Episode 88: Teachers are Education Experts

As teachers, we are education experts. But sometimes it can be really hard to realize this. And I can't tell you how many times I get to talking with teachers who have recently retired, and they have taught for 20-30 years, sometimes even more. And despite those teachers doing it for so long, they still feel like they don't have enough experience. And that is absolutely not true.

If you have been teaching for even a couple years, you have way more education experience than most people. If you have been teaching for your entire career, I guarantee you, you are an education expert. And honestly, all teachers are education experts, we have studied education, we have spent time with children, we know so much about what it's like to teach students.

So let's own that expertise. In this episode, I provide a few tips on how to leverage your education expertise to achieve your goals.

 

Topics Discussed:

  • Embracing your education expertise

  • You need to practice talking about your expertise

  • The need to pitch yourself

Resources mentioned:

Related episodes and blog posts:

 
 
 
 

Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

As teachers, we are education experts. But sometimes it can be really hard to realize this. And I can't tell you how many times I get to talking with teachers who have recently retired, and they have taught for 2030, sometimes even more years. And those teachers who have been teaching for so long, feel like they don't have enough experience. And that is absolutely not true. If you have been teaching for even a couple years, you have way more education experience than most people. If you have been teaching for your entire career, I guarantee you, you are an education expert. And honestly, all teachers are education experts, we have studied education, we have spent time with children, we know so much about what it's like to teach students. And so I really want you to reframe and embrace your education expertise. Sometimes I think about it through a counter example. Like, for example, my brother-in-law is a geologist. And he has been working in geology for probably 25 years. When he retires, he likely will go on to consult with other geology organizations. And maybe he will teach about geology, he will be seen as the geology expert that he is, the same thing is true for teachers. If you have taught before, whether it's one year or 30 years, you are an education expert. So let's own that expertise. And sometimes we can kind of underestimate this expertise, or really devalue our experience, because we're around teachers all the time. And in many ways, that's amazing. But it can also be hard to realize that our skills are unique. And so really starting to see your experience as valuable. And sure, we may not know everything about education, because no one does. But we definitely know more than the average person. Another reason why we can devalue our expertise is because the entire society that says teachers expertise, are not valued. And so it's no wonder that we walk away thinking, Hmm, maybe we don't have valuable experience, after all, but we absolutely, positively do. And so as you think about leveraging this expertise, so that you can go out there and make the impact that you want to in education, I have some tips for you. And the first one is to embrace your experience. It sounds easy, but it can be so hard. But when you're applying to jobs, and you're thinking about reframing your experience, it's so important to own your expertise in education. Just like other folks might have expertise in programming or marketing, you have expertise in education. And together with some of these other people, you can collaborate to make something amazing. You don't need to know everything about everything, you just need to lean into and position your education expertise. So when you think about your expertise, it can be helpful to take a step back. Think about the general public and what they know or don't know about teaching. If a programmer had to write a lesson plan about reading comprehension, would they be able to do it as well as you? Probably not? And if you had to write code, would you be able to do it as well as a programmer? Probably not. We all have areas of expertise, and it's important to own yours. And even going a little bit more narrow than this. You could think about your particular expertise. Maybe you taught high school math for 10 years, maybe you've been an early childhood teacher for five years. Whatever your particular expertise is, reflect on it. Think about what you learned from that experience? And how could you take that experience into your next chapter? And then my next tip is to practice talking about your teaching expertise. Now that you know how important it is to really frame your expertise and experience. It's time to practice doing so. Take baby steps to start. One way to begin is by talking about your teaching experience to a non-educator. This could be a friend or family member or someone you meet at a social gathering. It really doesn't matter who you talk about matters or who do you talk to matters less than how you talk about your experience. So practice talking about the complexities of being a teacher and the many hats you wear. tried to make it your goal to show how multifaceted your job is and how many transferable skills for teachers you have developed from being in the classroom. Even just thinking about your teaching experience in a new way, can make a big difference. And as people share about their own experiences, make connections to what you've learned and done as a teacher. By learning how to describe your time as a teacher, and your expertise and education, you'll be well prepared to apply for and land jobs. But sometimes the clarity we get actually comes by talking about it. So it's important to just talk about your experience, see what resonates with people. See what questions people have, and get clear by doing it. And as you get more and more comfortable talking about your experience, it's time to practice pitching yourself. This could be applying for job postings, writing cover letters, reaching out somebody that you want to connect with professionally. If you start thinking about how you don't have enough teaching experience, or maybe you just don't have what it takes for this opportunity that you want, check in with your brain, our brains try to keep us safe, by keeping us doing what we've always been doing. So realize that sometimes when these thoughts come up, but they're actually just ways that your brain is keeping you playing small. So reframe these thoughts. Remind yourself that you have relevant experience. And you can learn anything you don't know, embracing your experience is a practice. And it's one that as teachers we're not used to doing. So go easy on yourself. And as you notice, self doubt, try and remind yourself that you have valuable and relevant skills that can easily be adapted to many different jobs and education. As you go on interviews and apply for jobs, you're gonna get more and more comfortable. This is the same as I said, with talking about your teaching experience, the more you do it, the better you get at it, and the easier it becomes, but the only way out is through, we have to pitch ourselves, we have to get ourselves out there so that we get good at it. So let go of any ideas of perfection, and really take that risk to figure out how to own your education expertise in a way that feels good to you. Often doing this is easier when you're in in a community of educators doing similar work. So if you're looking for our community, I would love to invite you to join our educator forever network, which is the best community of educators moving beyond the classroom. It is so much easier to go out there and put yourself out there and try new things and experience the whole world of work beyond the classroom when you're in a community of folks doing similar things. So we'd love to have you join us. And no matter what you decide to do next, remember you are an education expert and your skills are needed in so many different ways.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai



Lily Jones