As someone who transitioned from teaching to a corporate role, I understand the challenges and uncertainties that come with leaving the classroom. In episode 175 of the Teacher Career Coach podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Lauren Pasquini, who shared her inspiring journey from teaching to finding new avenues in education.
Here are some key takeaways from our conversation that I believe will resonate with you:
1. The Impact of the Pandemic on Mental Health:
- Lauren candidly discusses how the shift to virtual learning during the pandemic led to feelings of isolation and burnout.
- She emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing mental health challenges, a topic that is often overlooked in the teaching profession.
2. The Courage to Leave:
- Despite her love for teaching, Lauren made the difficult decision to resign due to her mental health struggles.
- With the support of her therapist and administration, she took a leap of faith to explore new opportunities.
3. Finding New Paths in Education:
- Lauren transitioned to running a homeschool program and later became an account executive for a curriculum publishing company.
- Her journey highlights the diverse career options available to educators outside the traditional classroom setting.
4. Prioritizing Work-Life Balance:
- Lauren shares her strategies for maintaining a healthy work-life balance, such as setting clear working hours and turning off work notifications after hours.
- She encourages teachers to adopt similar practices to prioritize their well-being.
5. Embracing Personal Growth:
- Lauren reflects on her struggle with imposter syndrome and the importance of acknowledging and seeking help for mental health issues.
- Her journey of self-discovery serves as a reminder of the resilience and strength we all possess.
6. The Power of Community and Support:
- Our conversation underscores the importance of sharing personal journeys to foster connection and support among educators.
- Lauren’s story is a testament to the power of community and the shared experiences of teachers navigating their careers and personal lives.
I hope Lauren’s story inspires you to reflect on your own experiences and consider the possibilities that lie ahead. Remember, it’s okay to prioritize your mental health and seek new opportunities that bring you joy and fulfillment.
Tune in to this episode of the Teacher Career Coach podcast to hear more about Lauren’s journey and gain valuable insights into navigating career transitions and mental health challenges.
Listen to the episode in the podcast player below, or find it on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Free Quiz: What career outside of the classroom is right for you?
Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course
Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course
Mentioned in the episode:
- Use code “TCC” to get 50% off of everything at Aspireship
- Our career path quiz at www.teachercareercoach.com/quiz
- Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course
Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth: Hi everyone, and welcome back. Today we get to know Lauren Pisquini. And Lauren is passionate about helping others make these hard decisions to advocate for their own mental health. Leaving teaching was one of the scariest things she has ever done, and yet it has been one of the most rewarding choices she has made.
After walking away from the classroom, she’s been on a journey to figure out her next steps. We discuss doing what’s right for you, staying afloat during this journey, and how the road forward is ever changing. Hope you enjoy this episode!
welcome back, everyone.
Today we have Lauren Pasquini with us, and we’re so excited for you to take some time out of your day and get to know you. Welcome,
Lauren.
Lauren: Hi, thank you for having me. Um,
Elizabeth: Well, we’re really excited to kind of hear about your journey to where you are now, but we’d love to hear what got you into education in the first place.
Lauren: so, going back to second grade, honestly, I had a teacher, and we had this day where we got to pick a new name for ourself, but then also pick what our job was. And teachers said, I picked my teacher’s name, uh, her first name to be mine. And then I said, I wanted to be a teacher. And that’s like as far back as I can remember.
I had always wanted to get into the field of teaching.
I ended up doing the child development route in college. So my bachelor’s is in child development, which I loved because it gave me a lot of early learning experience and hands on, um, like internships with kids from infant, To preschool age. Um, so then that way, when I got into my credential program, I, I felt very prepared and ready to go.
And it’s just always been, I was that person that just knew I wanted to go into teaching from a very young age.
Elizabeth: That’s so cool that you studied early childhood development as well, like, I feel like that understanding of development, especially like from birth, is such a skill, like, whether you’re a teacher or a parent or,
yeah,
Lauren: Yes, I, I agree. And I really feel like it, it gave me a different foundation, nothing against other, you know, degrees that people choose and then go into teaching. But I felt like I had a deeper understanding going into child development of. The child brain and what’s developmentally appropriate and maybe understanding thought processes and decision makings.
And when I do talk to anyone thinking about going into teaching, I do recommend child development just because I personally thought it prepared me for the job from my own experience. So.
Elizabeth: cool. And we’d love to hear a little bit about, um, what grade did you teach, how long were you in the classroom, and then kind of that pivoting point about where you, when you decided to leave education.
Lauren: Yeah, um, so my first teaching placement, I taught third grade and I was so excited. I honestly, I cried on my way to work the first day that kids were coming. So it was like, My very first solo day. Um, and it was that moment of this is what I had been wanting for ever. Like I said, second grade, right. And being so excited and just so proud of myself because even my role to becoming a, my road To getting to being a teacher and getting my credential was not an easy one.
I taught for four years in third grade and then where I had taken my first position, um, Was not in my hometown.
And after four years, I decided, okay, I’m ready to move back home where my family is. And I relocated. And so I changed to teaching first grade when I found my teaching position in my hometown. And I did first grade for three years. And then. The pandemic hit. Um, and right before the pandemic had hit, I actually, I had gone from, my first teaching position was a smaller school district where um, it was very personal and.
You knew people at other sites. If you walked into the district office, they knew you by name, and I loved that. And when I had taken my first grade position, I was in a much, much larger district, and I felt like a little fish in a big pond. And, after I had made that move, I was kind of trying to figure, there was always something missing.
I was trying to find like, okay, what, what is it that it’s lacking? I love doing what I’m doing, but I’m, I’m still searching for something. And so I had become a mentor teacher and had student teaching student teachers. And then I was new teacher support and Then it was, okay, maybe I want to work in a smaller district.
Maybe it’s the larger district that it’s great, but it, I like being in a smaller community. So I, in February of 2020 had taken a new job teaching fourth grade. And then we all know in March of 2020, the world shut down, um, to be completely honest on the last day, I’m sure many of us. As teachers can remember the day you last had kids.
Mine was St. Patrick’s Day, and I only had half of my class. And I had known I had accepted this new position in a different district. And, but I hadn’t said anything yet because it was too early, right? Like you don’t need to tell your kids at that point yet. And this was just supposed to be this two week closure, right?
I gave my class, the kids that were there, I gave them all a hug. Because I had accepted a new position in a new district, um, even when we did return, I wasn’t even on campus to see that group of students that had left behind. I then had, you know, started my new job in my new district, totally virtual. And throughout that final year, which would have made Eight years in teaching.
I now realized I was going through depression. And Anxiety, a lot of the time those are tied hand in hand and what was once a career that, you know, I shared, I cried tears of happiness and like fulfillment on the first day it was turning into to be completely like raw and honest tears of like dread and just.
I don’t know if I can continue to do this anymore and it had nothing to do with my site or, you know, the district or anything like that. It was just, I had gone into teaching for the kids and I think as educators we can relate to this. It’s the. The pandemic took the best part of the job away, which was the kids.
And for me, it got to the point where I was Googling, how can I take paid leave of absence? How, like my mental health was just really, really struggling. I fortunately had already been working with my therapist and so I had reached out to her and was having weekly sessions with her in this to help me kind of navigate, um, what I was feeling.
I did a lot of work. Like I said, I was in therapy. And really figuring out, like, what do I want? What am I trying, like, what am I doing here? I don’t like how I feel. I don’t feel like I am at my best. To be the best for the kids. And that’s not fair to them. Um, I was starting to feel like I was becoming the cranky teacher.
And even though, you know, the new coworkers that I had and family and friends were like, Lauren, that’s not what you’re portraying at all. That’s how I felt in the inside. and I don’t think people around me realize how, how much I was faking it, like to survive. even if I’m just taking a break for a year, like, I have to make a change because I’m, I’m, I was at the point where I didn’t want to go to sleep at night because I didn’t want to wake up in the morning and have to do it all over again. And he, I’m very lucky that, you know, I had family, friends, therapy as support.
And I had made the decision. Okay. I have always thought about running my own preschool. Let’s let’s do it. Let’s look into it. Have the background. I have the credentials. I have the licensing. Like I’ve done the. What am I waiting for? This is something you’ve always wanted to do. Why not try it? And in May of 2021, I resigned and I actually had a lot of support from my admin at the time.
And she said, and I don’t even know if she knows this, but I left crying happy tears because it was this relief. I had so much anxiety of like, I’m going to go resign from my career right now. Like, what am I doing? And in, in that conversation with her, I just said, I have to do this for me. I have to try it.
And she said to me, I hope I never see you again, because that means you were successful. And it was just such this cool thing for, for her to say. And just, it was her way of saying, you know, she was rooting for me. And wanting me to find That happiness that I was searching for again. And so then like from that, I had the last day of school.
I packed up my things. over the next year, I just, I was fortunate enough. I became my dad’s assistant and I know not everyone has that opportunity, but I did. And it was not an easy one for me to make because. I didn’t want the perception of, Oh, you left your job and you went and worked for your dad, like, cool.
However, I kind of, again, with the help of therapy changed my mindset on it of Lauren, like you’re fortunate enough to have this as an option. Why are you punishing yourself by not taking it? And so I, I took it. And along that time frame, it allowed me to really research. Okay, I’m thinking preschool.
What does this mean? What are my state laws? What do I have to have in place? Do I do in home care? Do I have a facility? Um, going through all these motions, and I had along the way because school schools were still they had opened but they were not fully operating like today. Still, um, I had a lot of families that were reaching out to me interested in alternative education programs and Homeschooling or help with homeschooling and guidance, and I took that as a sign to, okay, well, let me look into this, and so I started looking into alternative education and how that works and what the state laws were for my home state with, um, homeschooling. And, my program eventually went from preschool and I realized I said preschool because at that point in my life, that was the job I knew I could do that still involved kids.
I opened my first class. In, uh, June of 2022, and I had a summer school program and in summer school, I opened the door to both traditional students who were in public education or private education still, but also to those kids who were being homeschooled and going alternative routes.
And I had a really great group of families and kids. And from the summer it rolled into having my first small cohort of homeschooling alternative ed families, where I was partnering with the parents who had chosen to. Not put their kids back in public education and helping them walk that path. I did that for the fall of 2022 and then the spring of 2023. And that led me to reaching out to a curriculum company and I met my area rep and I talked to her and I just said, I don’t even know if like a single person can buy this program. But I want it because it really helped me as a teacher and it helped my students.
And her and I had created this relationship. And then from that about a year, so into like 2023 was when a position within that company had opened up and presented itself to my doorstep. I was not looking and. There was an opportunity for me to go a different route in education and I did not take that decision lightly either.
Again, you know, reached out to my support systems and decided to take it. And I right now say that I put my business on pause because I’m still figuring out how I want to develop it. It was a stepping stone. Um, if I never would have left teaching, started my program, I never would have been introduced to the opportunity where I’m an account executive right now with this, um, publishing company.
And getting to see a different side of education and how that works, and I’m getting to have conversations with a lot of administrators, a lot of decision makers and learning the ins and outs on this side of things. To where I think we kind of spoke a little bit, like my, my journey is still evolving, which I think is, it’s scary to share right on a podcast that it’s that I don’t have all the answers.
But I think it’s important to share that. It’s not this like cookie cutter example to leave. Your, your career and something that you were excited for the whole time. I think the reason I wanted to come on here was to share. my story, share my incomplete journey because I really think it’s still evolving and it’s still going.
And, I’m in a much happier space. I’m in a much better mental health head space. And it’s all because don’t let this like fool you. I was terrified. There were lots of tears along the way to making that decision. But where I’m at today, I look back and I’m just so incredibly proud of myself for like taking that step forward anyways.
Elizabeth: Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that. And first of all, appreciate you being so vulnerable in sharing that story about mindfulness and your mental health during that time. And I’m so happy you are in a better spot with that right now. And it is helpful. And I think our audience will resonate as well, because, you know, that is like, you were talking about that.
That kind of teacher guilt when you’re leaving, you know, this is your career and what a big decision to walk away. But if, if it gets to the point where you, like you said, it’s, it’s not serving you, it’s not serving your students and it’s time, that’s. It’s such a difficult decision and I’m so glad your administration was supportive of you during that time to like that.
I’m so happy to hear that, that there, there’s some places out there supportive of that.
Lauren: yeah.
Elizabeth: And I love to hear too, and I’d love to dive into this because you were, you’ve been talking about your journey. You went from teaching to an assistant to then running your own. school program to now an account executive at a major curriculum publishing company. So I’d love to hear, you know, I think a big struggle and maybe you have some thoughts on this is teachers are looking to leave is really narrowing down. Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? And then if they’re not finding that role. You know, what, what do you recommend in terms of stepping stones, you know, for you that something that supported you along the way you learned and are where you are now.
Lauren: I’m still on that journey, to, to be completely honest, and Something that I’m still even working on understanding myself. One of the things that has helped me was I am somebody that tends to do well. I’m very, um, type A. planner, I have to know what it is that I’m going into before I actually do it.
I think a lot of educators are like that too. Um, so in the beginning, I really have to give credit to my therapist because she would just ask me some reflection questions of like, well, but what if you don’t know? Like, is that okay? What, what if you just don’t have all the answers? Like, what does that mean?
And, and really, like, what is the worst that could happen? I resigned in good standing. I’m keeping my credential current. I’m not giving it up. I’m not saying I Um, never going back to teaching because I have learned, I don’t know, and, um, things change like that for, we can all, we’ve all seen that and I think part of it is your mindset around being okay with not having the answers and really looking internally to make this decision for yourself and not to please other people.
And I realized through these conversations with my therapist that I was really concerned about what my life looked like to other people instead of focusing on what brought me joy. And so for me, I had to really do the work of shifting. The importance of how others view me versus me waking up in my shoes every day and how I feel.
And I think that’s a really good place to start. We don’t need permission from other people to do what we want to do. Um, even though it’s scary and I think, too, and one of the things that I like about your podcast specifically is, we’re a team, like, as educators, we have so many skills. And, A lot of times, even for myself, even today, I have that impostor syndrome of like, am I really qualified to be doing this?
And the answer is yes. Like think, think of all the things you have done as an educator. those skills really do translate.
Elizabeth: thank you for sharing that and like your therapist. She asked very thought provoking questions.
Lauren: She’s pretty great. Yeah.
Yeah.
Elizabeth: hear like your journey and I’m, I’m asking those questions, you know, to myself too. And I remember back at the time when I was transitioning, someone gave me similar advice where they were like, you just got to jump off the cliff, you know, not literally, but just jump. And now that you’re. an education role outside of the classroom, and you were with your homeschool program. I’m kind of curious. I don’t know how much you can share, but now that you’re kind of on the other side of it. What are some of the needs post pandemic that schools and districts are looking for in terms of. When they’re coming to you for curriculum or when they were coming to you for the Home school program. Were there any kind of like patterns or things that you noticed that were kind of
different?
Lauren: Yeah. Um, I will say, you know, if you are listening to this and you are still in the classroom and but you are feeling the burnout that is you’re feeling the burnout that is everywhere. You’re not alone in that. Feeling the burnout does not mean you’re a bad teacher either. Teaching is hard and you don’t know until you know.
Like I knew being a teacher was really hard but then once you’re in it and you’re really experiencing the hard that’s two different things, right? I can say from my conversations with my, you know, Since leaving the classroom, that’s been a very frequent one is, the burnout of teachers and administrators that I am talking to anyways, I will say, and this should give hope is they are wanting to pour into their teachers.
because they know we are losing really great educators in the field because the burnout is so evident and people are retiring early or they’re leaving the classroom and going into different roles in the school system or they’re leaving entirely and all of those things I again go back to if someone feels like, like myself, Leaving the role is where they’re at.
Then, by all means, I empower them to do so. Um, but I do think it is nice to see that administrators are are seeing that we need to be pouring back into teachers because. We’re losing them, and so a matter of trying to find solutions for that, whether it’s professional development, mindfulness just, however, teachers can start feeling those wins again in work, right?
And also, what’s happening with students, I think. The pandemic, although zoom teaching, I will say it was not an accurate depiction of like what was happening in the classroom because I will like wholeheartedly say, I don’t even know if I taught 20 percent of correct, like the standards that I would have full day in person, right?
Of the content. But I do think what happened was at one point there was this bridge, right, where the parents were loving their teachers in the beginning because they really saw how much they put in to their children that might have changed as. The pandemic went on longer than expected and frustrations rose, but it shined a light on deficits in our education systeM.
Elizabeth: That’s so interesting and I like all the different perspectives you have, you know from working with administrators With the curriculum company, working with the parents on when you were doing the homeschool and communicating with them and then having that teacher perspective too. And I know we’ve talked a lot about your journey and kind of your mental health.
Then can you talk us about, can you talk to us about your work life balance now and what that kind of looks like?
Lauren: Yeah. Um, my, I’m much better with it now, uh, because, you know, all of us in teaching, we know how regimented it is and how controlled of a structure it is. To be completely honest, when I first left, I had a hard time because I was just so used to, you have to be here at, you know, contract time is this time to this time.
This is when your recess is, this is when your lunch is, like very controlled. Um, to then. Not having any structure. You know, especially when I first left and I was working under my dad who owns his own business and he creates his own structure. So it was just. It was a lot to wrap my head around of, wait, I can, I mean, I can go to the bathroom whenever I want.
Like, um, I can eat lunch whenever I want. I, those kinds of things. I do feel like As far as work life balance, again, credit to my therapist, but my therapist will even be like, no, you did the work. It’s all you. But, um, I’ve really made a point to, and I started doing this at the end of teaching too or my traditional teaching.
I still feel like I’m an educator. It’s just in a different way. But turning it off at the end of the day. And. not until you’re starting in the morning too. Um, really having those boundaries of, you know, even if I’m getting, so the emails over the weekend or after five o’clock or whatever your, your structure is, whatever your end time and start time is, if it’s outside of those windows, it’s turned off.
I have now, turned off the email notifications of my phone. Like I’ve set working hours. Um, if I happen to get a text message or a phone call outside of my working hours, I let it go to voicemail. I let the, the message, and a lot of people might have trouble with this, like stay with the little red bubble so that I can go back to it.
Or if not, you know, you can make a little note so you can remember to, to go back on Monday if it’s on the weekend or whatever, but I’ve been really intentional with my time and not, and working on not feeling guilty about that because It’ll be there tomorrow that that whole thing, you know Um my advice for current teachers still in the classroom is that same thing when?
Whatever time you leave the classroom Leave leave it in the classroom it is okay and it is your right and you’re not a terrible teacher To turn it off and not respond to the parent if it’s after You four, five o’clock, whatever your parameters are. You have to recharge yourself. My favorite saying is the one they say on airplanes with the oxygen mask.
Like you have to put your own oxygen mask on before you can help someone else. Because if you, you know, if you’re on the airplane and those come down, if you don’t put yours on, you’re going to pass out and then you’re really of no help to anybody else. And that is so true. If you want to really show up for other people and show up at your best, you have to recharge yourself.
Elizabeth: I love it. You know, implement those boundaries and, and yeah, there’s There’s so much instant gratification everywhere, and I think of it too sometimes, because I’m quote the teacher mindset, you’re like, okay, let’s get this done and then move to this and I have to take a step back and say, oh, I think this task can wait till later.
And then I can prioritize this thing. Um, so yeah, just like you said, and I thank you so much for being vulnerable with us today and opening up. I love all the subjects. We touched on and I’m excited for everyone to listen. we love to kind of wrap these up by hearing about what you learned today.
about yourself through this journey and then also I know we talked about this journey is not over. This is the ever evolving journey.
Lauren: I think what I learned about myself is sometimes that imposter syndrome, like it’s still there because I have to intentionally take a step back to acknowledge, The work that I have done because I think it’s it is really easy for us to minimize the hard things that we do because it because it’s just kind of like, well, you just do it.
Like I had to do it. I didn’t have a choice. And so for for me,
I think
I’m just really proud of myself. Back then, when I realized how unhappy I was, and in that moment, I did not realize it was depression. To be honest, like, I think if other people have experienced depression, you often don’t know that that’s what it is until you’re out of it. And you look back and you’re like, wow, I was really not okay.
so when I have had that moment now, I just look back at who I was. And how happy and proud I am of that version of me for saying like, you’re not okay. And what can we do to change that? And reaching out to get help and to work with a therapist and You know, eventually trusting some really close family members and friends with those internal fears and thoughts that I had.
And what I have learned about myself from that is, it’s so corny, but I think it’s, I don’t even know who it is because I follow so many self help people and, all of that, but it’s that saying of like, you’ve survived a hundred percent of your bad days. and so even today, like my journey is still going and there’s definitely.
I know there’s gonna be some changes coming up for me and, I just still am like, if you look back though, like, look, you’ve been scared and done it anyways. You are very resilient. You are brave, even though you minimize it. it’s just very rewarding to, to know like, okay, yeah, you was terrified and I did it anyways.
And to be like proud of that moment. And, and to be honest, after leaving my teaching position. Any decision that I have had to make since 2020, May of 2021 to now and in the future, I always reference it back to that. And I’m like, that was the hardest decision I ever had to come to. And I did it. So really like anything moving forward is a piece of cake.
And because I chose to leave the career I was supposed to like retire from. So it’s going to be okay. just the resilience and everything has always found its way to, to work itself out.
Elizabeth: Thank you so much for sharing your story with me and with the teacher community. I’m so excited for everyone to listen and we just really appreciate you and your openness and thank you so
much, Lauren.
Lauren: Thank you. And I hope it does help somebody. Even if it’s just one person. So the goal was achieved. Thank you so much.
