Becoming a Teacherpreneur

Growing up as a millennial, I was always given the impression by my parents that in order to be successful, I would need to get good grades in high school, go to college, get a degree, and then get a great paying, standard 9-5 job. It sounds great in theory, but not all of us are created to fit the mold of our parents, which our parents were probably following the same model as their parents. Regardless, I wanted to be a teacher. I had to go to college to get a teaching license and degree to be a public school teacher.

The problem was, I was not able to get my teaching license before I could get a teaching degree. It was absolutely frustrating that all I wanted to be was a teacher, but according to a state test, I was not qualified enough. So I was not able to get a teaching degree. I was forced by my father to graduate with a degree because according to him, I needed to move on with my life and not be a college student anymore. I felt like I had no choice. I had to graduate with something. The Bachelor of Science degree I have is not even related to the education I got. It quite literally is a 'BS' degree, with crippling student loan debt of course. But I did not want to give up teaching just yet.

I was able to discover Montessori Education. I fell in love with the method and the science behind it. Two years after I graduated with my 'BS' degree, I started my Montessori Teacher training. It was VERY intense, but I have no regrets with the education I received from it. Countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears flowed into creating my albums for lessons, and I now was considered a "certified" teacher a year later. With my training came my very first, real, salaried job. I felt like a real adult in that moment when I moved away from my family into a new city for this "real" job. I had felt like I made my parents proud.

But I quickly realized that there was a lot that I wanted to change to make the children and the world a better place, but a lot of walls that I could not cross to get there. Even though I was a certified teacher, I was not treated as such at the school I taught as for three years. Was it because I was young? Was I a threat to the veteran teachers? The majority of the time, I felt dismissed and disrespected as a teacher. Despite loving every student that I have ever called as "my children," the environment I was working in was not worth it.

Unfortunately for 2021, many teachers are beginning to realize the same thing I came to the realization with two years ago (2019). As of July 2021, 1 in 6 teachers this year alone have decided to resign from teaching. And as far as I know, that number will only get bigger with time (and no changes). The reason behind it is definitely NOT because of the children; it definitely was because of the adults that swear are 'on your team.' When you are young and want things to change for the better, but are stuck in a '9-5 job' where you are not allowed to do such a thing, or you are treated as 'beneath everyone,' it is impossible to make such changes.

As I decided to leave the brick and mortar teaching profession in May 2019, I felt like I was back at square one on what I should do for work. Should I continue teaching? Is it really my passion? Or am I meant to do something else? Thankfully with my paycheck from the school spread out to 12 months, I had time until August to decide.

In July 2019, I discovered a very famous orange branded ESL company (which shall remain anonymous) for teaching children in China English lessons online. I knew at that point, I wanted to take a break from teaching Montessori for a year to see if this was something I wanted to do, or if I just needed to step away from a career I thought I would retire within my 60s. So in my mind, I thought, "This is not necessarily Montessori teaching, and all I need is a Bachelor's Degree. So why not?"

Little did I know at the time, I was starting my track on the world of online teaching. So I taught ESL online for about 1.5 years, while working an unrelated full-time job. While still working at said ESL company through 2020, I began to see teachers within the same company talk about another online teaching company where you could write your own curriculum, set your own hours, days, and how long you wanted to teach your classes. I was intrigued because the ESL company we were all working under was going through some changes in pay that a lot of us were not happy with.

At the time I discovered this new online teaching company in, it had already been a year since I left my brick and mortar teaching job, and needed to revisit whether I wanted to be a Montessori teacher again or not. I knew I did not want to go back to the brick and mortar teaching environment. With the world still under fire with a pandemic and this perspective new online company to work with, I decided to come up with the concept of trying to combine Montessori lessons and concepts with online learning. Since you could create your own lessons, why not take the chance to experiment with this crazy concept?

I also discovered a few months later that this idea of mine was not new, and that several Montessori schools were exclusively online. Wow! What would Dr. Montessori think if she could see this!? But I still wanted to offer Montessori lessons at a more affordable, but reasonable rate online. Once I was in the new program, I offered my first few online Montessori classes with only 1-2 students signed up, and was excited to see where this company would take me.

It took me further than expected. I created one science class that became an instant hit, with full classes before I even taught my first lesson. It still became a continuing success. With more classes and my creative juices flowing on class ideas, more students became to know who I was. The profit I was earning was incredible. Very part-time hours in perspective, and great pay? I was earning the same rate from my full-time job working overtime with working very part-time with this online company. Sure, with no benefits or retirement, but it was still enough to support my family with less work involved.

As my actual full-time job was starting to wear me down, I was seeing an increase in business with this online company I was teaching my own lessons under. I began thinking about what if I could make me teaching my own lessons on here my full-time job instead?

Sometimes in life, you have to "take chances and get messy," as Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus would say. Of course with thoughtful consideration and advice from many wise people in my life, they thought it would be foolish of me to not move forward with this pursuit. So in February 2021, I became a teacherpreneur.

I had to work past the fears of what could happen with this teacherpreneur job...the "what ifs" of this decision. I have no regrets with this decision, even with children going back to school in person. I'm finally doing what I feel fits with what I want to do in life. Yes, I'm tired at the end of the day, but it still does not feel like work. It's the first time in life I am happy with what I am doing for work.

Sure, maybe it's not considered a "real job," but if this fake job helps me support my family more than the "real jobs" I had in the past ever could, then yeah, I don't have a "real job."