With all the discourse around the history job market, academia, and alt-ac I thought it might be useful to offer some insights as someone who made the transition from academia to teaching high school, though with the wrong 3 letters (ABD not PHD).

It is ok to feel a sense of loss. There are a lot of reasons why I will not finish my diss & many different inflection points for how I got there (some my fault, some not). Making the switch was the right call for me and my family but I will always mourn what could have been.

When making the switch make sure to stay humble. You’re moving from one set of discourses to another. ED programs teach their students a very different set of approaches and discourses than traditional academia. Get ready to not get the lingo & need to do research on the jargon.

If you want to teach in a public school make sure you look up your state (and nearby states) accreditation standards for teachers. Some are straight forward and others are arcane af. You may need to enroll in a program to get a teaching cert, even with the PHD. This means more $$

You’re going to know the content better than many folks apply for a job. But content mastery is only a small part of the interview/demo process. Classroom management skills, lesson planning, and building rapport w/ students rank higher.

Related to the above think about your own philosophy around classroom management, student engagement, and your general education philosophy. The initial set of interview questions will be around those questions. Thoughtful answers (even theoretical ones) will help a lot.

Remember that the HS classroom is VERY different than the college classroom. Attendance, student behavior & engagement, and discipline are all things you, the dept, and school are evaluated on. Your students are *young* adults, not young *adults.*

Frequently the oversight (need to turn in plans in advance, paper work) is much higher than in college - particularly for new teachers. This is a double edged sword. I have been luck to have amazing HS teaching mentors but some schools will micromanage you a lot.

Teaching HS provides real stability after years of the grad student/adjunct grind. Getting through my 60 day provisional period was such a psychological relief after years of fellowship and adjunct applications.

The best part of teaching HS is the ability to develop close academic/mentor bonds with students and mentor them over an extended period of time. Tenure track faculty get that but adjunct/GTAs don’t.