After a 10-year break from the teaching profession, Cassie started to feel the pull of her original passion for teaching and longed to return to the classroom. Worried that her skills may be outdated and unsure about the changes to the education profession in that time, a lack of confidence held her back from applying for teaching jobs.
However, it was through participating in the Department of Education’s Restart Teaching program that Cassie uncovered the perfect way to bridge the gap in her professional awareness. She not only reconnected with her passion, but upskilled on contemporary education practice, policy and legislation, giving her the knowledge to re-enter the teaching workforce with confidence.
On taking a break from teaching
Cassie started her education career in 2006. Previously, while on a rural prac placement in Roma, she met her now-husband who is also a teacher. They taught in Toowoomba together for a few years before deciding to take a break from teaching and travel the world.
On returning to Australia, they both found work in other industries and settled down to start a family. Over the next 10 years, Cassie immersed herself in a wide range of vocations, from working in retail, studying interior design and being employed in private and public sector communications roles.
As her young family grew, she started to miss the flexibility that a teaching job could offer. Having the school holidays together and being able to pick up her own children from school some days was an attractive lifestyle choice for a healthier work-life balance.
During that time, Cassie also did some relief teaching and began to acknowledge that nothing brought her quite the same satisfaction that teaching did. She realised that teaching teenagers and seeing their eyes and minds open to the world around them was her real drive and passion.
'I’m the kind of person who needs to feel passionate about what I’m doing and feel like the impact my work has is significant,' she explained.
Teaching was where she needed to be, so she decided to go back to the classroom.
Hesitations to return
Returning to teaching after being away from the profession for so long came with its own challenges.
Cassie found that a lack of confidence in her own skills and knowledge was holding her back from applying for teaching jobs.
'Things were very different 15 years ago when I started teaching,' she said. 'Policy has changed, the Australian Curriculum and the professional standards for teaching didn’t even exist when I first started teaching.'
Cassie knew the Restart Teaching program was a course recommended by the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) for teachers re-registering with the Returning to Teaching (RTT) condition applied to their registration. Even though she was exempt from the RTT condition, she voluntarily participated in the program as it was a streamlined and recognised way to reconnect with the profession she loved.
Restart Teaching program
Cassie said the program helped her gain self-assurance, as well as a familiarity with and an understanding of what it means to be a teacher now, not what it was like when she was teaching a decade ago. She found she could speak with authority about the context and climate of education in professional conversations with peers and in interviews with prospective employers.
Cassie explained the program also helped her recognise that she already possessed many of the core skills needed to be successful in the classroom. 'It was easy to identify how your own experiences paralleled with other participants. Considering the strengths and weaknesses that others identified within themselves revealed strengths and weaknesses that you may not have thought about yourself,' she said.
Despite being an online program, she found connecting with her cohort through the discussion boards and forums extremely valuable. 'Engaging with the rest of the participants deepened the experience of the course. You don’t lose that collaborative learning experience.'
'There are other restart teaching courses, but I recommend the Restart Teaching program because it’s tailored to what you need to know to be in a state school. It was really clearly sequenced and well-presented which made it easy to complete the course.'
Stronger now than ever
'Going back to the classroom just affirmed for me that there is no other job that I enjoy day to day as much as teaching,' she said.
Cassie acknowledged that teaching isn’t always smooth sailing, admitting that sometimes the job feels demanding and difficult. However, her experience in other roles helped her realise that every job includes things that aren’t ideal, things that can be challenging and exhausting. She explained, 'I didn’t feel the same reward and benefit from my other endeavours as I did from being in the classroom. Teaching reinforced that I’m here because I love it. Being so passionate about it is what brings me so much joy in the classroom.'
She also came to realise that the professional and personal experiences gained in her time outside of the classroom have contributed greatly to her teaching. 'My experiences have informed my practice and skills in a way that never would have happened if I just stayed in teaching the whole time.'
Are you ready to return?
If you’ve been out of teaching for a while, or even if you’re interstate and moving to Queensland to teach, the
Restart Teaching program will help build your confidence and capability to ensure you’re classroom ready to teach in a Queensland state school.