Mom Life,  Productivity,  Teaching

Managing Teacher Work Life Balance

January 8, 2023 /
Your go-to guide for managing work-life balance as a teacher

Is it Possible to Teach and Have a Work-Life Balance?

Work-life balance in the teacher profession. Music to your teacher ears, but something that probably feels like more of a dream than a possibility. I am here to tell you that finding balance in your life as a teacher is 100% possible. Not only is it possible, but it is absolutely necessary if you are going to make it in the teaching profession.

You may sometimes look around your school and see teachers “doing it all.” They are working from six in the morning until six in the evening. You may think that’s what teaching has to look like in order for you to do a good job, but it DOESN’T. Not at all. In this post I am going to tell you how I manage a work-life balance, find happiness in my teaching career and in my personal life, and still kick butt as a successful teacher leader. I’m going to break this post into three sections: managing workload, managing your personal life, and finding time for yourself.

I am “Traveling Teacher Mama” because I find work-life balance and joy in my life.

Managing your Teacher Workload

The last thing a teacher should do is devote her entire life to her profession. What I mean by that is that you should have other passions and people that bring joy to you besides teaching. It has always bothered me that in the movie, Freedom Writers, Hilary Swank’s character devoted so much time to her students that she allowed her marriage to suffer and fail. This is a part of the toxic culture the world has created about teachers- that we should never care about anything more than our profession. NOT TRUE! Happy teachers equal happy students.

So how do you manage your workload? Well the first thing is to know your capacity. This is going to look different at different stages of your career. New teachers, please never try to do “as much” as the veteran teacher next door. She slowly grew her knowledge and her capacity to handle more tasks. You will too, and guess what? You are still an effective teacher. Teachers who are new moms, please give yourself grace. Maybe you were once the shining star on your hallway that everyone came to for support, but now you find it difficult to manage their needs with your own and your new baby’s. Be gentle with yourself and set the limits for what you can manage at this time in your life. You are still an effective teacher.

The next thing is to schedule your tasks. If I did not plan every single part of my day out I would be spiraling into a melt down because I wouldn’t know where to even begin. Get a great planner and write down the tasks that must get done before you leave each day of the week. Set time frames and have optional “may do,” tasks on your list, too, in case you find extra time. Set a hard “go home now” time for each day of the week and stick to it. Limit your gossip sessions with your teacher friends for your car ride phone calls home.

Here’s an example of how I schedule my tasks:

Monday- Leave by 3:30. Set up centers for tomorrow, Work on PLC agendas, Start list of topics for my parent Friday email.

Tuesday- Leave by 4:30. Set up centers for tomorrow, Lead PLC, Start lesson planning for next week

Wednesday- Leave by 4:30. Set up centers for tomorrow, begin small group plans for next week, look over the list of topics for parent Friday email

Thursday- Leave by 4:30. Set up centers for tomorrow, write and schedule parent Friday email, Make copies for next week, Update RTI data

Friday- Leave by 3:00. Organize copies for next week, set up centers for Monday

I also always grade work the day I give an assessment/assignment.

The last tip is to collaborate with your PLC. You should not be trying to do every single thing alone. High functioning PLCs help everyone manage their time better. During your PLC meetings, analyze student data, discuss instructional strategies, develop small group plans, and clear up any questions you have about upcoming standards or lessons. Work smarter, not harder. By collaborating you are maximizing your capacity and the capacity of others while growing your knowledge and expertise.

I attribute my success of finding balance to a great planner.

Managing your Personal Life

Teacher, your personal life matters! Your friends and family want to spend time with you as much as you want to spend with them. Doing the things you love with the people you love is how you can fill your bucket of happiness so that your students get a happy teacher most days. Once again having a great planner is going to be key here because it will allow you to cross-reference important things going on at work and home before planning things with your friends or scheduling work meetings. For example if you have a Back to School Bash to attend on a Thursday night, you won’t be able to get dinner with your bestie that day. Likewise if your son has T-ball practice on Wednesdays, you will likely not want to schedule a parent conference for that day. It is also really nice to have fun things with friends and family written down in your planner as a reminder that you have a social life apart from your students. Let’s face it, sometimes teaching can be lonely when you’re the only adult in the room all day.

Set boundaries at work. You get personal days for a reason, and you should take them if a fun travel experience or a friend’s wedding is happening. Never feel that you have to sacrifice memories, important moments, and bucket list opportunities for the sake of your students. You being absent a few days out of the year will not stunt the incredible growth they are going to make with you this school year.

Set boundaries with your friends and family, too. When you’re a 22 year old, new college graduate your friends may not understand that you can’t stay out for happy hour until 11:00 pm on Thursday because you have to wake up early on Friday morning to teach. Set limits and hold yourself to them. Join your friends for happy hour, just leave at a reasonable time so you still get adequate rest. If your parents want you to drive home for a birthday dinner on a Friday evening, but you know you’re too drained on Fridays to have fun, tell them you’d love to celebrate on Saturday if they can make it work. Work-life balance is just that, a balance.

Finding Time for Yourself

This post has established that you have a lot of important things to juggle everyday in your life. Hopefully by now you’re seeing with careful planning and staying organized it’s completely doable and fulfilling. However, you may be wondering where “you time” fits in here.

This is going to look different for everyone based on what you like to do or how you like to recharge. Some examples are scheduling in times for you to work out each week, allowing yourself thirty minutes of uninterrupted reading time at night, or taking a bubble bath each night. Whatever you find enjoyable you need to make sure is being scheduled into your weeks.

I feel I have to reiterate again to you guys (because your teachers and you care so much) that it is okay to cut the “extra” or “fluff” out of your school day or out of your lessons if it means freeing up more time for other parts of your life. As long as you are teaching standards-based, high rigor activities your students will learn. These don’t have to always be the cutest things.

Comment below and let me know what you took away from this article.

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