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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Retired Educator" data-source="post: 151761" data-attributes="member: 3373">Only you will be able to decide whether the change was the right move for you. I can tell you that I retired from the teaching profession after 30+ years. Was every day great? Find a job where every day is great. I can assure you that at the end of my career I did enjoy the job. There is something about working with young people that keeps you young. Seeing student success is very rewarding; seeing student failure makes you wonder what you could have done better for them. Working with a student who is struggling and finally seeing them enjoying what you offer brings joy to the job.I was in the profession long enough to go through many new eras of best teaching methods. After you've been through a few yourself you will find that they are all a politician's catch-word for doing the same thing. Education is always changing because of new knowledge. Teaching that new knowledge doesn't change as much. When I started there were no computers in the schools, hell, we didn't even have calculators when I was in HS. In the end, between all those years and changes in education 2+2 is still equal to 4. The change might be in the fact that there is more than 1 way to learn and remember that 2+2 = 4 and that not everyone learns in the same way. Don't every remember having a term for visual learning when I was in HS but today I do know that if I see something I remember it much easier than hearing the same data. Other students might be the opposite. When I was in HS all notes had to be copied off the blackboard or interpreted from the teachers lecture and then entered into your notebook. Now a student might just pull out their smartphone and take a picture of the board where the teacher had written notes or used a computer to generate some picture or data from their smartphone, computer, or surface. Times have changed more than actual teaching.Times have changed, most for the better but not all. I dealt with a few parents who disagreed with my teaching but most were really concerned with what was best for their child. Over so many years I was bound to have a few parents that I just stored in my information bank as evidence that it wasn't necessarily good for all parents to reproduce. Good communication eventually will lead to both realizing that they have the same goal in the education of the child. Be truthful with students and fair. Realize that not all students are the same and it's BS to think that all students are to be treated the same. All that is required is that all students be treated fairly which is not the same. You mentioned that you live in Fargo. There are many smaller schools within a short drive from Fargo. Don't dismiss them from the job opportunities. Working with a smaller student body allows you to get to know your students a little better. You may not want to move your family but since you are on this site I'm assuming you are an outdoorsman. A job further from Fargo will place you much closer to lots of outdoor activities. Places where you could drive a mile from your house and you could be hunting. Or get to know some students who's family owns some land that holds lots of roosters. There are pluses and minuses to living in larger cities and smaller communities both. That change requires much debate about what is best for your family.Good luck on your new endeavor. From my experience I never intended on education for a life-long career but have never regretted making it my career. I retired when I reached the rule of 85, now 90 I believe, because I had a chance to collect full retirement and enter another career. Made sense financially to be collecting a full salary and full retirement benefits.</blockquote>

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