Advice needed from teachers on time management and returning to work

[Donk]

I may be returning to full time work after 4 years of being a SAHM.
When I used to teach (secondary science), I did 50-60 hours a week. Sometimes more when reports were due.
There is no way I can sustain that workload now I have a ds!
Any hints and tips?

I do about 40 - 45 hours per week at school, and I will potter about on the internet at home looking for video clips, etc. I can get everything I need to done in school, so it's just the voluntary extras that I do at home.

I think the key thing is not to take on any extra responsibility if you want to keep your hours to the bare bones of planning, teaching, and marking.

Or go part-time. And get help in the house.

Hi, good luck in going back into the classroom ,I'm sure you'll be great!

Stuff that I'm sure you know, really:

Learn to say no.

Don't reinvent the wheel, other ppl will have taught the topic before you - use their resources.

Set research h/w, reading, assessment for learning, quick tests - not every h/w has to be a written outcome.

It can be useful to have 2 classes in the same year group so you only have to plan once, although it can make report writing a bit busy.

Go to bed early, a fresh you less prepared is better than a tired you with a bit more done.

Be like the kids, pack everything the night before.

Give your own kids some responsibilities for getting organised - my ds aged 3.5 gets dressed (mostly without help) & gets his shoes on and is in charge of his nursery bag (very important job)

SO when you are marking (assuming that you haven't got the students to peer mark etc), how long does it take to mark a KS4 book/hwk on average? My last schools marking policy said that you had to mark every single thing the students wrote in their books - including SPG, with a comment as well as attainment and effort marks. Even at 5 mins a book, that is 2 1/2 hours per set. The Head would do department books trawls to check. With 12 classes a week, and marking every other week (alternate weeks hwk was peer marked, or something that didn't need marking) that was 15 hours of marking every week. Not including planning and preparation.

I can do both my KS4 classes in half an hour.

They do their work on file paper, and just hand in their homework. I check their folders when I am going around chatting to them in class.

Your marking policy must be different!
But then my last head was a complete control freak.

You need to accept that your work will just be good enough.

Occasionally, you can pull out the stops and have a super amazing lesson but day-to-day, it's a job. Do it ok and enjoy it. Also have a life.

The problem with teaching is that it is never-ending - you could, in theory take 2 weeks to plan one lesson or mark a classes books but you have to allocate time and be strict that that will have to do.

agree with mummymagic - my lessons these days are ok - not like the old days when I could pour far more energy into planning them - things just can't be the same when you've got a family at home and if you want some sort of work-life balance.

get some help at home - esp a cleaner! makes a big difference for us. And childcare is key.

there are so many things on the net now for interactive whiteoboards, lessonplans, activites for students - all sorts of things. Don't reinvent the wheel!

Lots of good advice on here which I'd endorse. Particularly heated's comment that if you have a good night's sleep but are slightly underprepared, you'll deliver better the next day than if you've sat up half the night working. Keeping the exhaustion at bay is an absolute must - give yourself time to property wind down each evening, eat well and look after yourself.
Plan your workload so that each class you teach gets a really good 'Wow' type lesson maybe once a week, with solid, but less time consuming lessons inbetween. They'll remember the fantastic lessons, and as long as you're doing your job and delivering the rest of the time, they won't worry that it's not all-singing all-dancing. When my dcs were little, I always found it best to stay on at school to do my prep and marking so that once I got home my evening was totally free. I do bring stuff home a lot more now, but I'm a middle manager and my kids are older and are quite happy getting on with their own lives while I mark! Oh and get as much marking done as possible during lessons - a quick whizz round the room, peer assessment etc - there's various techniques you can use which enable you to assess your students' work effectively without giving yourself a breakdown. Good luck.

This is my bugbear, I was on teachers TV the other night on one of those programmes that to reduce the workload and it has done me no good, infact as I have since been promoted I now work more, my average is about 80 hours a week but it can go up or down depending on what deadlines are looming.

I teach a literacy based subject so the marking load is heavy, I also don;t teach the kind of children who can get on with their work while I mark at my desk. It happens occasionally but isn't something I could regularly do.

The advice I was given on the programme has been stated here:

1. don;t reinvent the wheel, use what is there whether it be from colleagues, the internet or books. 2)set yourself time limits for tasks, so if I am imrpoving a lesson from last year I give myself half an hour and then bring it to a close.

I tend to use my mornings at work as I have a natural cut off point when I need to go and teach so I get in about half six and I know I have two hours which is pressured time so I have to stay on task and work efficiently.

I book appointments or go to clubs that mean I have to leave school, so I may book a gym session which means I can't be in school after six.

My marking load is similar to Donk's with a similar policy.

Sometimes you just have to accept that family time is the priority and things don;t get done. At the moment I am feeling very run down and tired so I am behind with my marking and I did not do the planning I normally do. I got into school not knowing what I was going to do, I made a quick worksheet to go with two youtube clips I had on the system and actually had a fantastic lesson, my english class were reading so that was OK and I made up a display type activities for my other classes that meant it didn;t matter that there books weren't marked. My extra GCSE class were also very happy with the lesson I pinched from the internet.

Lots of good ideas all - many thanks!
Twinsetandpearls - that was you? Now I know what you look like!

Oh God I actually look much better than that! I have only watched the first few and last few minutes as it was too painful. Can I just say I was ill when they filmed that !

Am assuming you linked to the right programme, my anonimity has now been blown!

TS&P I have NOT linked to the programme, just watched it when Teachers' TV e-mailed me their 'what's on'
FWIW you did look ill - would assume you normally look better than that!