Leaving work at work?

Hey all--hope everyone is off to a great start this year!

I've made it my resolution this year to leave all work at work. No more carting home 26 Writer's notebooks to peruse on the couch. No more grading math tests while attempting to watch a show. No more. I have a baby now, and my priority needs to be spending as much time with her as I can.

This is proving to be MUCH more difficult than I imagined. I have also been forcing myself to leave the building no later than 4pm (we get done at 2:45) but I still feel as though I'm not getting done everything that needs to get done.

We don't get prep periods during the day, so I can't set up for labs/do planning/grade papers during that time. Same goes for lunch--I eat with my kids.

If any of you have successfully worked out the whole life/work balance, can you share some tips with me (and all of us)? I feel that my teaching is suffering because I'm trying to make more time for me. I need a little perspective here

Re: Leaving work at work?

Honestly, I don't know how you do it without preps.

I wish I had some real tips- my DD is 2 and half now and I think the only thing in my favor is that I am teaching the same grade again, for the first time in ten years (I always used to loop) and I was good about saving everything.

I also used to be big on making/writing all my own stuff, but I decided to stop doing that too. Over the summer I bought a bunch of great resource books from Scholastic- fluency reprodicibles and overheads, word work and comprehension packets, and a few others. I also bought a subscription to EdHelper- it has novel units that help me out a lot. I still tweak stuff, but it's a lot easier and all the materials are high quality (my school was also lacking in a lot of this stuff.)

Regardless, you are right in spending the time now with your daughter, even if your teaching suffers for it. They grow so, so fast and you can't get that time back.

Re: Leaving work at work?

Don't know if any of these will help, but they're all things I did...

1. get to work very early so you have prep time before you're even supposed to be there doing other required things

2. become adept at grading things here and there during quiet reading time, writing time, assemblies, during meetings when you can get away with it, any time you don't need 1000% of your attention focused in one place

3. have the kids help get materials ready for an activity themselves whenever possible (can they assist with lab setup at all?)

4. make extensive use of parent or PTA volunteers whenever available

5. have the kids grade their own papers sometimes, or trade and grade each other's, so all you have to do is record the grade

And I had one colleague who would stay realllly late one Friday a month, and basically run off ALL her copies, do all the basic planning, get major unit materials ready, etc. for an entire month at a time. I could never be that organized, but it worked for her. She also had everything ready for at least the first two weeks of school before she left for the summer the prior year.

Re: Leaving work at work?

I find I get most of my work done in the morning. I get to my classroom about an hour before my kids come. I close my door and get as much as I can finished in that time.

I can't believe you don't have any prep periods! Isn't that a union issue? I use those as well to get a lot of things done. Is it your choice to eat lunch with your kids, or do you have to? If it's your choice, I'd eat without them and get work done then, too.

Finally, I utilize the time I have when my students are working independently and don't require my help (which is NOT often!)

After having my son, I put an end to staying after school and bringing work home, but occasionally it's unavoidable. I usually end up bringing report cards home.

Good luck!

Re: Leaving work at work?

Hi Beth...
I'm in the same boat. Unfortunately, it's 10:35 pm on a Fri. night, and I'm planning for next week. I get to work an hour before the kids come in and 2x a month I am going to stay until 5:30-6:00 pm to get things done. It is tricky. I know I'll still have to bring things home, but as long as it's not EVERY weekend.

Re: Leaving work at work?

What grade do you teach? I teach 1st and I rarely take any work home. I check their writing journals in the morning when they first come in and during announcements, I check a different table each day. For math papers, I try really hard to check them as soon as they hand them in, I usually get through most of them, if not its just a few left. I also start to check their center work about 10 minutes before we go to lunch (at the end of our reading block) then when we come back from lunch the class has quiet reading, and I try to finish checking everything then. During dismissal I get alot of the grading done too. Planning doesn't take me long at all since I have been teaching the same grade now for 4 years, I always have my old planbook open so I can see what I have to do.

Re: Leaving work at work?

can you do any during reader's/writer's workshop? my school pushes 50 minutes of RW a day

Re: Leaving work at work?