Anna Treesara is a former high school English teacher who began teaching in 2013 and transitioned out of the classroom into the nonprofit world in 2018. In 2019, she landed a job in the Ed-Tech industry and also became a small business owner by launching her own tutoring company at the same time! Her transition from the classroom to Ed-Tech took multiple steps and she says she wouldn’t have had it any other way. As you read her story, look how taking one opportunity then led to another. Also, look for how she contributes her unique Ed-Tech strengths in different roles and how she seeks out ways to keep learning and growing in her area of interest.
Here is her story…
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It was fall of 2017 — I had done it: I achieved a paperless classroom. “This is SO GREAT,” I thought to myself. However, another thought immediately followed: “I want to be DONE with teaching.” Though I had only been about four years in, I was definitely feeling the burnout, so I decided to finally start job hunting.
However, I seemed to have very little luck — companies often wanted to hire sooner rather than later, and I wanted to finish out the school year. At this point in my career, I didn’t understand that there truly is never a “right” time to make a career shift. Whether it was in the middle or end of the school year, it would have been difficult either way. Eventually, I did get a job at a work-based learning nonprofit where I was still able to work closely with students, coaching them on life skills like communication and time management in the workforce. It was so different from the classroom, and I loved the flexibility…but I still found myself drawn to Ed-Tech. I did everything I could to make sure I was staying up to date on all the trends — subscribing to newsletters, taking tech-related graduate courses, self-appointing technology projects at work, etc. Soon enough, I became known as the technology expert at my office.
Little did I know that everything I was doing was actually setting me up to transition into Ed-Tech. I built a strong foundation of Ed-Tech knowledge while in the classroom that I carried with me into my nonprofit job. I was the one who had innovative ideas centered on technology and encouraged staff to use shared drives and other tech tools for student engagement. From using Google Classroom during teaching to YouCanBook.me and Remind in my nonprofit job, I realized that technology never truly left my life.
Due to my unofficial title of technology expert at work, I was the first person that my colleague thought of when she stumbled upon a job posting for a customer success role at an Ed-Tech company. In addition to this, I had actually crossed paths with this very company a couple years back when I was still in the classroom! I never actually used the tool, but I met someone who worked there as a software engineer who had also transitioned out of the classroom. I applied for the role, completed their supplemental deliverables, interviewed, and got the job!
As I think back on this journey, I realized there were multiple points that clearly led me to this success — using Ed-Tech tools in the classroom, bringing that tech brain into my nonprofit job, and continuing to let others know how obsessed I was with technology. All of these things seemed to follow a theme of taking chances — if I had never taken a chance to just try new things while in the classroom or be bold with my ideas at my nonprofit job, I wouldn’t have ended up where I am today, in a job where I get to work closely with educators again, in a job that I love!
If you are interested in getting into the Ed-Tech world, I’d recommend the following:
- Take chances
- Explore new tech tools that you can implement in your classroom so that you can become an expert in your own schools and districts
- Figure out what your strengths are and how they might be transferable into the Ed-Tech world
I knew that I loved helping educators figure out how to use tools and incorporate them into their lessons, which meant roles like customer success. However, there are also positions focused on curriculum development or operations — both of these positions require skills that many teachers already have!
Additionally, there are SO MANY resources out there. Below are some of my favorites:
- EdSurge – https://www.edsurge.com/
- EmergingEdTech – https://www.emergingedtech.com/
- NEO LMS – https://www.neolms.com/
ANNA’S TOP TIPS FOR TEACHERS WHO ARE TRANSITIONING:
- Absorb information
- Play up your strengths
- Most of all, TAKE CHANCES
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