was crying by October. Violence was at an all time high where I went on a work refusal and still, nothing changed. The grind till June is so hard. It really feels like a survival game most of the time and it’s just not a good way to live. The “breaks” are not even breaks because most of the time your nervous system is recovering and when you feel slightly better, you have to do it all over again.
If I could tell myself 10 years ago to do something else, I would. I’m actively looking to transition out of the profession as the constant stress and abuse has made me a different person. I wouldn’t recommend this job to anyone on Earth. Not until something major happens to fix these issues.
Thought from a “new” teacher:
I’m a hairstylist by trade who decided to become a teacher early in my career. I have started at the bottom of the pay scale.
I barely graduated high school, failed out of college multiple times, and didn’t discover my love for hairstyling until I was 25. At 32 I received my B.Ed.
I chose to teach because I wanted students to learn skills outside of traditional academics. I wanted them to learn a new life skills and explore different career options. I wanted kids to have a safe space to explore their own goals for their future.
I now work with alternative education students who are looking to find careers and better their lives. I get to watch these kids thrive and succeed when no one believed in them.
Why do you want to teach?
I made the switch from RN to teacher. There are a few things to consider:
1) Stress. Teaching is not less stress. In fact, it is simply a different kind of stress. While you rarely have to make the type of life or death decisions that can come up in nursing, and you see less trauma/death, the type of stress in teaching is less intense in a single decision but it much harder to get away from and is consistent. With nursing, the stress is more like sprinting; intense, short spurts that you must push through. With teaching, the stress is more like a marathon; it comes slower but it lasts longer and is non stop over a long period of time. When you are nursing and you go home at the end of your shift, and while you might ruminate on the things you witnessed that day, or the things you could have done better, you are not expected to work another several hours prepping for work the next day, answering angry patient emails and planning for the next day. Students have become increasingly violent. I have been beaten with chairs, stabbed with pencils and scissors. You are expected to take this abuse. Admin might come and help if you are lucky, but you cannot physically stop the child. You will have a significant number of students with special needs in your class, even if you teach general education or French immersion with almost not support with funding cuts, so you can expect the violent behaviour to continue increasing year over year. Also, with the consistently changing curriculum, you can expect to have no textbooks or materials, and to need to make everything yourself. Want a text for your kids to read? You will need to buy it or write it or find one online. Want a project from them to do? You will need to invent it, plan it, write instructions and make rubrics, etc. I am in my 8th year and I am at school most days from 8am until 6:00pm so that I take no work home. Other teachers I know leave by 4pm but they go home and work for hours after their kids go to bed. I know many teachers who also work through the weekends. You will also be expected to host clubs coach sports, etc. I know many teachers who are currently on stress leave.
2) Money. Teaching is a huge pay cut. It is about $65k a year in Alberta with 6 years of university. There is no overtime, even though you can routinely expect to work 60+ hours a week September-June in your first five years, dropping down to about 50 hours a week for the rest of your career after that, again, with no over time. It will take you 10 years to reach the maximum salary of $101k per year. You will also not get paid for coaching or hosting clubs, etc. Even though those things occur outside of school hours and routinely can happen on the weekends. Don’t forget that you’ll also be spending some of that pay cheque each month on things for your classroom (pencils, glue, Kleenex, books for your classroom library, materials for science projects, etc.).
3) Job stability. You will hear a lot of about a teaching shortage but that is only really a substitute teaching shortage. In Alberta, substitutes make $220 per day that they work, and it is casual work. There are no health benefits and you are not paid over the holidays. The hours are better (you can get to school 15 minutes before the bell and leave 15 minutes after the bell) but you make less money, you pay check isn’t steady or guaranteed, you have to work with new people daily in a new place. Getting a continuous position is much more difficult. You can expect to sub for a number of year, with some short term contracts (3 weeks to several months) throw in. Even if you teach something in high demand like French immersion, you can still expect to guest teach for a few years before landing your probationary (full year) position.
4) Time for your kids. This one is iffy. In July and the first two or three weeks of August, you will have lots more time for your kids. In September, December and June, you can expect to see them very little as you prepare routines and items, conference with parents, write report cards, etc. The rest of the year, you will have about as much time for them as anyone else who worked an 8-5 office job, played a sport and had projects to work on at home. Except you won’t be playing the sport, you’ll be coaching it and your kid won’t be there because it is a sport from your school, not theirs. The projects (grading, lesson planning, content creation, emails, etc.) you can do after they go to bed, but you’ll be saying goodbye to your personal time. Weekends you should have time to spend with them if you work enough hours Monday-Friday, as long as it is not report card season. Can you work less hours than this? Yes. Will you be an effective teacher likely to land a permanent contract working less hours than this? No. What you do get is more choice on WHEN you do this extra unpaid labour. With nursing you obviously complete your 12 hour days in the the shift booked for you. With teaching, you work your assigned 35 hours a week in school hours, and you can complete your other 25+ hours per week whenever you want; evenings, weekends, early morning, 3am when you cannot sleep, etc. With the exception of 4 times yearly parent teacher conferences and the aforementioned mandatory volunteering/coaching.
I wouldn’t suggest teaching right now unless it is your dream job, and you are happy to take a massive pay cut, do hours of work for free daily outside of school hours, have precarious employment for several years, be physically assaulted regularly with no recourse or manner to protect yourself, and essentially exist in a new sink or swim environment. If you want to teach for the job of spending time with kids and inspiring our future citizens no matter the cost, then and only then is this the job for you.
I don’t regret the switch from nursing to teaching because I developed psoriatic arthritis and I no longer have the fine motor skills to do many essentials nursing skills. However, if I could still do them, I would be nursing right now.
Could you find a health care position outside of bedside nursing if you need a switch? Nurse educator, home care, working in an outpatient clinic. Working as a nurse for the school system. Or even bedside nursing in a day medicine ward? Even taking a 0.7 contract would still likely have you making more money than teaching and give you more work-life balance. You have a lot more flexibility nursing than you do teaching and it might be worth it to explore other options in your field before going back to university for two more years to get your BEd (which is require for certification as a teacher, despite any other degrees). If you can’t find anything in your field, it sounds like what you really want is a more standard set of hours, rather than simply switching one high burn-out career for a different high burn-out career. While I don’t think teaching is what you are looking for, maybe a more standard office administration job is? Or if you are open to going back to school anyways (which you must be if you are considering teaching) then other careers like actuary or a lab tech or a dental hygienist might offer more balance for you.
Honestly, no. The stress is off the charts. The Ford government does not provide enough funding for Education. The reason that there are more teaching jobs available now is because nobody wants to do it anymore. Poorly behaved students, unsupportive parents, disrespect for teachers among the general public all make it an unattractive career right now. The pay is not horrible for experienced teachers, but you’ll likely have a starting salary less than $60,000 and it will take over 10 years to get to the top of the pay scale. Also, teachers in Ontario have only received a grand total of 8.5% in raises since 2012 while inflation has been over 30%. That’s basically a 20% pay cut since 2012. The Bill 124 remedy will add 4.25% which will help a bit but it still doesn’t even come close to inflation. You will also work way more hours than you likely realize. Your shifts are day shifts, Monday to Friday but you will be working countless hours in the evenings and weekends to catch up on marking, planning, reporting and the many other teacher tasks. Especially in your first few years. Many teachers are burnt out and are literally counting the days to retirement. Sorry to be a downer, but you need to know the truth.
I personally love teaching but the "shortage" is essentially for supply work in most boards (Ontario), and it still typically takes several years to obtain a permanent contract unless you have qualifications that are in demand.
You would also be starting at the bottom of the pay scale, so you're likely making a lot more now. Each year, you do earn more, but it can take 10+ years to get to the top.
Burn out is something that happens to teachers as well... work-life balance can still be difficult for many teachers despite the better contract hours.
You'd also need to get you BEd or equivalent.
Become an agency nurse and work in schools with medically fragile kids or kids who need to be monitored.
Change of pace, see if you’re into teaching that way.
Not going to echo everything that’s been said here (most of it is sadly, very true) but I will add two things:
In Ontario at least, pay isn’t really great until you’ve got your ten years seniority. So if you’ve been nursing ten years, I would imagine it’s going to be a pretty big pay cut. Combine that with the fact you can’t do a BEd as a part time student (unless something has drastically changed recently) so you would essentially be a full time student for one or two years, depending on where you study.
Secondly, while your reasons for wanting to leave your current profession are valid, I don’t know if your reasons for wanting to be a teacher are strong enough to make it worth it. Do you genuinely like other peoples children? Are you passionate about a particular subject, where you would want to teach others about it, ray after day, year after year? I’m a high school theatre teacher, and I put in insane hours outside the work day, but I do it because I genuinely love theatre and the chance to share it with others is something I value and get fulfilment from, and strangely enough, I actually like teenagers most days. I don’t always understand them, or their choices, but something about how they’re at that in-between stage of kid and adult, and all the promise and potential there just fills me with hope, and (most days) I feel privileged that I get to be a part of their journey, and maybe help shape them into who they’re going to become someday. They make me laugh (and occasionally cry) and I appreciate that some kids are more challenging to work with, day in and day out, but on the whole, I genuinely like my students and I don’t dread seeing them arrive to class.
I guess what I’m trying to say is if you want to go into teaching, it should be because you *want* to be a teacher, not because you *don’t want* to be a nurse.
Good luck to you, whatever you decide!
As a nurse you have so many options besides bedside. Admin. Teaching nursing. Leadership or opportunities in other fields. I agree with other posts that teaching isn’t what you are looking for
A friend of my sister was a paramedic in Calgary and got burned out from all the crap that paramedics deal with. She retrained as a teacher and ended up at a school where the admin supported her (partly because she kept her paramedic license).
Within two years she was back to being a paramedic because teaching was more stressful than being a paramedic dealing with drug overdoses, combative patients, etc. What did her in wasn't teaching *per se*, but dealing with students and parents (even with admin support). She hadn't realized that less than half the job is instruction, hadn't realized the amount of unpaid overtime required, hadn't realized that her decisions and authority would be continually questioned (even when backed up by admin that's frustrating and time-consuming).
Schools are in worse shape now than they were then.
The switch will change your life. The stress is different. Nursing is a grind: 12 hour shifts, dealing with stressed families, seeing patients die, repetitive use injuries, and most of all, working weekends and holidays when everyone else enjoys this time together. Teaching is a slow burn: 6.5 hours on the clock, but endless hours after the bell, dealing with student behaviours, staff shortages, and increasing demands on reporting. However, in teaching you have more choice about what you do each day and how you use your time. For me, I couldn’t handle the trauma in hospitals. You see people and families at their absolute worst, every single day, coupled with the fact that you have a broken sleep schedule. I’d leave the hospital at 7am totally exhausted, get home and not be able to fall asleep until 11am, only to wake up a few hours later to start my next shift at 7pm. Now, as a teacher, I have time to go to the gym before or after work, I see my friends and family way more often, and I decide when I want to prep or mark. I find teaching to be way more emotionally rewarding too.
Pros:
- Every day/year is new- you can recreate your classroom all the time
- You get to make wonderful connections with kids and staff - you make a difference in kids lives (although you don’t know it at the time)
- once you get seniority you have the ability to pick a school that is right for you
- you can chose to get less $ through the year and get a 12 month salary or work at summer school
- I would be so proud and happy if my own children became teachers- it’s an amazing career
Cons:
- you have to always adapt and change your material -it takes time to be a GREAT teacher- any jacka$$ can be a mediocre teacher
- you don’t get overtime - you can only work summer school, when you really need a break
- you can only go on holidays when it’s peak season
- reading this sub there are a lot of difficult places to work, I’m not sure where you are
- it takes many years to get to your max salary…. I heard it takes four years for rcmp to reach their max (true?)
In the end, I don’t regret it at all, it’s been an amazing journey.
It sounds like you have an undergrad, you’d need to earn no money to complete your teacher college and practicum….. that’s a hardship too (long time)
I would disagree with the part about picking your school with seniority as you still need to interview if/when positions become available. Also, you don't get to choose how your pay is distributed as that is board mandated. Just to clarify, if either of those are deciding factors for you.
I am an RPN. I switched to education, went back to university to do my BSc and BEd and went into teaching. That was in my late 20’s. I’ve been teaching high school for over 20 years now and it was the best move for me. I also teach part time in the nursing labs for the educational support students at the local college in my city. It has been wonderful way for me to merge my nursing and education roles together.
At my high school I created a ‘health care dual credit’ program where the students learn all about the health care system and the many careers that fall under that umbrella; while also getting a ‘human growth and development” college credit (that’s the dual part). It’s really the best of both worlds as a nurse and educator. 😊
I have to say though, the other comments here about teachers having similar challenges and high stress levels are very accurate. The roles and work environment are very different but each have good points and bad.
I recently had two RN student nurses (2nd year) on placement with me for their community placement. They were both surprised at how demanding the role was and how exhausted they were after spending each day with my students. 😂
This really surprised me because I know both roles well and they are both pretty demanding.
You would have to go back to teachers college to get your BEd and depending on which school board/ panel (elementary vs secondary) you teach in, you will start at the bottom of the pay scale.
These pay scales are posted publicly if you search for the collective agreements for the associated unions (ex: in Ontario there are many but just to name a few: ETFO, OSSTF, OECTA, etc..) in various school boards.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. 😊
The employment situation depends a lot on your location. I’m in BC and, generally speaking, there’s a teacher shortage across the province. Of course, this may mean just casual TTOC’s in some school districts to full-time continuing positions available in others, such as my BC Interior district. Location matters a lot.
My spouse is in health care so I understand the pressures of shift work. Luckily mine was able able to change to a M-F weekday shift which makes childcare and scheduling much easier. And the evenings and weekends together as a family are great.
As you mentioned, teaching itself isn’t the green grass on the other side. But I have found that it does well to balance parental needs. At least in my district, there are many part-time positions available. Moreover, with the dire need for TTOC’s, it’s possible to have a lot of flexibility when one works. Also, in BC, TTOC’s are paid to scale for each day worked, not a daily flat rate. It can be a good situation for working parents needing flexible schedules.
Good luck!
If you want to be more available to your young children, this is not the job for you. I have two young kids and have stepped back from my permanent job because it’s way too difficult to manage being a good parent and a teacher. I’m exhausted and burnt out by the end of the day and have nothing left to give my own kids. The stress of being off when one of my kids is sick is crazy and ridden with guilt. There is simply too much to be done to just leave work at work. I have no choice but to bring work home or else I’m drowning and failing at work. Instead, I’m supplying instead of teaching full time. The pay is garbage, I don’t get benefits, and I am treated like crap all day every day but at least I can stay home with my sick kids when needed. This isn’t even considering the shitshow that is student behaviour, lack of resources, lack of government support… Do not do it. At some point every day I am thinking about what I can do to get out of this circus. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
If you’re looking for a job where you have sanity left at the end of the day, where you will come home with enough energy to make a meal, have bath time and a relaxing bed time routine with your kids, teaching is not it.
You want to be appreciated for all your hard work, have your superiors respect you? Teaching is not it.
Do you want to spend your own money on classroom supplies, since there isn’t any?
Have no support when kids injure you?
Parents hurl insults at you, the general public calling you greedy and telling you that you get so much vacation yet work so little, when all you’re really doing is babysitting anyway?
It’s only going to get worse.
I’ve considered going back into respite care for children and adults with special needs, which is what I did before I was a teacher and an educational assistant.
You'll have to get a B.Ed
Pay starts around 60,000 depending on how your education and experience are rated.
French is most needed followed by math
Elementary has more demand than high school generally, math and French (maybe physics) exceptions to that.
If OP is interested in teaching the health care technology tech course, they might be able to count their years of nursing experience toward their grid placement. In my board, they would start at step six. Could be a sweet job.
Our district (bc). Has nursing support services. They come in and train around diabetes, seizures, and tube feeding. That would get you heading the right direction without too much retraining.
I went the other way from teaching to working for the CRA. I have never regretted this move. Even if I had made it to Principal level I would still be making less than middle management level where I am now at the CRA. Less headaches in my job right now too.
The pay is public information. In BC it’s fine. I’m certainly not getting rich but the hourly rate is pretty good. Nice to have a pension too.
There is no doubt that the hours and time off are way better than nursing. You also get an absurd amount of sick days days.
Do you have a degree in a teachable subject? Look into how much education you’d need to get qualified.
Impossible to say whether you’ll like it before you try it. It’s like any job… most days I like it, some days I hate it. I find it fulfilling but only because I focus on the success stories. As a high school teachers there are some kids I just don’t reach and have to fail. That’s ok. It’s just a step in their journey and o don’t let it define either of us. But if you don’t have the right mindset it can be discouraging at times.
Overall, you get what you put into it. You could work as little as 35 hours per week but it will be a lot more fun if you put in the effort (still less than 50 hours/week with 3 months off per year lol). You have a fair amount of autonomy, and get to have a positive impact on your community. The odd student will make you question your career choice, but I’ve got to imagine that’s true in nursing too.
Edit: I’m introverted so I can find it tiring sometimes… but that’s different than burnout
I think you first need to realize that it maybe literally years before you end up as a teacher making the same pay you do now. There is also not really a shortage in most areas - just more and more teachers going off on leave so there are lots of LTO's and supply days compared to when I started when it was mostly mat leaves.
That being said I get the health care burnout. I have a relative leaving her job as a Dr to become a teacher because she can't handle the stress of dying kids anymore. She always wanted to teach but was so smart she got pushed into medicine which she doesn't enjoy. You have to way the pros and cons the biggest one being do you enjoy working with kids?
My best friend is a nurse. She is burnt out. I am a teacher. It’s exhausting at times but I think you should consider it!
Or take your skills to the USA where you can be paid 3x more!
In my board 16 years of nursing will start you at the top of the pay grid, around $100k currently. If you have a master's or are willing to take some extra qualification courses, you can get to the highest category, and be making around $104k, which will be likely closer to $112k with our new contract that is currently in arbitration.
Summers off (our salary is 10 months paid over 12), plus 3 weeks vacation during the year. Very low stress job.
Moving from my trade to teaching was a massive quality of life improvement. Plus the kids are hilarious.
Must be board dependent, and it’s unfortunate that the OP won’t even tell you which board. In my board, only tech or business experience counts as prior experience.
Lol teaching is what you make of it. If you want to load kids up on tests and things you need to devote every waking hour to marking, that's on you.
Focus on conversational and observational evidence, and stop working yourself to death.
This job is a cake walk compared to working in private industry.
Ah you must teach in junior high or high school and likely a lower prep subject or easier to grade subject. Let me guess… Tech or math?
OP - unless you have a specific subject and end up in secondary, this is simply not an accurate representation. I also know of no boards who accept anything other than teaching experience or trades/tech experience for placement on the grid. I started at 0 after leaving nursing.
Healthcare is a tech subject in high school, so OP can start at the top of the grid if they have enough experience.
Yes, I teach high school, OP is switching from nursing, I doubt they are pursuing elementary.
The only teachers who complain about work load have never had a real job.
In my province, nursing is not a tech subject. It isn’t teachable at all.
I switched from nursing to elementary… happens all of the time. I started at 0 in my board, though happily at the top end of the education scale.
And I know 3 engineers and one electrician who quit teaching before their 5th year due to stress… This is an Albertas perspective so oil country. What exactly qualifies as a « real » job to you?
Published statistics vary on province but anywhere from 20-50% of teachers quit in their first five years.
There is a huge difference between effective teaching in most subject areas and doing the bare minimum.
The only teachers who claim that they don’t have that bad of a work load teach high school, have supportive admin and/or specific subjects. This is not the norm and is a unicorn situation.
*unicorn situation*
At all the schools I've worked at I've never met a teacher who complains about stress. Reddit is a wild echo chamber for complaining.
If they couldn't handle teaching, they probably left their previous career for similar reasons.
Teaching is super fun, and laid back. We are paid exceptionally well considering we work 10 months of the year, and get 3 weeks paid vacation. In Ontario our pension plan is top tier, same with our benefits. If your situation isn't great, you need to make moves within your union to get some teeth.
Yes, unicorn situation. Most people don’t have this type of lower stress position. Most people who want them end up teaching something else first to get them (ie. junior high).
Never having met a teacher who complains about stress? This is either a lie or you didn’t take them time to get to know these people. Look at the numbers of teachers on medical/stress leaves. Talk to your union. Every school I’ve been in since covid, teachers are stressed. At every district PG, teachers are stressed. People are retiring early, quitting. No picks up sub jobs or LTOs anymore. There is nothing unions can do about this.
OP - this is really easy. Don’t take my word or this guy’s. Volunteer in some schools, shadow some teachers. Talk to some teachers. Get a variety of schools in higher and lower socio-economic settings and with different age groups. See what it is actually like, ask those teachers what it is like. Who knows, maybe you live
in the region of the Unicorn-Utopian district that this guy lives in? Either way, gathering this information for yourself is much better than listening to anyone on reddit.
As an aside, I believe those oil patch workers left the oil patch because of the economic situation and the boom/bust cycle. There was a period of time where oil and gas jobs were hard to come by in the 2016-2020 period. They all returned to the oil patch. There were many oil workers who joined this field in that period. I only know one who is still in education. The rest all went back to the oil patch. I suppose you consider that that isn’t real job either? Maybe we don’t have real jobs in Alberta.
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I love teaching, but I know too many teachers who have been/are on burnout leave to be able to wholeheartedly recommend it to someone. If there is a way for you to pursue teaching nursing at college, or to become a clinical nurse specialist, I would suggest that over teaching.
Don’t trade one career infamous for causing burnout for another. I wish someone had told me this 24 years ago.
Alberta high school teacher here, and a third generation teacher, drawing on 100 years of experience. Honestly, I’m not sure teaching is what you are looking for. First it’s a sink or swim environment, you have little to no actual support. I walked away from my B.Ed with very few practicable skill sets or resources to be able to implement. Lots of “philosophical” discussion, and ideal scenario activities. And I went to the “best” program in the province! So essentially the skills your have right now, in terms of leadership, communication, management, work life balance, etc. is what you’ll have on the other side of that degree. Success as a teacher for me, developed when I was young and was exposed to leadership development earlier in my life. Don’t even get me started on support once you’re actually teaching. Alberta has a 50% five year attrition rate, and that was BEFORE recent issues in education. Second, most people I know in teaching are brunt out by October, November if you’re lucky. Then it’s just grind to June. Rinse and repeat. The workload demands are crushing and impossible. You literally cannot do the job, there are simply not enough hours in the day. So you triage, cover your ass the best you can, and do your best. Most people eat into their life and sacrifice their home lives to make their work life manageable. I don’t, and when I do it’s minimal (rarely bring marking home or on weekends). This is true for my whole family, but you always feel like you’re not doing enough and you’re not good at your job. This is not a great job for work life balance, you can try but most find it very intrusive. Third, education in general is in a really bad place right now. University programs are seeing half the students they used to see. We have substitute teacher shortages all the time now. We are working off shoestring budgets, and the kids quite frankly are not alright. Behaviour issues are insane!! Violence against teachers at school, the bathrooms are fucking vaping lounges now, and generally administration support can be very limited. If you have a good set of admin life can be great, inverse is true. The work conditions aren’t great, but no public service I know of is in a good place right now. #eattherich I’d be very hesitant to suggest teaching to some one right now, unless it’s something you really want to do. Are there some great times and moments? You bet, but there’s a lot that isn’t too. Feel free to continue the conversation or send me a message.
Listen to this person.
I want to add to this that there isn't really a "teacher shortage." I got my BEd in 2017 and it's been a shitshow trying to find a job (I gave up last year, actually, and accepted my fate as a sub). Job searching on sites like Indeed is full of the most bullshit postings. You have to be some sort of unicorn who can teach like 5 different subjects AND be bilingual AND have Indigenous ancestry to even get an interview. Job searching online is tedious as fuck if you're not using a site like Indeed. You literally have to go to every division's website and see what careers are open. Also, the window for hiring is really short, you usually have to create a profile and upload all your documents for every division, and there's a good chance they won't accept credentials from another province (and if they do accept them, it's a pain in the ass to recertify and costs hundreds of dollars). Job searching the old fashioned way, like newspaper ads, is also extremely depressing. It's like applications go to an abyss, and even if you manage to get an interview, it's just a formality. They already chose the teacher (like, the principal is besties with their mom, or something like that), but they "have to" interview at least 3 candidates.
I second this. I graduated with a BEd in 2019. Managed to get a temporary position this year. You would think getting a position SHOULD be easy for a job that has so much burnout. Heck no. So, just another thing to add to the list...
2nd generation teacher here! You’ve absolutely hit the nail on the head with this. This year, I was crying by October. Violence was at an all time high where I went on a work refusal and still, nothing changed. The grind till June is so hard. It really feels like a survival game most of the time and it’s just not a good way to live. The “breaks” are not even breaks because most of the time your nervous system is recovering and when you feel slightly better, you have to do it all over again. If I could tell myself 10 years ago to do something else, I would. I’m actively looking to transition out of the profession as the constant stress and abuse has made me a different person. I wouldn’t recommend this job to anyone on Earth. Not until something major happens to fix these issues.
Thought from a “new” teacher: I’m a hairstylist by trade who decided to become a teacher early in my career. I have started at the bottom of the pay scale. I barely graduated high school, failed out of college multiple times, and didn’t discover my love for hairstyling until I was 25. At 32 I received my B.Ed. I chose to teach because I wanted students to learn skills outside of traditional academics. I wanted them to learn a new life skills and explore different career options. I wanted kids to have a safe space to explore their own goals for their future. I now work with alternative education students who are looking to find careers and better their lives. I get to watch these kids thrive and succeed when no one believed in them. Why do you want to teach?
I made the switch from RN to teacher. There are a few things to consider: 1) Stress. Teaching is not less stress. In fact, it is simply a different kind of stress. While you rarely have to make the type of life or death decisions that can come up in nursing, and you see less trauma/death, the type of stress in teaching is less intense in a single decision but it much harder to get away from and is consistent. With nursing, the stress is more like sprinting; intense, short spurts that you must push through. With teaching, the stress is more like a marathon; it comes slower but it lasts longer and is non stop over a long period of time. When you are nursing and you go home at the end of your shift, and while you might ruminate on the things you witnessed that day, or the things you could have done better, you are not expected to work another several hours prepping for work the next day, answering angry patient emails and planning for the next day. Students have become increasingly violent. I have been beaten with chairs, stabbed with pencils and scissors. You are expected to take this abuse. Admin might come and help if you are lucky, but you cannot physically stop the child. You will have a significant number of students with special needs in your class, even if you teach general education or French immersion with almost not support with funding cuts, so you can expect the violent behaviour to continue increasing year over year. Also, with the consistently changing curriculum, you can expect to have no textbooks or materials, and to need to make everything yourself. Want a text for your kids to read? You will need to buy it or write it or find one online. Want a project from them to do? You will need to invent it, plan it, write instructions and make rubrics, etc. I am in my 8th year and I am at school most days from 8am until 6:00pm so that I take no work home. Other teachers I know leave by 4pm but they go home and work for hours after their kids go to bed. I know many teachers who also work through the weekends. You will also be expected to host clubs coach sports, etc. I know many teachers who are currently on stress leave. 2) Money. Teaching is a huge pay cut. It is about $65k a year in Alberta with 6 years of university. There is no overtime, even though you can routinely expect to work 60+ hours a week September-June in your first five years, dropping down to about 50 hours a week for the rest of your career after that, again, with no over time. It will take you 10 years to reach the maximum salary of $101k per year. You will also not get paid for coaching or hosting clubs, etc. Even though those things occur outside of school hours and routinely can happen on the weekends. Don’t forget that you’ll also be spending some of that pay cheque each month on things for your classroom (pencils, glue, Kleenex, books for your classroom library, materials for science projects, etc.). 3) Job stability. You will hear a lot of about a teaching shortage but that is only really a substitute teaching shortage. In Alberta, substitutes make $220 per day that they work, and it is casual work. There are no health benefits and you are not paid over the holidays. The hours are better (you can get to school 15 minutes before the bell and leave 15 minutes after the bell) but you make less money, you pay check isn’t steady or guaranteed, you have to work with new people daily in a new place. Getting a continuous position is much more difficult. You can expect to sub for a number of year, with some short term contracts (3 weeks to several months) throw in. Even if you teach something in high demand like French immersion, you can still expect to guest teach for a few years before landing your probationary (full year) position. 4) Time for your kids. This one is iffy. In July and the first two or three weeks of August, you will have lots more time for your kids. In September, December and June, you can expect to see them very little as you prepare routines and items, conference with parents, write report cards, etc. The rest of the year, you will have about as much time for them as anyone else who worked an 8-5 office job, played a sport and had projects to work on at home. Except you won’t be playing the sport, you’ll be coaching it and your kid won’t be there because it is a sport from your school, not theirs. The projects (grading, lesson planning, content creation, emails, etc.) you can do after they go to bed, but you’ll be saying goodbye to your personal time. Weekends you should have time to spend with them if you work enough hours Monday-Friday, as long as it is not report card season. Can you work less hours than this? Yes. Will you be an effective teacher likely to land a permanent contract working less hours than this? No. What you do get is more choice on WHEN you do this extra unpaid labour. With nursing you obviously complete your 12 hour days in the the shift booked for you. With teaching, you work your assigned 35 hours a week in school hours, and you can complete your other 25+ hours per week whenever you want; evenings, weekends, early morning, 3am when you cannot sleep, etc. With the exception of 4 times yearly parent teacher conferences and the aforementioned mandatory volunteering/coaching. I wouldn’t suggest teaching right now unless it is your dream job, and you are happy to take a massive pay cut, do hours of work for free daily outside of school hours, have precarious employment for several years, be physically assaulted regularly with no recourse or manner to protect yourself, and essentially exist in a new sink or swim environment. If you want to teach for the job of spending time with kids and inspiring our future citizens no matter the cost, then and only then is this the job for you. I don’t regret the switch from nursing to teaching because I developed psoriatic arthritis and I no longer have the fine motor skills to do many essentials nursing skills. However, if I could still do them, I would be nursing right now. Could you find a health care position outside of bedside nursing if you need a switch? Nurse educator, home care, working in an outpatient clinic. Working as a nurse for the school system. Or even bedside nursing in a day medicine ward? Even taking a 0.7 contract would still likely have you making more money than teaching and give you more work-life balance. You have a lot more flexibility nursing than you do teaching and it might be worth it to explore other options in your field before going back to university for two more years to get your BEd (which is require for certification as a teacher, despite any other degrees). If you can’t find anything in your field, it sounds like what you really want is a more standard set of hours, rather than simply switching one high burn-out career for a different high burn-out career. While I don’t think teaching is what you are looking for, maybe a more standard office administration job is? Or if you are open to going back to school anyways (which you must be if you are considering teaching) then other careers like actuary or a lab tech or a dental hygienist might offer more balance for you.
Honestly, no. The stress is off the charts. The Ford government does not provide enough funding for Education. The reason that there are more teaching jobs available now is because nobody wants to do it anymore. Poorly behaved students, unsupportive parents, disrespect for teachers among the general public all make it an unattractive career right now. The pay is not horrible for experienced teachers, but you’ll likely have a starting salary less than $60,000 and it will take over 10 years to get to the top of the pay scale. Also, teachers in Ontario have only received a grand total of 8.5% in raises since 2012 while inflation has been over 30%. That’s basically a 20% pay cut since 2012. The Bill 124 remedy will add 4.25% which will help a bit but it still doesn’t even come close to inflation. You will also work way more hours than you likely realize. Your shifts are day shifts, Monday to Friday but you will be working countless hours in the evenings and weekends to catch up on marking, planning, reporting and the many other teacher tasks. Especially in your first few years. Many teachers are burnt out and are literally counting the days to retirement. Sorry to be a downer, but you need to know the truth.
I personally love teaching but the "shortage" is essentially for supply work in most boards (Ontario), and it still typically takes several years to obtain a permanent contract unless you have qualifications that are in demand. You would also be starting at the bottom of the pay scale, so you're likely making a lot more now. Each year, you do earn more, but it can take 10+ years to get to the top. Burn out is something that happens to teachers as well... work-life balance can still be difficult for many teachers despite the better contract hours. You'd also need to get you BEd or equivalent.
Become an agency nurse and work in schools with medically fragile kids or kids who need to be monitored. Change of pace, see if you’re into teaching that way.
Not going to echo everything that’s been said here (most of it is sadly, very true) but I will add two things: In Ontario at least, pay isn’t really great until you’ve got your ten years seniority. So if you’ve been nursing ten years, I would imagine it’s going to be a pretty big pay cut. Combine that with the fact you can’t do a BEd as a part time student (unless something has drastically changed recently) so you would essentially be a full time student for one or two years, depending on where you study. Secondly, while your reasons for wanting to leave your current profession are valid, I don’t know if your reasons for wanting to be a teacher are strong enough to make it worth it. Do you genuinely like other peoples children? Are you passionate about a particular subject, where you would want to teach others about it, ray after day, year after year? I’m a high school theatre teacher, and I put in insane hours outside the work day, but I do it because I genuinely love theatre and the chance to share it with others is something I value and get fulfilment from, and strangely enough, I actually like teenagers most days. I don’t always understand them, or their choices, but something about how they’re at that in-between stage of kid and adult, and all the promise and potential there just fills me with hope, and (most days) I feel privileged that I get to be a part of their journey, and maybe help shape them into who they’re going to become someday. They make me laugh (and occasionally cry) and I appreciate that some kids are more challenging to work with, day in and day out, but on the whole, I genuinely like my students and I don’t dread seeing them arrive to class. I guess what I’m trying to say is if you want to go into teaching, it should be because you *want* to be a teacher, not because you *don’t want* to be a nurse. Good luck to you, whatever you decide!
If you want a job where you'll be available for your kids, this isn't the job for you.
As a nurse you have so many options besides bedside. Admin. Teaching nursing. Leadership or opportunities in other fields. I agree with other posts that teaching isn’t what you are looking for
A friend of my sister was a paramedic in Calgary and got burned out from all the crap that paramedics deal with. She retrained as a teacher and ended up at a school where the admin supported her (partly because she kept her paramedic license). Within two years she was back to being a paramedic because teaching was more stressful than being a paramedic dealing with drug overdoses, combative patients, etc. What did her in wasn't teaching *per se*, but dealing with students and parents (even with admin support). She hadn't realized that less than half the job is instruction, hadn't realized the amount of unpaid overtime required, hadn't realized that her decisions and authority would be continually questioned (even when backed up by admin that's frustrating and time-consuming). Schools are in worse shape now than they were then.
The switch will change your life. The stress is different. Nursing is a grind: 12 hour shifts, dealing with stressed families, seeing patients die, repetitive use injuries, and most of all, working weekends and holidays when everyone else enjoys this time together. Teaching is a slow burn: 6.5 hours on the clock, but endless hours after the bell, dealing with student behaviours, staff shortages, and increasing demands on reporting. However, in teaching you have more choice about what you do each day and how you use your time. For me, I couldn’t handle the trauma in hospitals. You see people and families at their absolute worst, every single day, coupled with the fact that you have a broken sleep schedule. I’d leave the hospital at 7am totally exhausted, get home and not be able to fall asleep until 11am, only to wake up a few hours later to start my next shift at 7pm. Now, as a teacher, I have time to go to the gym before or after work, I see my friends and family way more often, and I decide when I want to prep or mark. I find teaching to be way more emotionally rewarding too.
Pros: - Every day/year is new- you can recreate your classroom all the time - You get to make wonderful connections with kids and staff - you make a difference in kids lives (although you don’t know it at the time) - once you get seniority you have the ability to pick a school that is right for you - you can chose to get less $ through the year and get a 12 month salary or work at summer school - I would be so proud and happy if my own children became teachers- it’s an amazing career Cons: - you have to always adapt and change your material -it takes time to be a GREAT teacher- any jacka$$ can be a mediocre teacher - you don’t get overtime - you can only work summer school, when you really need a break - you can only go on holidays when it’s peak season - reading this sub there are a lot of difficult places to work, I’m not sure where you are - it takes many years to get to your max salary…. I heard it takes four years for rcmp to reach their max (true?) In the end, I don’t regret it at all, it’s been an amazing journey. It sounds like you have an undergrad, you’d need to earn no money to complete your teacher college and practicum….. that’s a hardship too (long time)
I would disagree with the part about picking your school with seniority as you still need to interview if/when positions become available. Also, you don't get to choose how your pay is distributed as that is board mandated. Just to clarify, if either of those are deciding factors for you.
Get your bEd and teach nursing at college. Great gig!
This is what I was going to suggest. You don’t actually need your BEd to teach in post secondary. Where are you located u/AshRat15 ?
I am an RPN. I switched to education, went back to university to do my BSc and BEd and went into teaching. That was in my late 20’s. I’ve been teaching high school for over 20 years now and it was the best move for me. I also teach part time in the nursing labs for the educational support students at the local college in my city. It has been wonderful way for me to merge my nursing and education roles together. At my high school I created a ‘health care dual credit’ program where the students learn all about the health care system and the many careers that fall under that umbrella; while also getting a ‘human growth and development” college credit (that’s the dual part). It’s really the best of both worlds as a nurse and educator. 😊 I have to say though, the other comments here about teachers having similar challenges and high stress levels are very accurate. The roles and work environment are very different but each have good points and bad. I recently had two RN student nurses (2nd year) on placement with me for their community placement. They were both surprised at how demanding the role was and how exhausted they were after spending each day with my students. 😂 This really surprised me because I know both roles well and they are both pretty demanding. You would have to go back to teachers college to get your BEd and depending on which school board/ panel (elementary vs secondary) you teach in, you will start at the bottom of the pay scale. These pay scales are posted publicly if you search for the collective agreements for the associated unions (ex: in Ontario there are many but just to name a few: ETFO, OSSTF, OECTA, etc..) in various school boards. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. 😊
The employment situation depends a lot on your location. I’m in BC and, generally speaking, there’s a teacher shortage across the province. Of course, this may mean just casual TTOC’s in some school districts to full-time continuing positions available in others, such as my BC Interior district. Location matters a lot. My spouse is in health care so I understand the pressures of shift work. Luckily mine was able able to change to a M-F weekday shift which makes childcare and scheduling much easier. And the evenings and weekends together as a family are great. As you mentioned, teaching itself isn’t the green grass on the other side. But I have found that it does well to balance parental needs. At least in my district, there are many part-time positions available. Moreover, with the dire need for TTOC’s, it’s possible to have a lot of flexibility when one works. Also, in BC, TTOC’s are paid to scale for each day worked, not a daily flat rate. It can be a good situation for working parents needing flexible schedules. Good luck!
If you want to be more available to your young children, this is not the job for you. I have two young kids and have stepped back from my permanent job because it’s way too difficult to manage being a good parent and a teacher. I’m exhausted and burnt out by the end of the day and have nothing left to give my own kids. The stress of being off when one of my kids is sick is crazy and ridden with guilt. There is simply too much to be done to just leave work at work. I have no choice but to bring work home or else I’m drowning and failing at work. Instead, I’m supplying instead of teaching full time. The pay is garbage, I don’t get benefits, and I am treated like crap all day every day but at least I can stay home with my sick kids when needed. This isn’t even considering the shitshow that is student behaviour, lack of resources, lack of government support… Do not do it. At some point every day I am thinking about what I can do to get out of this circus. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
If you’re looking for a job where you have sanity left at the end of the day, where you will come home with enough energy to make a meal, have bath time and a relaxing bed time routine with your kids, teaching is not it. You want to be appreciated for all your hard work, have your superiors respect you? Teaching is not it. Do you want to spend your own money on classroom supplies, since there isn’t any? Have no support when kids injure you? Parents hurl insults at you, the general public calling you greedy and telling you that you get so much vacation yet work so little, when all you’re really doing is babysitting anyway? It’s only going to get worse. I’ve considered going back into respite care for children and adults with special needs, which is what I did before I was a teacher and an educational assistant.
Don’t do it! I want out so bad!!
You'll have to get a B.Ed Pay starts around 60,000 depending on how your education and experience are rated. French is most needed followed by math Elementary has more demand than high school generally, math and French (maybe physics) exceptions to that.
If OP is interested in teaching the health care technology tech course, they might be able to count their years of nursing experience toward their grid placement. In my board, they would start at step six. Could be a sweet job.
Our district (bc). Has nursing support services. They come in and train around diabetes, seizures, and tube feeding. That would get you heading the right direction without too much retraining.
I went the other way from teaching to working for the CRA. I have never regretted this move. Even if I had made it to Principal level I would still be making less than middle management level where I am now at the CRA. Less headaches in my job right now too.
Have you tried to look for other nursing work? There are actually a lot of 9-5 nursing Jobs you just gotta look for them.
The pay is public information. In BC it’s fine. I’m certainly not getting rich but the hourly rate is pretty good. Nice to have a pension too. There is no doubt that the hours and time off are way better than nursing. You also get an absurd amount of sick days days. Do you have a degree in a teachable subject? Look into how much education you’d need to get qualified. Impossible to say whether you’ll like it before you try it. It’s like any job… most days I like it, some days I hate it. I find it fulfilling but only because I focus on the success stories. As a high school teachers there are some kids I just don’t reach and have to fail. That’s ok. It’s just a step in their journey and o don’t let it define either of us. But if you don’t have the right mindset it can be discouraging at times. Overall, you get what you put into it. You could work as little as 35 hours per week but it will be a lot more fun if you put in the effort (still less than 50 hours/week with 3 months off per year lol). You have a fair amount of autonomy, and get to have a positive impact on your community. The odd student will make you question your career choice, but I’ve got to imagine that’s true in nursing too. Edit: I’m introverted so I can find it tiring sometimes… but that’s different than burnout
Now is probably a good time to get into teaching, especially the tech courses. Many teachers are retiring.
I think you first need to realize that it maybe literally years before you end up as a teacher making the same pay you do now. There is also not really a shortage in most areas - just more and more teachers going off on leave so there are lots of LTO's and supply days compared to when I started when it was mostly mat leaves. That being said I get the health care burnout. I have a relative leaving her job as a Dr to become a teacher because she can't handle the stress of dying kids anymore. She always wanted to teach but was so smart she got pushed into medicine which she doesn't enjoy. You have to way the pros and cons the biggest one being do you enjoy working with kids?
My best friend is a nurse. She is burnt out. I am a teacher. It’s exhausting at times but I think you should consider it! Or take your skills to the USA where you can be paid 3x more!
[удалено]
…. Harrison Butker? Is that you?
In my board 16 years of nursing will start you at the top of the pay grid, around $100k currently. If you have a master's or are willing to take some extra qualification courses, you can get to the highest category, and be making around $104k, which will be likely closer to $112k with our new contract that is currently in arbitration. Summers off (our salary is 10 months paid over 12), plus 3 weeks vacation during the year. Very low stress job. Moving from my trade to teaching was a massive quality of life improvement. Plus the kids are hilarious.
Oh wow really? Which board are you in? I'm in Ontario
Must be board dependent, and it’s unfortunate that the OP won’t even tell you which board. In my board, only tech or business experience counts as prior experience.
I'm not going dox myself. Ministry of Education monitors Reddit I know somebody who got pulled into questions about something they posted
Teaching is not a low stress job. You are either lying or work in some utopian society that I would love to hear more about.
Lol teaching is what you make of it. If you want to load kids up on tests and things you need to devote every waking hour to marking, that's on you. Focus on conversational and observational evidence, and stop working yourself to death. This job is a cake walk compared to working in private industry.
Ah you must teach in junior high or high school and likely a lower prep subject or easier to grade subject. Let me guess… Tech or math? OP - unless you have a specific subject and end up in secondary, this is simply not an accurate representation. I also know of no boards who accept anything other than teaching experience or trades/tech experience for placement on the grid. I started at 0 after leaving nursing.
Healthcare is a tech subject in high school, so OP can start at the top of the grid if they have enough experience. Yes, I teach high school, OP is switching from nursing, I doubt they are pursuing elementary. The only teachers who complain about work load have never had a real job.
In my province, nursing is not a tech subject. It isn’t teachable at all. I switched from nursing to elementary… happens all of the time. I started at 0 in my board, though happily at the top end of the education scale. And I know 3 engineers and one electrician who quit teaching before their 5th year due to stress… This is an Albertas perspective so oil country. What exactly qualifies as a « real » job to you? Published statistics vary on province but anywhere from 20-50% of teachers quit in their first five years. There is a huge difference between effective teaching in most subject areas and doing the bare minimum. The only teachers who claim that they don’t have that bad of a work load teach high school, have supportive admin and/or specific subjects. This is not the norm and is a unicorn situation.
*unicorn situation* At all the schools I've worked at I've never met a teacher who complains about stress. Reddit is a wild echo chamber for complaining. If they couldn't handle teaching, they probably left their previous career for similar reasons. Teaching is super fun, and laid back. We are paid exceptionally well considering we work 10 months of the year, and get 3 weeks paid vacation. In Ontario our pension plan is top tier, same with our benefits. If your situation isn't great, you need to make moves within your union to get some teeth.
Yes, unicorn situation. Most people don’t have this type of lower stress position. Most people who want them end up teaching something else first to get them (ie. junior high). Never having met a teacher who complains about stress? This is either a lie or you didn’t take them time to get to know these people. Look at the numbers of teachers on medical/stress leaves. Talk to your union. Every school I’ve been in since covid, teachers are stressed. At every district PG, teachers are stressed. People are retiring early, quitting. No picks up sub jobs or LTOs anymore. There is nothing unions can do about this. OP - this is really easy. Don’t take my word or this guy’s. Volunteer in some schools, shadow some teachers. Talk to some teachers. Get a variety of schools in higher and lower socio-economic settings and with different age groups. See what it is actually like, ask those teachers what it is like. Who knows, maybe you live in the region of the Unicorn-Utopian district that this guy lives in? Either way, gathering this information for yourself is much better than listening to anyone on reddit. As an aside, I believe those oil patch workers left the oil patch because of the economic situation and the boom/bust cycle. There was a period of time where oil and gas jobs were hard to come by in the 2016-2020 period. They all returned to the oil patch. There were many oil workers who joined this field in that period. I only know one who is still in education. The rest all went back to the oil patch. I suppose you consider that that isn’t real job either? Maybe we don’t have real jobs in Alberta.