ITP - 59: Leaving the Classroom Without Leaving Teaching

Greg: Alright, so this is Greg, the single guy, reporting from the International Teacher Podcast. Matt is not here. He's probably reading stories to his kids tonight. And Kent, he's getting a little tired because it's the end of the year, and I know he's been working hard, so I'm going to entertain a little bit here.

Greg: I have invited two ladies, the two founders of the Making the Grade podcast, and I would like to welcome them from the U.S. We'll hear more about them, but Georgia and Christine, welcome to the show.

Georgia: Hello. Thanks so much for having us.

Christine: Yeah, we're so excited to be here.

Greg: Before we hear a little bit about your teaching and your journey and everything, where are you physically right now? Georgia, where are you right now?

Georgia: I'm actually currently in Las Vegas, Nevada, which I feel like people, when they're like, “Oh, she's in Vegas,” they're going to get the wrong idea about me. I actually have no interest in casinos or gambling, but I'm on a cross-country road trip, and I have a friend who lives here. So my fiancé and I made a pit stop, and we're actually having a good time. It's nice. We went to the pool, did the whole walking the Strip thing, got some dinner. So that's where I'm at right now.

Greg: Awesome. And Christine?

Christine: Yeah, I'm much less exciting—just my home office in Boston.

Greg: I love Boston. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but there was one that serves burgers over by all the colleges, along the subway line. There’s a theater there, and this burger place serves burgers with macaroni and cheese on them. It’s crazy.

Christine: Yeah, Boston Burger Company, probably.

Greg: Yeah, that’s it. I tell all of our listeners, anybody out there—you have to go to Boston Burger. It is amazing.

Georgia: Yeah, the one you're talking about might be the “Mac and Cheese Burger.” It has everything on it—mac and cheese, chicken fingers, all of it. They even have a peanut butter and jelly burger.

Christine: Yeah, like the Elvis one.

Greg: That’s incredible.

Christine: But if you come to the Boston area, Georgia and I can guide you. We are burger connoisseurs and have a lot of favorite spots.

Greg: I love it. Well, that’s a cool thing about having you both on. I know you both love to travel, and you are not international teachers, but I had you on this podcast because I was a guest on your podcast to explain what we do as a profession. It links directly with both of you.

Greg: I’d like to hear a little bit from each of you about your podcast and your goals and what you're doing now. But let’s start with a little bit of a journey, like a shortened version, like you do on your podcast.

Greg: Christine, do you want to start us off and tell us a little about your journey and how you got to where you are today?

Christine: Sure. And Greg, you would be so proud—I prepped nothing for today. This is very off the cuff.

Greg: I love it.

Christine: So I’ve been a special ed teacher for about a decade. I still consider myself very much a special ed teacher, even though I’m in a different space now. About a decade in, I had my first baby, and the world shut down.

Christine: It felt like a good time to take some time out of the classroom. I knew I wanted to take an extended leave instead of just the eight weeks of maternity leave that I got, so I wouldn’t disrupt students with multiple teachers during the year.

Christine: With that in mind, I took a year-long leave of absence. The pandemic hit about four months in, and I had time to pause and think—am I going back to this position? If not, what does that look like?

Christine: That really lit a fire under me to figure out what I was going to do. Teaching is part of my identity. It’s how I identify. So I started looking into all these other things I could do with my special ed background.

Christine: I think that comes from side hustles as a teacher—we often have to do other things. Georgia and I probably just got used to that. I’m sure others can relate.

Christine: The pandemic opened up new opportunities for teachers. I was able to do some work, and currently I work with undergraduate and graduate students in teacher training.

Christine: So yeah, that kind of sums it up. And I don’t normally sound like this—I have really bad allergies right now.

Greg: You sound great.

Christine: Thank you.

Greg: Alright, Georgia?

Georgia: So similar to Christine, I was also in the classroom for about 10 years, but not special ed. I taught preschool and pre-K in the public setting.

Georgia: About five years in, I was still loving it, but I started to realize I had all these other passions and interests I wanted to explore. That led me down the path of wondering what entrepreneurship might look like—what it means to start a business and what other skills I had.

Georgia: That little nudge kept getting stronger, and it led me to take a year of career exploration where I stepped out of the classroom, did some traveling, and asked myself what I really wanted.

Georgia: Did I want to stay in education? Work with kids in a different way? Or step out completely and use other skills?

Georgia: That year happened to line up with the start of the pandemic, so it became a time of reflection and figuring things out.

Georgia: Ultimately, I went back to the classroom and taught virtually, which I actually liked—a bit of an unpopular opinion. The preschoolers liked it too, at least for a while.

Georgia: It allowed me to teach and still explore other interests. I went back for a full year, but after that, I decided it was time to leave the classroom.

Georgia: I still love kids and education, but I wanted to explore everything else I had been building.

Georgia: Now, I’m really grateful for the Making the Grade podcast because it allows me to stay connected to education and support teachers. But full-time, I focus on my creative design business—building websites and creating content for small businesses and teachers.

Georgia: I sometimes miss being in the classroom, but I know that right now, this is the right path for me.

Greg: Well, Georgia, you know that I told you—you’re going to be going back into teaching, but it’s going to be international. I’m not worried about you.

Greg: For both of you, it sounds like there’s a wave of people burned out from teaching. Some leave after two years, some after three, some after five. But both of you had about 10 years in the classroom, so you’re not newbies.

Greg: It sounds like you avoided burnout long enough to really evaluate things. Am I getting that right?

Christine: It’s hard to think back to that time. Georgia and I talk about this a lot—we’ve blocked some of it out.

Georgia: I’ll say this—I feel like I was born to be a teacher. I loved it, especially those first few years. They were hard, but I was energized by it. Anything difficult was outweighed by how much I loved my job.

Georgia: But I think it was a slow burnout. There were a lot of factors, and then COVID hit, which forced everyone to reflect. I think we’re always evolving, and sometimes your life just starts pulling you in a different direction.

Georgia: For me, things like wanting to travel more or explore other interests didn’t align with being in a classroom every day. And eventually, that feeling became too strong to ignore.

Greg: That’s interesting, because my experience with COVID was totally different. We didn’t stop teaching at all. We went straight from in-person to online within days and just kept going.

Greg: I never had that pause to reflect. It was just constant adjustment.

Christine: How was that transition for you and your students?

Greg: It was intense. We went fully online, then partially back, then hybrid—it was constant change. But the kids adapted, especially the younger ones, as long as there was support at home.

Greg: The little ones just wanted to show you their world. It was like a playdate—“Look at my house, look at my toys.”

Greg: Even now, I’ll be about to give instructions, and a student will raise their hand just to tell me it’s their brother’s birthday tomorrow.

Christine: That’s so true.

Greg: It’s that age—they just want to share.

Greg: I was talking to my mom recently, and she reminded me that when I was little, I would walk up to strangers and just repeat whatever my parents had said. Kids just process everything out loud.

Christine: I have a three-year-old right now, so yes—that’s exactly what it’s like.

Greg: I don’t know how you do it—teaching and parenting.

Christine: It’s definitely a big factor in stepping back. You don’t really understand the energy it takes until you’re in it.

Christine: For me, it was a mix of becoming a parent, the state of the world, and realizing I could probably figure something else out if I needed to.

Christine: Georgia and I were reflecting recently that both of our parents are entrepreneurs. Maybe that’s why we have that mindset of “we’ll figure it out.”

Greg: That makes sense.

Greg: So how did you two meet? Were you teaching together?

Georgia: No, we met in college. We were roommates.

Greg: And did one of you pull the other into teaching?

Georgia: I think I pulled Christine into teaching. I had always wanted to be a teacher, and when I got my first job and started my master’s, she saw how much I loved it.

Georgia: That kind of sparked something for her. And now, looking back, it’s cool to realize how much we influenced each other.

Christine: And she also helped me realize it’s okay to leave the classroom if that’s what you need.

Greg: That’s a great transition—tell us about your podcast. What is Making the Grade all about?

Christine: It’s a space for current teachers, former teachers, and people thinking about becoming teachers. We wanted it to be inclusive of the whole education journey.

Christine: At first, we thought about focusing on just one group, but that didn’t feel authentic to us. We’re both still connected to education in different ways.

Christine: The idea is to explore people’s “why.” Why did you become a teacher? What keeps you there—or what led you to leave?

Christine: We’re naturally curious people, and we like asking deeper questions. That’s really the heart of the podcast.

Greg: Georgia, what about the name—Making the Grade?

Georgia: We spent a lot of time on that. To “make the grade” means to meet a standard or achieve success.

Georgia: But teachers are often expected to meet unrealistic standards, and that’s leading to burnout.

Georgia: We wanted to explore what success actually means. Because your definition of success changes over time.

Georgia: For me, success eventually meant having more freedom—traveling, building my business. That didn’t align with being in the classroom every day.

Georgia: So we want to show that it’s okay to redefine success and make choices that align with your life.

Greg: That’s exactly why I wanted you on the show. That idea of self-evaluation—what success means to you—is huge.

Greg: It’s not about what others think. It’s about how you feel at the end of the day.

Greg: And now success is tied closely to happiness, which is a shift from how things used to be.

Greg: I had a teacher who taught for 40 years and that was her life. Now, people are asking bigger questions.

Greg: How often do you publish episodes?

Christine: Every two weeks right now. We’d love to do weekly, but we have a full process—website, editing, social media—so this is what works for now.

Greg: That makes sense. We do the same—bank episodes so we’re not scrambling.

Christine: Exactly.

Greg: Alright, we’ll take a quick break to remind listeners how to reach us.

Greg: You can find us on Instagram and Twitter at ITPexpats, email us at [internationalteacherpodcast@gmail.com](mailto:internationalteacherpodcast@gmail.com), or visit our website at [www.itpexpat.com](http://www.itpexpat.com).

Greg: Back to the show.

Greg: One thing I love about your podcast is the “this or that” segment. Can we do one?

Georgia: Yes, we love that.

Christine: Alright, we’ll start easy. Beach or mountains?

Greg: Beach. Always beach.

Georgia: Same—beach.

Christine: I think I’m mountains.

Greg: Of course you are.

Christine: Coffee or tea?

Greg: Coffee. Strong.

Georgia: Coffee.

Christine: Coffee, but I want to say tea to sound healthier.

Greg: Early morning or late night?

Georgia: Early morning.

Christine: Late night.

Greg: Late night for me.

Christine: Travel with a plan or go with the flow?

Greg: Go with the flow.

Georgia: I used to be a planner, but now I’m more go with the flow.

Christine: I’m still a planner.

Greg: That’s a good mix.

Greg: That’s fun. I like that segment.

Greg: Let’s shift a little bit. You’ve both talked to a lot of teachers through your podcast. What are some of the common themes you’re hearing right now?

Christine: I think one big theme is people feeling stuck. They know something isn’t working, but they’re not sure what the next step is.

Georgia: And also just realizing that there are options. A lot of teachers don’t realize how many skills they have that can transfer to other careers.

Christine: Exactly. Teaching builds so many skills—communication, organization, adaptability—and those are valuable in so many fields.

Greg: That’s something we talk about in international teaching too. People don’t always realize how transferable their skills are.

Georgia: And I think there’s also this fear—like, “If I leave teaching, am I failing?”

Christine: Yes, that comes up a lot.

Greg: That’s a big one. There’s a lot of identity tied up in being a teacher.

Christine: Exactly. So part of what we try to do is normalize those feelings and show that it’s okay to explore different paths.

Greg: That’s powerful.

Greg: Let me ask you this—have you had any guests who made a big shift that really stood out to you?

Georgia: Yeah, we’ve had a few people who left teaching and started completely different careers—like working in tech or starting their own businesses.

Christine: And it’s always interesting to hear how they made that transition. It’s rarely a straight line.

Greg: That’s reassuring for people to hear.

Christine: Definitely.

Greg: Alright, before we wrap up, where can people find your podcast?

Christine: You can find us on all major podcast platforms—Spotify, Apple Podcasts—and on Instagram at Making the Grade Podcast.

Georgia: And we also have a website where we share resources and episode information.

Greg: Awesome. We’ll link all of that in the show notes.

Greg: Thank you both so much for coming on. This was a great conversation.

Georgia: Thank you for having us.

Christine: Yeah, this was so fun.

Greg: And to our listeners, thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next time on the International Teacher Podcast.