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If you've read many of my articles you will already know that I am great believer in being organised. In whatever I did in teaching, at whatever level, I liked to have a plan and to have thought things through and be organised...including "plan B's"
However today I am going to look at how your own personal organisation might be "tweaked" a little to make things easier for yourself and to free up some valuable "you / family time."
ECT's: - if you are a newly qualified teacher then I can categorically tell you to expect a higher workload and time input into your teaching just because of your experience. No matter which route you took into teaching, your learning really starts when you have your first class in your first job. As with any new career you are at the start of a learning curve that sits right across everything you do. So expect to spend more time planning, marking and generally thinking about your teaching ( and partners should be aware of this also). However, and I say this to all ECT's, expect this type of pressure to last 2 years and then you should be actively working to reduce your workload and re-addressing your work/ life balance. Knowing this gives you some clarity not only in the work that you are currently doing but also a view of the light at the end of the tunnel.
Lets be quite honest about this - teaching is a special career. But career it is...it is not a higher calling and does not pay hundreds of thousands of pounds a year! So lets put things in perspective a little and try to get back control of our lives and put our JOB where it should be!
One of my well known phrases at the end of a day was to walk down the corridor and say to colleagues "Right that's all you get for your money....I'm going home!"
Arriving at School:
Let's start with the basics....
You have no need to arrive at School before 8.00 a.m for a 8.45 - 9.00 start
Why do it....honestly there is no need; there really isn't.
Now I know that some of you live a good distance away from your school and have to travel in. I was in the same situation in 2 of my schools and these were my times...
Get up - 05.10 a.m
Leave house 06.00 a.m
Catch train - 07.00 a.m
Arrive city - 08.00 a.m
Change train and arrive school 08.15 a.m
So yes your times of leaving and getting back home are all skewed...you do have my sympathy.
But why are some colleagues arriving at schools at 06.30 or 07.00 a.m......have you nothing better to do??
Things to do at School in a morning:
I am going to have to make some assumptions here - but they are pretty general assumptions and that is that you have, at the previous weekend, planned in detail for the Monday and also given yourself a general reminder of what is coming up in the week ahead. The evening before each day you then plan in detail for the next day....not unreasonable and I would think everyone operates like this.
So in a morning when you arrive at school the days lessons are in your mind and you know what you need to prepare. There might be some photocopying, some presentation work on the board / screen and perhaps a quick read through your notes - there is no need to prepare the afternoons work at this point.
All in all 20-30 minutes tops! - then grab a cup of tea and chat with colleagues or your T.A
So long as you are ready for when the children walk through the door that is enough....you don't get paid for time spent in school !
Lunchtimes:
Everyone needs a break - I used to buy a paper every day and read that. Chat with colleagues in the staff room, share a joke or talk current affairs and get away from your classroom and school work. Do NOT be marking or grading assessments or anything like that. About 15 minutes before school re-starts go to prepare things for the afternoon. If its a practical lesson and you are teaching Y2 upwards then your monitors can do this when the lesson starts - lower down the school will obviously need different preparation arrangements. If you have photocopying to do then do it in this time. But in this way, you have had a 45 minute (on an hour lunch break) break away from school stuff.
At the end of the day:
You have 2 choices here - you either stay (required earliest leaving time may apply in your school) or you go!
Personally I would stay and get the marking done - there may be occasions where something else is happening but generally I would advise that you don't take marking home. Of course there are times when assessments occur maybe at the end of a term etc and this can raise the workload but we know when this is happening and so we expect this.
Its a case of getting on with it - focus in and get it done. There are articles here on sensible approaches to marking and I am aware that some schools are STILL totally ridiculous on what they expect. But set your goals and get it finished before you go home.
I would not expect you to be at school after 5.00 p.m (so make that your aim...5.00 p.m is the end of a normal work day anyway)
Evenings:
Everyone has a different situation - young families, frail parents...whatever it is and it is important that when you are at home FAMILY COMES FIRST. There is no debate about this...these are your most important people and it is these that you actually go to work for.
So whatever your arrangements...bath times for kids, meal times etc these take priority and your school work comes after these things.
Having done your marking at school you need now to plan for the next day - you sketched out the week when you planned at the weekend, so you will have an outline of what you will be doing and combined with the children's current progress you will be able to plan for the next day. This should NOT take more than 1 hour...1.5 hrs at the most. You shouldn't need to agonise over this - it should be quite easy to accomplish in this time frame.
Making and keeping a social life:
Now I am not going to tell you it's possible to paint the town every night - but it is possible to get out with friends or partner during the week. Again all it takes is a little planning.
It is important that you just don't have HOME - SCHOOL - HOME....but you must realise that you have to make definite strides to achieve something different.
If you have regular evening activities like the gym, exercise classes, salsa or just a special night out with your partner then get organised and get things sorted in your favour.
Arrange your nights out around your school timetable - or even structure your timetable around your nights out!
What you are looking to do is ...
Make sure the day after your evening out is an easy one to plan for
Try and structure activities that either you can mark in class or the children can exchange books and mark.
Get any marking done as quickly as possible and get home!
Even if you have to do a little planning on the evening in question then get it done quickly, giving you time to get ready for going out!
If it's a really special event and you can neither mark or plan then don't worry - just go out and play catch up for the next couple of days.
I remember some years ago York City were playing Liverpool in the FA cup at Liverpool. I was teaching in York and the kick off was 7.30p.m. I left the school bang on time at 3.30 p.m and we travelled to Liverpool and watched the game (we lost heavily by the way!) arriving back around midnight. So no marking or planning....didn't matter - just went in the next day and did the best I could for the day....we all survived!
So there we are...a few ideas that may help you get back some control over your work / life balance. It is important to do because without it you will find that not only does your home life suffer but also your teaching suffers as well.
You need to have an enjoyable time outside of school with family and friends to refresh you for your time in school.
But please - make this a priority...it is important
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