How to move from Teacher to Working with Home School Families

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In the vast teaching landscape, Michelle Sheridan’s story stands out as a testament to resilience, self-discovery, and the pursuit of happiness beyond the confines of a traditional classroom. As the founder of Inquire Education, Michelle shares her transformative journey from a system-bound teacher to a thriving entrepreneur as she offers a range of exciting workshops for Home School families from her teaching space in Redlands, Brisbane. She offers insights, inspiration, and a beacon of hope for teachers contemplating their path to freedom. Many teachers in our Exit Stage Teach Community have contemplated how they can work with Home School Families, and in this Blog, Michelle shares how you can do just that!

A Passionate Teacher’s Struggle

Michelle’s journey began with the vitality of a 22-year-old, fueled by a passion for Chemistry and Biology. She was optimistic with a vision that her secondary students could go on to research, innovate, invent, find cures and help save the planet. Climbing the educational ladder, she envisioned a future as a Principal, eager to bring positive changes to the system. “I was the high-achieving, ‘yes, can do’ type who was climbing the ladder to become a Principal in the hopes of making changes to our system that would benefit students and teachers.” However, misalignment with the education system’s priorities and a life-altering cancer diagnosis led Michelle to question her chosen path. “By my second year, I was in middle leadership and working in a Head of Year level role. My third year saw me standing in for the Deputy Principal on days of their absence. My fourth year brought in some serious misalignment as data collection outweighed teaching as the primary objective of our profession. By my fifth year of working as a teacher, a cancer diagnosis had me realising that I did not like the direction that our education system was moving in. I took some time off to become a Mum and raise some children at home.” Taking a break to become a mother, she returned to teaching with a new perspective. “When my eldest was school-aged, I took on a contract teaching Prep (5 yr olds). This was a major decision that I made as a result of wanting to be witness to the processes behind the decline in teenage mental health that we were seeing at the time, as well as handy being at my children’s school. The following year, a position was created for me as an Inquiry Pedagogy Mentor.I loved working with teachers, being in all the classrooms, admiring our unique differences and supporting teachers in transitioning from worksheet science to more hands-on inquiry. It was a role I took very seriously until I realised I was simply a ‘box-tick’ position for a retiring Principal. Within the new school leadership team, I witnessed cliques, staff alliances, egos galore, unethical distributions of funding and a variety of toxic behaviours that eventually led me to put my hand up and let everybody know that “I am not here for this”. I had transferred my permanency and was now stuck in a situation that led me to what I call, “My Big Fall”.

Michelle confronted the system’s shortcomings, experienced burnout, and, in a pivotal moment, decided to prioritise her well-being over a broken system.

“I ugly-cried in front of my grade 4 class that year, I gave myself the label of a broken teacher. Like SO many other teachers, I would arrive home and rock in the corner for hours. I became unable to function at home, cook a meal, make lunches for my kids, clean my home, my marriage was shot, I was self-harming for the first time in my life. I was coming to terms with the fact that my job was hurting not only me, but my family.”

The Journey to Rediscovery

Amidst the chaos, Michelle connected with her true self during a period of quiet reflection. Embracing the challenges, she rediscovered joy and healing. The mandated injections that led to her job loss became a catalyst for Michelle’s spiritual journey.

“The mandated injections were a godsend really. I chose to lose my job, along with my entitlements and over 500 hours of sick pay, everything that I had put so much of myself into and more. In that quiet, I connected with the most beautiful people (one of them being Myself!!). I aligned myself with the energies that I wanted to experience in my life and began creating my new way of being one small step at a time. I felt all the blessings in having everything that I knew about my own identity ripped from under me. I healed as I created my new identity, and my family unit reunited.”

With newfound purpose, Michelle began to piece together her expertise and experiences, paving the way for her venture, Inquire Education. She spent a year building connections, taking courses, and testing the waters with homeschoolers, workshops, and school holiday groups. She learned the back end of technology, taking opportunities as they arose. She held “trials” with homeschoolers, after school workshops and school holiday groups, however, her finances brought her back to high schools when she was allowed to re-enter after the mandate was lifted.

“They got a very different version of me back. I stood for ME now, I was empowered to do so, never again would this job take so much. I found myself liking the classroom, I’m good with students, I began taking contracts again and upping my load to support the math and science department with their limited staffing. I also found myself scared to jump ship because I felt safe in that financial way. My gut was telling me to get back to my business, but the job was just too easy and I was being appreciated. I hired a Teacher-Belief-Coach who broke down those final barriers for me, and now, as I approach 40, I help my local school on my terms.“ I support my colleagues with love and understanding, I connect with my students without needing to push them, I am present for all of my own family and I have myself a wonderful little homeschooling community whom I run STEM workshops for.“ I am inviting other teachers into this wonderful, autonomous space outside of the system and I have found my joy once more.”

Michelle now works with Homeschooling students and offers a range of different workshops in Literacy, Numeracy, STEM and coming soon ‘The Arts. Michelle works in the mindset that Job opportunities in STEM continue to grow, yet millions of STEM jobs remain unfilled every year, and she hopes to help fill this gap by educating as many home-schooling students in STEM as she can. Check out what Michelle offers her homeschooling families here – Home School Workshops

Challenges and Triumphs outside the classroom

Michelle describes her challenges as the biggest that have existed within her head. She explained as teachers, we are the only professionals who graduate to go forth and follow instructions rather than use the skillset we have trained for. The depth of the brokenness of our system penetrates all of us, whether we are conscious of it or not, and this profession forms a significant element of our identity. “I am a Teacher”, but what does that mean? It is the process of self-inquiry, the self-worth setbacks that come and slap us in the face now and then, the “I am no good” that results from a lifetime in being a system that teaches us what “good” looks like, and anything else must be “bad”.

Michelle’s journey has been an internal struggle. As a teacher, the identity of being a “system-following” professional posed challenges. Yet, Michelle persevered, using online resources, support groups, and a transformation course to enhance her business and mindset. Leaving the traditional classroom behind allowed Michelle to regain her passion for education. With a strategic exit plan, Michelle now supports her local school on her terms, provides STEM workshops for homeschoolers, and envisions a future where her business expands beyond Australia. Michelle is continually adding and updating her workshop offerings for her students. She is not only passionate about helping her students but also about supporting other teachers who want to follow in her footsteps.

“I’m not completely out yet, but simply having a goal to work towards, an exit plan, and some healthy ways to heal my body from the heavy impact of secondary public school supply classrooms, has changed my mental perceptions around my job as well as my capacity to function. I especially love having my bucket filled by the beautiful homeschooling families and children during the week and hope to continue to grow my business for these brave and beautiful families who are taking the big steps in removing their children from the system, often out of desperation. There is a growing gap for some wonderful teachers to fill and I hope to be able to support more of my amazing colleagues in joining me on the outside!”

Transformative Impact on Well-being

Michelle’s departure from teaching profoundly impacted her overall happiness and well-being. Her family life flourished, her health improved, and she rediscovered the joy in her work. The positive changes were immeasurable, reinforcing the notion that personal well-being should never be sacrificed for the sake of a job.

Teacher Transferable Skills

When asked about transferable skills Michelle was confident in answering as teachers we are caring people, we hold space for others well. We are creative, adaptable, inspiring, and thoughtful. We are intuitive, problem solvers, we know how to find and access information, we brighten children’s lives. We have a world-wide situation where children are suffering in our system and we are being forced into being the ones who inflict the pain. We know our students best, though… We know what works and doesn’t and will try it all out until we get it right for the kids. We’ve reached a time when our hands are so tied, and we must take back ownership of our profession. We are teachers!!! All these combined skills make us the superhumans that we are, and we are truly capable of anything if we put our minds to it.

New Found skills

Michelle describes her journey as one full of learning and developing new skills. “This has been a process. I have upskilled myself for free through the internet mainly in regards to the business areas that I was lacking, booking systems, website creation, marketing, automation, the admin side of Microsoft. Most large companies such as Microsoft, GoDaddy and Calendly, have great customer support and there are a lot of free YouTube videos etc to help get you by. I did a transformation course with the Teachers Belief Coach which was worth the spend!!” As newfound small business owners, teachers must learn new skills in order to run successful businesses. Our blog Build a Thrive Teacherpreneur Business offers some great advice about how to start your own Teacher Business.

Approaching starting a business

Michelle describes her approach to starting a business from embracing the silence that she allowed herself to experience. “It has been a spiritual journey for me as I find myself and my purpose in this lifetime. My ideas came as I dreamt. Rather than try to figure it out in my head, I focussed in on the feelings that I wanted to experience, I journalled, I meditated, I lit a candle or two, sat under a moon or 20. I have trusted that the opportunities will guide me and I have intuitively felt into my next steps (this writing being one of them) and I have made small, tiny, seemingly insignificant steps along the way. They are still moving me towards where I want to be.”

Inspiration for others

Michelle Sheridan’s story is a beacon of hope for teachers seeking fulfilment outside the constraints of traditional education. Inquire Education not only represents a business but a movement—a testament to the resilience of teachers who refuse to let a broken system define their worth. Michelle’s journey teaches us that there is life, joy, and purpose beyond the classroom, and every educator has the power to redefine their path and shape the future of education. Looking for support to start your own business, get in touch with our amazing Exit Stage Teach partners, check out out resources page for more information.

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