I have recently had an "a-ha moment" that even though I have been teaching for 14 years now, I will never reach the ideal I held for myself of being a master teacher. There is always something new to learn-new teaching styles, new technology, new curriculum, etc. There are days where I feel stressed and overworked and burned out just trying to keep up with it all, and I know that many of my fellow teachers feel the same way. How do we as teachers stay well balanced in regards to all the roles we play and responsibilities we have. I am fortunate to have a boss that values taking care of yourself and family before your job, but I realize that I lose sight of these priorities at times and put my classroom first. This led me to taking a professional development class about refocusing and recharging and learning strategies for becoming a well balanced teacher. Here are a few of the things that I have set as goals for myself, in order to better balance my home and work life, relieve stress, and take care of myself.
The first topic I would like to discuss is learning to say no. This is especially difficult for me and many other teachers. I am a people pleaser. I want to do all I can to help my students, better my school community, to impress parents, assist my colleagues, and share my knowledge as an educator. Also, No to mention-who actually says no to their boss when asked to do something? But for teachers who have plates full of lesson planning, grading, newsletter, IEP meetings, school events, conferences, and committees-sometimes one more thing on an already overflowing plate can be what puts us over the edge and cause teacher burn-out. Learning to say no can be one of the most freeing things you do as a teacher. I am not advocating for all teachers to always say no to everything, but rather to evaluate for yourself all the things you are doing and ask-Can I juggle on more responsibility, role, and/or priority? If the answer is no...then you should politely decline. Of course, this is not without difficulty. I have sourced an accountability partner, a close teaching colleague that I trust, to help me decide if this is something I can say no to before I agree to jump in to one more thing. It can be worrisome to hurt someone's feelings or disappoint them. We do not want others to feel as though we won't be a team player or pitch in, but we must take care of ourselves in order to better take care of our families at home and in our classroom.
The second thing I would like to discuss is managing our time and energy. Teachers always have to take work home with them... or do we? At this point in my teaching career I have in place a system that allows me to get 80% of my work done at work. It wasn't always like this for me though, I worked very hard at work, and brought home hours upon hours of grading, prepping, and lesson planning, I took advantage of being able to disarm the building and working on weekends or after hours. I soon realized I was missing out on quality time with my family, and downtime for myself. At one point in my teaching I considered quitting and becoming a Starbucks barista. So..how do I do it? This is a question I am asked by colleagues all the time. I manage/schedule my time/days and I take advantage of my most productive time of day, and lack of people in my school building. Luckily for me both of these things happen at the same time. I find that I am most productive in the early morning and I arrive to work about an hour and a half before many of my colleagues. I get more accomplished in this hour and a half than I do on my prep time. It is quiet, and not many are in the building to interrupt me. I chose this time instead of after school, because after school I am tired and emotionally depleted. I just want to visit with people or they want to visit with me and I get nothing accomplished. I also schedule my to do list each week with corresponding days. Mondays are for newsletters and prepping the week's activities. Tuesdays are for grading papers and my grade book. Wednesday and Thursdays are for lesson planning (which I stay 2 weeks ahead). Fridays are for sending and making copies. These are the major things I need to accomplish each week to stay afloat as a teacher. The minor to do list items, and email correspondences are done on my prep or PLC time. This system allows me to not take much, if any, work home with me on the weekends. Is it perfect? No. But it does allow me to spend more time with my family and recharging myself to be a more balanced, healthy teacher.
The third thing I would like to discuss is taking care of yourself by meeting your basic needs of exercise, nutrition and sleep. We are all guilty, me especially, of using caffeine to get through the day. (My blog is titled Tales of a Caffeinated Teacher for a reason) It is my one vice, that I let myself have, even though I know too much coffee, chocolate, and Diet Pepsi are bad for me. I am proud to say that I have cut back and am hydrating by drinking a lot more water. Teachers also tend to stay up late planning, grading, and prepping. We all know we should get more sleep, but this seems to be an area we are willing to sacrifice. Going to bed earlier and getting up earlier not only helps us not waste our day sleeping, but when we feel more well rested our students reap the benefits of a happier teacher and we are more productive. It is also easy to fall into the trap of eating poorly when we are trying to work through our lunch and eat at our desk. I am trying to make a habit of packing healthy choices into my lunch so I have no choice but to eat healthy at work. I tell myself it is okay to politely decline to go grab fast food when I am invited. But, it is okay to cave once in a while, because we need to leave the building for a minute, and take in some fresh air, and visit with an actual adult for a change! That can be healthy for our emotional well being too! Lastly, beginning a regular exercise routine is of course healthier for you as we all know, but I like to think of my time spent exercising as my time to be alone with my thoughts. I feel better after I have done it and I feel more focused as well.
The last goal to being a more well balanced teacher that I would like to discuss is finding rewarding professional development. Teachers know that if you are passionate about the topic you are learning about, your engagement is higher, and you are more likely to use what you learned, but we rarely are able to take advantage of this for ourselves. A lot of the time we do not have a choice about what professional development is offered, so when we do have choice, we need to follow our passion. I find this class to be rewarding because it is about a topic that I can not only professionally invest in but personally as well. Being a happier teacher will in turn rub off on my students and being a happier person will also reap benefits for my family.
The second thing I would like to discuss is managing our time and energy. Teachers always have to take work home with them... or do we? At this point in my teaching career I have in place a system that allows me to get 80% of my work done at work. It wasn't always like this for me though, I worked very hard at work, and brought home hours upon hours of grading, prepping, and lesson planning, I took advantage of being able to disarm the building and working on weekends or after hours. I soon realized I was missing out on quality time with my family, and downtime for myself. At one point in my teaching I considered quitting and becoming a Starbucks barista. So..how do I do it? This is a question I am asked by colleagues all the time. I manage/schedule my time/days and I take advantage of my most productive time of day, and lack of people in my school building. Luckily for me both of these things happen at the same time. I find that I am most productive in the early morning and I arrive to work about an hour and a half before many of my colleagues. I get more accomplished in this hour and a half than I do on my prep time. It is quiet, and not many are in the building to interrupt me. I chose this time instead of after school, because after school I am tired and emotionally depleted. I just want to visit with people or they want to visit with me and I get nothing accomplished. I also schedule my to do list each week with corresponding days. Mondays are for newsletters and prepping the week's activities. Tuesdays are for grading papers and my grade book. Wednesday and Thursdays are for lesson planning (which I stay 2 weeks ahead). Fridays are for sending and making copies. These are the major things I need to accomplish each week to stay afloat as a teacher. The minor to do list items, and email correspondences are done on my prep or PLC time. This system allows me to not take much, if any, work home with me on the weekends. Is it perfect? No. But it does allow me to spend more time with my family and recharging myself to be a more balanced, healthy teacher.
The third thing I would like to discuss is taking care of yourself by meeting your basic needs of exercise, nutrition and sleep. We are all guilty, me especially, of using caffeine to get through the day. (My blog is titled Tales of a Caffeinated Teacher for a reason) It is my one vice, that I let myself have, even though I know too much coffee, chocolate, and Diet Pepsi are bad for me. I am proud to say that I have cut back and am hydrating by drinking a lot more water. Teachers also tend to stay up late planning, grading, and prepping. We all know we should get more sleep, but this seems to be an area we are willing to sacrifice. Going to bed earlier and getting up earlier not only helps us not waste our day sleeping, but when we feel more well rested our students reap the benefits of a happier teacher and we are more productive. It is also easy to fall into the trap of eating poorly when we are trying to work through our lunch and eat at our desk. I am trying to make a habit of packing healthy choices into my lunch so I have no choice but to eat healthy at work. I tell myself it is okay to politely decline to go grab fast food when I am invited. But, it is okay to cave once in a while, because we need to leave the building for a minute, and take in some fresh air, and visit with an actual adult for a change! That can be healthy for our emotional well being too! Lastly, beginning a regular exercise routine is of course healthier for you as we all know, but I like to think of my time spent exercising as my time to be alone with my thoughts. I feel better after I have done it and I feel more focused as well.
The last goal to being a more well balanced teacher that I would like to discuss is finding rewarding professional development. Teachers know that if you are passionate about the topic you are learning about, your engagement is higher, and you are more likely to use what you learned, but we rarely are able to take advantage of this for ourselves. A lot of the time we do not have a choice about what professional development is offered, so when we do have choice, we need to follow our passion. I find this class to be rewarding because it is about a topic that I can not only professionally invest in but personally as well. Being a happier teacher will in turn rub off on my students and being a happier person will also reap benefits for my family.
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