Zooming in on Work/Life Balance

For me, a work/life balance includes time to appreciate the nature around me.

-Charles River, Waltham, MA

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. I felt inspired this morning to write in this blog that hasn’t been touched since July. I hope everyone’s winter vacation is restful and full of time with the important people in your lives. Educators give a lot of themselves on a daily basis and often work many hours in which they do not get paid. We do it for the kids and we do it because we have an internal drive to do our best at all times. Many of us do not have external pressure to be better from our administration and we could do less and still be very effective teachers, but we tend to still put pressure on ourselves to do better.

With the loss of my husband, dad, and aunt this year, I am perceiving my career as an educator a little differently. This is a job that I get paid for and it is not a “calling.” I have always felt teaching was what I was meant to do, but for many years it was my all encompassing passion taking way too much of my personal time. I thank the pandemic for keeping me home with my husband for almost a full year before his passing to have that quality time that would have been less if school was status quo and I was working my usual hours. Taking out the commute bought me back time with him. I still spent hours of my own time preparing digital assignments and trying to make online school fun and engaging for our students.

About 5 years ago, I took a course that opened my eyes about my career and how to start finding a decent work/life balance. Slowly, I have been incorporating the course’s strategies and materials. This school year has really stepped up my study and use of this course’s materials again with more of a focus on working smarter and not harder. For details about what I mean, check out Angela Watson’s books, podcast, website and courses like the 40 Hour Teacher WorkWeek Course which I took and highly recommend.

In the past, my winter vacation would be made up of at least three days of planning and prepping for the coming return to school. Now, I am able to be more productive and focused when I am in school and I do minimal work outside school hours, but I am just as prepared with my lessons and effective in my teaching. Actually, I feel more effective with students now because I am not overworked at home.

It has really helped that our district has a new math program. In the past, a lot of time was spent planning math lessons and finding materials that matched our standards, etc. Now we have a wonderful math program (Illustrative Math) that thankfully is aligned with math pedagogy and best practices. Now I have all the materials ready to go. I do not have to be spending hours at the copier printing out materials because the kids have engaging workbooks for each unit. I do not have to create Smartboard slides because they are already created for me on the digital resource (Learn Zillion). There are matching activities to print and cut, and games/centers to print, but nothing overwhelming at all. I can focus on HOW to teach the lessons, understanding the goal of each lesson, and I can plan how I will adjust in the moment if time gets short, etc.

I am also thankful for the amazing team I work with and how we share our work as much as possible to help each other not have to do too much. This is another way to work smarter, not harder. We work hard, no need to have the teacher next door reinvent the wheel if we have already made that material/slide, etc.

One of the biggest takeaways from Angela’s course was how to best utilize my prep times each day. Hint: PLAN YOUR PREP TIMES!!! Plan what you will get done at each break you have. I make a list each morning of what I will do before school, at prep time, at lunch, at recess (if my amazing co teacher goes out instead of me), and after school. I also batch my work so that my brain can stay focused. For example,

Before School: go through digital lessons and copy all the math center and match cards for the unit

Prep Time/Lunch/After School: in order of lesson, cut the math centers and match cards (paper clip each pile, place in baggy and label which lesson it is).

Focusing on getting the majority of my schoolwork done at school allows my brain to rest and be more energetic and creative when I am with our students, as well as allowing me to be creative in other areas of my life. I am already thinking about Season 3 of The Teacher As… podcast and have some exciting episodes planned. Waking up on Christmas morning moved to write this is proof that my brain needed the rest and is wanting to explore some other topics other than just what I teach my students.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

I love quality time with these goofballs: Hawkeye (black cat) and Dudley (gray cat).

Photo Credit: Joshua Milner