Any teachers out there - need to ask about work life balance

[lavenderbongo]

I have just started back to work part time as a secondary school teacher after a 4 year break. My dds are 4 and 6.

I really want to make sure I keep a good work life balance. I found that working whilst dd1 was a baby it was impossible to keep work seperate from home life - it always seems to take over.

I really want to do most of my planning at school and keep my free time for my girls and DH.

So does anyone have any tips to keep work and home life seperate.

Is it possible as a teacher - has anyone out there managed it?

OOO, I am a geography teacher too! I love teaching Geography it is definitely the best.

I went back full time when smaller son was a year old, he's now four.

I was of the opinion that I'd end up working full time hours anyway, so might as well get paid for it.

I try to do all my long term planning as I can in the holidays. Then I spend the early part of the evening with my family, before marking later on in the evening.

I teach in an independent school, so although we get longer holidays I teach until 4.30 every day, and also have to go in on some evenings and weekends.

One thing that helped was telling myself that not every lesson with every class has to be perfect.
Also "peer assessment" is good, sometimes.

I second getting in early a couple of times a week. It really does help clear your desk.I try to get in by 7.15 twice a week.

I also have a cleaner, and get a shop delivered once a week.

This really helps me to manage everything as a .8 Head of Dept. That and cutting a lot of corners!

dh did mornings, so i could get in with time to be prepared.
4 days a week i worked til 5/5.30 then went home. once a week dh picked up dd, and i worked til i was done or school was locked up (sometimes with me in it), whichever came first.

i also kept socialising to a minimum, but that is a problem, as then you're sometimes 'out of the loop' on things.

i got the tech.s to block mn for me!!

if i still had to bring work home, i brought home ONE manageable task, and did it asap.

i used days in the holidays to put dd into nursery, and then WENT to work, where i just sat & got it done, no distractions.

otherwise it just stretches on forever, and you never feel 'free' of it.

and we had a cleaner twice a month. the night before she came round dh & i tidied everything up, so it never got beyond possible.

I do 0.65 at 6th form teaching, and I find I manage it by splitting my teaching hours over 5 days. I mostly work mornings, so I am able to take my DD to Breakfast club, and then I am able to pick them up from school most days too. I then do no work at all until DH comes home, and he puts the girls to bed whilst I do my marking / planning etc. I don't do any work at the weekend or during the holidays but I do work quite hard during the week.

In the first few years I worked really hard in developing really good lesson plans, and then spent the time after each lesson evaluating them, writing down alternative ideas etc etc so now I only need to adapt my plans each year and this cuts down a lot of my work. Most of what I do at home is marking (although teaching 'A' levels all the time, you could imagine I have a lot of that!)

It is hardwork, but it is manageable. I think a good timetable helps.