Get out of Teaching

For over two decades, Michele Davies taught in schools in both metropolitan and regional communities across all sectors. She managed visual arts curriculum development (F-12) for the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority for six years. A passionate advocate for The Arts and community development, she previously engaged personal and community arts practice alongside advisory roles for community organisations including Red Planet Political Posters and held a co-opted membership to the Board of Regional Arts Victoria.

Michele founded Creative Energy Connection after many years of service to community Arts and education. Having experienced the trials and tribulations in membership of many struggling systems she undertook extensive spiritual practice and therapeutic studies. Informed through exchange with Indigenous communities in Aboriginal Australia, India and training from International Teaching Masters of Systemic Constellation Therapy she continues to support others in service of transformation.

Creative Energy Connection provides wellbeing solutions for those who feel blocked to progress with life. Therapeutic solutions are delivered through Creative Arts therapy and Family and Systems Constellations therapy. The practice serves to empower healing and assist ease with affirmative direction for Individuals, families and communities ready to thrive.
Contact Michele via
www.creativenergyconnection.com

For a decade, Bronte was a classroom teacher before leaving and building a business she loves. When she left teaching to enter motherhood, she started her own business as a meditation teacher, intuitive reader and Reiki practitioner. Then she learnt the Kiloby Inquiries, trauma-informed advanced mindfulness which helped her overcome her twenty-year bout of depression and sparked her legacy through her work. Bronte became a Kiloby Inquiries Facilitator and began teaching individuals, students and staff how to apply mindfulness to painful memories so they could overcome mental illness too.

To work with Bronte and learn the techniques to overcome depression, anxiety and overwhelm in BEYOND BELIEF. Book trauma-informed staff wellbeing professional development for your school or workplace. Have Bronte Spicer be a guest speaker at your student assembly to hear her inspiring story of overcoming depression. Book the KI for Kids Student Wellbeing Program for your school so your students develop emotional intelligence, mental health, emotional regulation, attention span and healthy relationships from a young age. 

Bronte holds life-changing retreats across Australia, loves to teach sole traders how to follow their intuition and grow their dream business and she comes alive speaking at spiritual festivals and holding Sacred Earth Gatherings on Dja Dja Wurrung country. Bronte is a published author in the celebrated collaboration ‘More Than a Mum’. She is an award-winning author for Elephant Journal and is currently writing her own book on the gentle way to dissolving depression. 

www.brontespicer.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/brontespicer

Instagram: bronte_spicer

Lyn McLennan grew up in the NZ South Island town Oamaru. Lyn's desire to become a teacher was apparent from an early age. Her mother was a Primary School teacher, her sister became an Early Childhood Teacher and each of her two brothers married school teachers. 

After completing her degree in the early 80's and teaching for three years, Lyn travelled abroad. Over 15 years she worked in a variety of different roles including chefing in Germany and working as a Children's Entertainer in Tokyo. After teaching in International Schools in Thailand, Lyn returned to NZ to be close to family. 

She thoroughly enjoyed her role as Food and Fabric Specialist Teacher at Twizel Area School for 7 years, returning to Oamaru after the loss of her mother.

 After suffering a SCAD heart attack, Lyn was advised to change her work environment. An opportunity arose to follow another passion, and Lyn set up her own Dog Daycare Business.  

She is loving the new role and encourages others to consider new options when teaching reaches its expiry date for you. Google search "Oamaru K9 Station" to see the fun she's having!

In this episode I have a powerful conversation with Karen Thompson-Anderson (B.A. Mgt Comm). Karen is a passionate advocate of being real with our words in powerful ways that don't break us or our relationships. She is a compassionate communication coach in Marshall Rosenberg's NVC and an advocate of living big missions at home first.

As a social entrepreneur, Karen is the past co-founder of NVC Melbourne supporting grassroots training in nonviolent communication and more recently founder of Wise Women Rising - a collaborative and empathic community where older women can pilot their precious work for the new future.

Links:

Karen's Digital Business Card
https://www.karenthompsonanderson.com/

Australian Website for Nonviolent Communication
https://nvcaustralia.com/

International Website for Nonviolent Communication
https://www.cnvc.org/

Nonviolent Communication Bookstore
https://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/

An introduction workshop (1hr.40mins) to Nonviolent Communication with Chris Gillett (a colleague in Wise Women Rising)
https://youtu.be/wyujkpSP4Rc

From Amanda herself:
On leaving teaching: After 7 years of teaching I wanted to reduce my hours to 3 days per week to have more time to pursue my personal development as an artist. When this was refused, I took stock of my financial situation, and realised that if I retired (at 57) I could take my Superannuation and pay out our mortgage.

 After discussions with my partner we both agreed that this would be a good decision, freeing me from an increasingly stressful work situation and giving me a chance at a full-time creative life while I still have the motivation and energy to pursue it.

What I do now: I have a small fencing business, which I started up 6 months after leaving teaching. I do all the bookkeeping and paperwork associated with the business and have some input to commercial decisions that need to be made, working approximately 10 hours a week. 

The rest of the time I am a sole trader as a Contemporary Jeweller. I share a studio space with 4 other women, and am represented by 6 commercial galleries, and while I’m never going to earn anything like I did as a teacher, I have never been happier in my work. 

My Instagram address is amandacroattojewellery.

After teaching primary school Physical Education and some upper primary for 9 years Dale Ringin headed into the world of small business.  Initially using his education networks to develop business via after school programs for younger children, he also grew a fitness based event for schools that went across the entire state of Victoria, Australia.  

While growing his business,  Dale also became qualified as a personal trainer and began operating group fitness based training, akin to his Physical Education teaching days.  Dale decided with a young family that it was time to focus on staying local with his fitness business and ceased to work with schools.  

He discovered that training people was simply not enough to get long term health results which lead him to now having ten years experience with his weight loss coaching business.  He still does a small amount of personal training but has far greater time leverage via his Australia wide weight loss coaching to spend with his wife Jodie and their three children.

Former art teacher, Michelle Wasserman, has left teaching and  now helps coaches and course creators by writing high impact words (AKA copy) for their websites, email sequences, and newsletters.

Ross is a former secondary maths and drama teacher.

Although he really enjoyed teaching for several years, he is thrilled to be working in his new role in Christian ministry with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES).

He is married with no children and on the weekend enjoys building in his backyard and buying slighter nicer coffees than on weekdays. He really is quite a normal person (so he says!)

To find out more about the work of AFES, go to: www.afes.org.au

From Heidi herself:

All I ever wanted to do 'when I grew up' was to be a teacher and luckily for me, I reached that goal.

I spent 9yrs as a physical education and health teacher in the some of the best and worst secondary schools in Sydney, London and Vanuatu. I loved teaching but the money did not support my lifestyle, nor did the massive out-of-hours work support what I considered to be a fair return of my skills and enthusiasm.

So I started a health, fitness and education business outside of my teaching hours from my stinky garage with $200 of second-hand equipment. I grew it, quit my ‘day-job’, hired fabulous people, won awards, moved to bigger and better premises three times, became president of the industry body and sold it seventeen years later for the price and terms that I had asked for.

It was a dream come true."

Heidi is now an inspirational author, speaker and leadership coach.

Social Media Links:
LI - https://au.linkedin.com/in/heididening
FB - https://www.facebook.com/HeidiDening
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/HeidiDening
Tw - https://twitter.com/HeidiDening
YT - http://tinyurl.com/y2qn6cdv