Why Am I Doing This Work?
A Call to Rethink the Teaching Profession
Photo by Shamblen Studios on Unsplash
When I wrote the final chapter of my book series on teaching during the pandemic, I ended with this line: “It’s time to reimagine the profession.” At the time, I didn’t know how much weight that sentence would carry—or how much it would come to shape my purpose.
I had just come through two of the hardest years of my professional life. Like so many educators, I had shown up daily for students, families, and colleagues during a time of extraordinary upheaval. But beneath the resilience was a deeper reckoning. I wasn’t just exhausted—I was changed.
Teaching during the pandemic didn’t break me, but it broke open something in me: the belief that we could keep patching the system with Band-Aids. It became clear that we needed more than gratitude and temporary fixes. We needed transformation.
Writing during the pandemic for me was the spark. The more I reflected, the more I saw that we’ve been asking teachers to do too much with too little for too long. And we’ve been asking them to do it in outdated systems that no longer reflect the reality of teaching today.
Out of that reckoning, my work began to shift. I started to name what I was seeing. I started to ask harder questions. And eventually, four core pillars emerged—Financial Growth, Professional Growth, Voice, and Time—as a framework for what a truly reimagined profession could look like.
My work is not about policy or logistics. It’s about reclaiming the dignity and sustainability of one of the most important professions in the world. My work is about transforming the elevating the role of the educator in today’s world. I believe in the profession of teaching, and I believe in the power of an education. I’m doing this work because I believe we owe it to our future—not just to survive—but to thrive.
This is my invitation to anyone ready to imagine something bolder, braver, and better. Let’s redesign the profession—from the inside out.
If you want to join the movement to transform and elevate the profession, download my The Profession Reimagined. With an outline of my four pillars, this briefing is designed to help you bring fresh and actionable ideas to the table at your school today.