DOOR NUMBER 3: Should teachers take a sabbatical?

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Christine Dunning, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Teachers are stressed.

At the beginning of this school year (2021-22), the expectation was that it would be easier than 2020-2021, the first full school year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But, most teachers agree that it’s been harder.

Covid numbers have varied more than it was originally thought they would. Many people have vaccines, but the debates over them have been difficult and have torn communities apart.

Students, after more than a year of fractured learning, have come to school unprepared for what a full-school day looks like. They’re anxious, exhausted, confused, and their social-emotional skills are weak.

The same is true of the people teaching them.

It’s no wonder why many teachers are considering leaving the profession this year – more than 50%, as reported by several sources.

Is this you? Are you on the fence about your next school year?

It seems like a binary choice:

Stay. Hold on tight, and continue the ride.
Leave. See if there is work doing something (anything) else.

But there might be a third option, if your school offers it.

Sabbatical.

What is a sabbatical?

Merriam Webster says: a break or change from a normal routine (as of employment)

Depending on your school district, you might be able to take a limited sabbatical, or take a full year.

At the public school level, sabbaticals are almost always unpaid breaks where your return job is guaranteed for a certain time period. In the districts I worked in, they were called “breaks in employment”, and only available in one-year increments. After the first year, your same position was returned to you. After two years, a job (but not necessarily the exact same one) was available. After that – you had to reapply for employment.

Why should I consider taking a sabbatical?

It’s a chance to practice what your new career/retirement might look like, but still have the stability of your job when you return.
You can take a limited time to do a passion project.
It can help you reset yourself in a way that summer break doesn’t necessarily accomplish.
I took two different sabbaticals during my teaching career, one about fifteen years ago, and one more recently.

The first was because I was both burned out, and wanted the chance to pursue a passion project.

Unfortunately, the passion project fizzled out before it ever got started, so during my sabbatical I worked as an accompanist for a different school district, basically two part time jobs, plus some side work.

I needed to let the district know my decision to return by the beginning of February, and at that point, I absolutely couldn’t imagine it, so I resigned.

By summer of that year, I decided to try changing districts. The perfect job came up, and I took it. I ended up loving that year, and at first the new district was definitely easier than my previous one.

However, the district underwent some big changes, mostly negative, and after 12 years there I was – frustrated and burned out again. I was starting to think about an early retirement, but I knew I would need to work and provide my own benefits. I also wanted spend some time doing more extensive travel than the school year afforded me

I wanted to “practice” retirement, and see if I was in the financial shape to make it work. When my re-option date came up I knew I was close, but I also thought that three more years of teaching would put me in the best position, so I agreed to return.

That was February 2020.

When Covid hit, I was able to ride out the rest of that school year thanks to the changes in unemployment (I had primarily been working in the gig economy), and returned in the fall of 2020 to a mess. My curriculum (elementary general music) was devastated by the pandemic restrictions, and my district, who had facilitated the change to pandemic learning with great deftness, dropped the ball in the fall of 2020 (especially in my particular field).

I ended up retiring in May 2021, and now I’m a life coach for other teachers whose frustrations in the educational system mirror mine. My superpower is helping people re-find their passion for teaching again, or showing them the ways to exit the profession gracefully.

RECAP: Are you frustrated with the current state of teaching? Have you considered a sabbatical? It’s a great way to “practice” your eventual exit from the system.