To wonder if any teachers can help me …

[Peekaboolight]

How do you get stuff done?

I’ve been trying all weekend, unsuccessfully, to get my planning and marking sorted (I have a toddler) admittedly we are going through a VERY challenging stage with sleep so not going to bed early.

But I’m struggling so much, just bogged down with work

What do you mean by “a bit”? There’s a piece of work every day? Obviously I’m not looking back through the entire book every day but I am marking 28 pieces of work in 28 books which could be 1-2 pages long.
Yes, the expectation is to have every piece of work marked prior to the following lesson.

It must be hard having a little one of your own and trying to sort it!

personally, I only plan a day ahead. I never seem to stick to my plan so it’s pointless doing the whole week in advance.

marking- I’m having my own private rebellion. Doing v little at KS3. Not to say I don’t know where the kids are- I do. By looking at books, using AFL in class, live-marking.

speaking and listening assessments are your friend during exam season. I also remind KS3 that their time for my undivided will come when they get there!

I don't work weekends, I:
Plan lessons with as little photocopying and printing as possible.
Self assess homework
Self and peer assess class tasks based on a criteria.
Live marking.
I only mark once per half term. Throw the ofsted work-life balance at them.
On full teaching days, I have one quiet lesson so I can plan other lessons.

It's not ideal, but there is a price to pay when we have such big work loads.

I didn’t go back full time (also secondary English) and it was manageable. I then did go full time and life was tricky. Back to part time and dropped all responsibilities. Again it is manageable.

Full time meant being super organised. Working through lunch and having no time to chat to colleagues. Once DD was in bed at night I would begin work again and would work from 8.00pm until 11.00pm.I was totally exhausted.

I work in a small indie btw with (generally) small classes and few behaviour issues. We have a lot of marking, reports, meetings and parents evenings though.

I use holidays to get on top of planning, resources and marking (if there is stuff left over). DP pulls his weight, possibly more in term time, and I pick up the slack in the holidays. This means holidays are not breaks but it kind of works.

Is there a way you can get longer wrap around care? I have little ones who do do sleep and could not get any work done at home so have to make sure childcare is long enough that I'm getting it done in work.

FT secondary maths here.
Get to work at 7 and leave by 4 most days. The morning hour is very productive.
I don't work many weekends and will bust a gut midweek and work 14 hour days if needed.
Live mark as much as possible. Better for the students to get feedback there and then, and means less book marking. Do you have to mark everything? I know some schools have insane policies.

I am a bit reluctant to extend the hours if I’m honest - he’s already doing 730-430, it already feels like a long day.

I can’t get to work for 7, sadly - nursery doesn’t open until half past.

I think an 8.00am start is fine if you are doing nursery drop off. Could you stay at work later and get some stuff done before you collect your LO?
What about whole class feedback or peer marking to reduce the mark load?
I would be tempted to have children working silently once a week where you can then get on with marking for another group.

Suggestions from someone who's been there:

• share planning within the dept. Then you just need to tweak.
• definitely don't generate wtiyten work that needs marking more than once ae self-assessment into tasks.
• use a coded marking system e.g. 1 = use a variety of punctuation. Then kids just write in their feedback from the code sheet which is stuck in the front of their books. Saves masses of your time writing out individual comments.
• if you use Google classroom or similar, you can also leave verbal feedback using Mote or similar which again saves time, and kids can then listen and add comments.

It does get easier as your own kids get older although I realise that doesn't help you in the here and now.

I stayed as late as I possibly could at work before they kicked me out. I prioritised massively and let many things go. I put LO to bed and then worked. I stopped whenever they woke to settle them. I often sat on my bed with my laptop or marking while they slept next to me on the bed. Try and get someone to take them out for a few hours at the weekend so you can get on.

Not ideal but it was that or nothing.
It was shit. When they got older it got a little easier.

Extended write for every class. Once a week. Alternate between whole class feedback and individual feedback. I do not mark anything else except live marking SPaG.

Leaving school at 4 everyday is very early in my experience.
No teachers at my school regularly leave work before 5. They use the time after school to mark and prep. And if they don’t they have to accept they’ll be taking it home with them. Most arrive before 8 also. Do you not have meetings after school that you have to attend?

Sorry- I think your working hours are the problem. I do 7:30-5:30/6 plus one evening I'll get my laptop back out for a couple of hours. I don't do anything at all at the weekend.

Once a week until 4, @Smartiepants79

You can extend your working day, without your little one being in childcare anymore hours, by one parent starting work early whilst the other drops off, and the other parent finishing later whilst the first parents collects.

Or, as most teachers with small children do, make the most of the time when the dc are awake, then settle down to do some work in the evening once they have gone to bed, or while your partner puts them to bed.

Does your school use google classrooms or anything like that because I do the following:

KS3:
Set as many homeworks as multiple choice recall/reinforcement quizzes as possible - that get marked automatically and the software collates the class responses for you.

Only set one big 'marking job' per class per half term. Hand out paperclips and get pupils to place paperclip where the work is - this means you can go straight to where the work is rather than spending any time flicking through pages to find it. That saves you a lot of time over an academic year.

Use a technique where sporadically you are getting students to mark their own class work/partners work using a success criteria set by you during the lesson - obviously works best with concrete answers.

KS4:
I use a whole class proforma as most of the time there there are general things that benefit everyone. It also has a copy of the exam board mark scheme attached. So I fill it in once, by typing it all up - I then print it off, photocopy it and then handwrite in the specific feedback for pupils.

On my proforma that I fill in there are the following titles:

Clarifying misconceptions:
Reflection questions for students:
Specific feedback: - I handwrite this in
Response from student/Ways to improve: - Which they fill in

On the mark scheme from the exam board and using a high lighter pen - highlight for the individual student where they are exactly.

KS5:
They have to email their work to me as I much prefer marking it on my computer than random pieces of paper.

Marking is a bane but hopefully some of these tips might help. 😀

@MarianosOnHisWay I think he meant he chooses 5 kids a day and does all their books otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.

He was never ever behind on marking. I tried it and I couldn’t make it work ..🤷‍♀️

I can't keep up since having children and because it's impacting my home life I'm going on early maternity leave and I'm not going back.

In my current school, we have powerpoints which follow our Schemes of Work, so you pretty much open that up and print off any associated worksheets. Could you suggest to your hod that you should pool resources to start this? Are you in an Academy with other schools who could send you resources?

It doesn’t help with marking, but marking, but it pretty much eliminates the planning. I can just note where I got to and carry on next lesson. It’s pretty amazing. Obviously, I have to explain grammar points, I annotate on the board, write up examples, plus I do a lot of mini whiteboard work (languages) to check progress.

Meant to say-crib marking so you go over the class books then list common misconceptions/spelling errors. I don’t know how parents of young children cope. My cousin has 4 dc, ranging from tiny baby to an 11 year old, I have no idea how she teaches primary!

Thanks. We do have a few generic sort of PowerPoints but they aren’t very good and they are very dated and far too hard for most of the children.

Im desperately trying to get DS down earlier but no luck yet … it was gone half nine the other night, I was losing my mind!

I know you already think it’s a long day for him but I honestly feel if you extended his nursery time to 5 / 5.30 then you could be more able to do less work at the weekends.

Teaching is so full on during term time but extending his day wouldn’t make a noticeable difference to him but would to you. Lots of colleagues do this so they can have more time at the weekends.

If cost is an issue is it worth finding a term time only nursery that allows you to book them in extra days in the holidays?

Good luck, after almost 2 decades of teaching I still don’t have the answer to work life balance sorted!

I'd maybe see about dropping a day but keeping him at nursery if you have funded hours

Even for a short while it could put you back on track - just work flat out that day planning and marking and have your evenings and weekends to yourself.

Do you have any CCR? If so, when? I take mine all at once at home and get so much more done that if I was at work being interrupted. Maybe that's different in secondary but if you have any free periods, lock your door, blind down and mark mark mark!!

I'm a lit and num teacher in a special school and would definitely recommend that for work life balance. I'm 8.30-3.30 with one day at home for CCR so I never do any work other than on that day. (Unless urgent)

I am also an English teacher and a lone parent (since pregnancy and have been working full time since DC was 5 months old), so this is my advice. Some works for now and some is prep to help for next year:

1. the marking is endless and I do what I can that is going to be checked immediately and leave other marking piled up until year 11 leave. I thankfully have a relaxed line manager as they are also drowning in marking and do the same.

2. the 5 books a day rule is great if you can manage it. I tend to apply a 10/15 papers a night in heavy marking times. I also stack them in 3s for motivation.

3. when the year 11s leave, plan the hell out of every unit for next year. Push your HOD to make clear which classes/ability you will have to make it useful planning. I am now in the position where most days I just turn up and teach the resources I have as I had time at the end of next year to plan.

4. add 1 hour to one of the days of childcare (two if you can) and use it however you wish. Some days I stay at work, on others I do the food shop, others I sleep because I’m exhausted but it means I can mark in the evening with a fresh mind.

5. sadly I use my break/lunch to work a lot too, but it means most days I leave work and don’t do any marking at home. I probably sit down and mark about once a week at home.

6. speak to your line manager about marking load and deadlines for these. It is possible to move assessments etc. to avoid crisis points (my school does it so that different classes are assessed at different times) and quite frankly if they’re not willing to try to make your workload more bearable I would start looking for another school. Some schools prioritise live marking and fewer assessments, others have simpler whole class feedback models. As an English teacher you will not have trouble finding another job as there is a massive shortage of teachers and you can find a school that is more reasonable in terms of its work/life balance. I know there will be people on here saying that isn’t possible but I work in a school where it (generally) is (excepting mock time for year 11).

I hope this helps. If you want to PM for any advice please do, I’ve been teaching a long time and seen it all. I really do know how you feel.