Juggling time, jobs and having a life

gwjones42

In the lead-up to the current (extended:D) holidays, I planned to get on top of a few jobs that had been irritating me for a while as I knew I'd have plenty of time to do them. These included (among others), a few termly plans, finally making a proper set of the sight-word flash cards I've been meaning to make for two years, planning an after-school club and reading up on and planning for implementing "First Steps Writing" in my class.

I don't mean to bore people with my list of jobs.......all teachers have their own lists to worry about .

If it wasn't for the holidays, I'd be too busy with lessons to even think about some of the jobs I mentioned. I'm not very experienced, but I'm deffinitely not new either. I've been teaching for three years and I seem to be able to work on only a small number of jobs at the one time. Multi-tasking is not one of my best qualities!

My question therefore is....how do you manage to juggle all the jobs that have to get done while still managing to have a life?

Any tips will be gratefully appreciated,

G

spurious

It's part of the job. Wait til you find yourself organising holidays in your free time to places where you can get photos and information to use in class.
I've no doubt there are teachers who do not do a fraction of the work others do, but that's the way in all jobs.

I've been teaching over 25 years, can multitask and generally have 10-12 hour work days. You get used to it, but yes, it's hard.

implausible

I'm a massive fan of the To Do List and post-its. I'm fantastic at putting things on the extremely long finger, but there's something incredibly annoying about those multi-coloured notes. I do the jobs so I can remove the note and put it in the bin!

You don't have to multi-task. It's more important to prioritise and organise your time. A guaranteed way to free yourself up for an evening is to stay in school for an hour after it. Sad, I know, but it's the only way (at the moment) that I can go home without the schoolbag guilt-free.

ulysses32

Agree with Deemark here. Put in an extra hour either before or after school.

I also prioritise to-do list and try to finish a task once it's started e.g. do a term plan for one group rather than term plans

The thing is these lists are never-ending and that is the nature of teaching. You may very well finish refining one thing only to decide it needs to be completely re-vamped the following term.

All teaching work is process and I don't think it ever ends, what I do know is that everything cannot be done in the same day/week.

gwjones42

All three of you get thanks......for spelling out what I knew already but was hoping wasn't the case. No denying it now!!

Really, I look around my room sometimes and think I could stay there for days and nights on end working and it still wouldn't be enough to time to get it all done......but since it's the same for everyone else it makes it easier to accept:)

ytareh

On a counter balancing note dont forget to make time for yourself including keeping fit and healthy /odd jobs like cutting the grass /family /friends/relationships/marriage/kids etc etc

dolliemix

It's true once term time is here - I have a never ending list of things that have to be done.

With these unexpected days off - I'm reading my book and surfing the internet guilt free! But something doesn't feel quite right!

While I love teaching, school does take over my life come term time. Between correcting and getting notes and classes prepared I could work all night every night.

I've been teaching ten years now and I would feel that there seems to be a lot more work to do than ten years ago. There are a lot more resources out there now, which is great, but you end up spending twice the time preparing trying to incorporate everything.

When I started you really just used the text book, blackboard and photocopies. Now we use textbook, tv, internet and newspapers so it is more time-consuming.

A part of me feels that we do too much work for the students though. They and their parents expect everything to be given to them - it's not helping them to become independent learners. I would rarely get an essay (I teach Irish) from my students these days that is original. They're good essays but the ideas either come from me or the notes. They have to be told exactly what to put in each paragraph practically. (Not just the weak students, the A students need way more guidance and direction than they did when I started out. )

It would be interesting to see do other teachers feel like this?

Anyway, back on topic, it is really important to make time for yourself. I used to bring copies home with me and spend the whole night putting off doing them and yet having them hang over me. Now I stay in work till 6 or 6.30. I never bring copies home anymore. I might do some work on the computer in the evening but I kind of enjoy that side of it so I don't dread it. But if I've stayed in until 6 or after, and don't bring the copies home, I find it easier to wind down.

Its a good thread title - I'm happy to hear others feel same way!