Teaching+kids+how do you manage the tiredness?

[redwill]

I've come back to secondary after a 2 year career break. I've got 3 kids and working 4 days a week. By the time the oldest is in bed at night it's 8.15 and I'm exhausted....how do other working teacher mums manage their workload? My husband is helpful but I'm so tired I can't even think straight. I used to be an outstanding teacher (according to ofsted) before I had kids, now I can barely crawl upstairs to get to bed....any tips gratefully received oh and planning is taking forever...and I don't know what outstanding means anymore???

I work part time - mornings only. I'm in at 8 and out at 12.15.
I occasionally do a full day and I'm knackered when I get home. I worked FT after DC1 and had initially planned to return full time when DC2 started Reception. However since going PT I realised how much time and energy FT took. I was always going over work things in my head.
Now I spend 2-4 hrs a week at home catching up with planning/marking but I've got the time to do that.
Sorry that I haven't given any tips, but if your kids are still young it will get easier as they get older.

I think you just build up stamina.

I am currently training to be a primary school teacher and have been wondering the same thing. I have two children and have found being on placement exhausting. I am trying to get firm household routines into place as I feel this will help my home life run more smoothly but I do wonder how I will manage everything once I am teaching full time! I suspect it is a gradual adjustment over time.

you get up early

you go to bed early

you plan, you shop online. you stop working at 8

Welcome to the reality of teaching at the moment!

Remember you are coming towards the end of the longest term, and we are all knackered. Can you give yourself a break from marking homework by setting lots of reading tasks / peer-marked work / marked as part of a starter or plenary?

Depending on your subject there are lots of resources on the TES website (although their forums are now really badly set out!) which have saved my lessons on many occasions. Even if you need to tweak the resource it is better than starting from scratch.

Can you share resources? Eg if another colleague also teaches year 9 can you plan one topic each and swap at the end of a series of lessons?

I feel for you - it can be absolutely exhausting. I worked my way back slowly after about 9 years off - started 0.4, then 0.6, now nearly 0.8 - could you drop the hours a little?

I think "outstanding" is now pretty unrealistic. Save it for the observed lessons, and aim for good (or lower - one lesson of poster work never did anyone any harm!) for the rest.

Hope you feel better after a restful weekend. I'm afraid I had enough of state education and switched to the private sector. Still work very hard, but when the crap behaviour is taken out and the class sizes halved it makes a massive difference. Good luck!

plus, professionally give yourself a break

set reading homeworks or research homeworks
let them do the work
are your lessons too teacher led?

thats not always a good thing! It will get better, honestly!

agree - dont try for outstanding, I have never had a lesson obbo that wasnt, but tbh now I am on UPS i dont give a fuck

I have one coming up and I will settle for good

Cut corners in the home ?
identify the most irratating thing first - getting the kids ready in the morning ?, having to cook dinner ? the wet washing that never seems to get to the tumble dryer - whatever it is, put your needs first and solve it, even if you have to pay someone else to do it, bribe the kids, have sugary ceareal instead of a healthy breakfast etc
Set the boundaries for your children so that your not exhausted by guilt - ie mummy will not be coming to any of your assemblies but you can have extra telly if you bring home a certificate, mummy wont be coming to any shows, concerts, book fairs, dress rehersals, parent pic-nic or sports days but will give granny dates in case she can make it.

thats a bit tragic

a good head will get you cover to do celebration assemblies etc

Get a routine. Red pen in hand and do some marking in each lesson instead of leaving it all for the end. Do some at little parts in the day too (I do a few minutes at the start of lunchtime for example). I dodge the staffroom on my last working afternoon and make sure I spend playtime sorting stuff out for the end of the week.

I plan on a particular day. I use my PPA for making differentiated resources. I use premade stuff (primary resources etc) when you can.

Save everything you do electronically, it won't save time this year, but will next year (as long as you remember you have saved the first lot).

Don't take too much work home and give yourself a deadline.

miind you, if you have ANY TLR all this is hopeless - you will just have loads of work

I'm exhausted by the thought of going back. Honestly. I'm half looking for work and half wondering what else I can do.

I've just sat down and planned the meals for the week...that will be every week, like my mum used to do.
I love cooking, and I've got into the habit of cooking different and interesting things every night, but now I've been offered 3 days a week till Christmas, we'll be on a strict rotation of pasta, potatoes, pizza, curry, fish until the holidays!
I'll hate it, but DH and the DSs will probably love it, and at least it's one less thing to think about during the week.

yes, kids dont care about HALF the stuff you think is impyt

use your washing machine timer. put on at night and shove in tumbler in am

plus get your H to manage more

Mien does all the washing

I plan to have one day when I do absolutely nothing, for me that is Saturday, if it can't be done within the other six days it is unreasonable to ask me.

I do the same with holidays, I expect to do nothing or very little in the holidays , again if my job can't be done during term time if is an unreasonable ask.

I tend to work from 7am until 6pm and then a few hours each evening. In order to manage all I have to do I do the following :

School

All my classes have their own red pens, at the end of the lesson they write feedback on each other's work and do an initial highlight of spelling errors so my marking is quicker.
They mark short quizzes and I collect marks in class.
I have a teacher verbal feedback stamp, if I give feedback in a lesson it is stamped and they have to write out what I said.
I say no an awful lot and never feel bad for it
I plan my home works in advance for a half term so that I am not creating a heavy markload for different year groups all at once
I cycle to and from work , as part of my exercise plan.
I go for a run straight after school, as that used to be the time that I would wind down by having a coffee and a gossip with colleagues. Now I run round the school grounds and village before going back to my office and working again.

Home

At home I do an online shop
I am pregnant and have been struggling a little bit so we have just hired a cleaner, but normally housework is done for an hour in the morning before work and an hour in the evening
Husband and children do a full share
Never leave a room empty handed
I clean the bathrooms as the youngest is having a bath .
We have a housework rota, everyone does their fair share
When the children are doing activities I often bring my marking along

I'm Primary, full-time, with 2DCs.

DP does most of the household stuff.
We shop online.
I mark in lessons as much as poss (especially maths!) and use rubber stamps.
We peer mark what we can (spelling and tables tests).
I share planning with colleagues as much as poss (we rotate English, maths and 'the rest').
Say "No", especially to things like the PTA Christmas fair next Saturday.

Having said that ... I am knackered too! I've got a cold I can't shift (been more than 2 weeks now) and a classload of extended writing to plough through today.

Four more weeks, just four more weeks.

Thanks everyone...having a reflective day!

It is tiring and hard. I work FT (primary), DH works away all week, I have two children (11 and 13). I meal plan, shop online, have a cleaner and make lots of lists! By Friday night I am fit for nothing and asleep by 9pm. At the weekend I have one day of work and then try not to work on the other day.

I went .8.

The kids are in bed by 730, then I work.

I told myself I wouldn't work weekends if I was .8, but when a piece of work takes up to half an hour to unravel and mark, I end up doing weekends.

It's shit.

And because of nurery fees, we have pretty much fuck all to show for it.

However, now, after 4 years, the kids seem to be sleeping at night, I have a little more energy.