I'm Exhausted! | The Teaching Lifestyle

This week has gone by so fast, and I'm kind of glad that it is over. Not because of the kids, my students are FANTASTIC and we are having a BLAST together. But because of everything else that makes teaching a lifestyle, not a career.

I had recess duty last week and this week. I am now realizing that my actual lunch, my actual eating and sitting down to take a breather is really more like 15 minutes instead of the required 30. I am the kind of teacher that does not work through lunch. I know many teachers are not that way, heck even my own cooperating teacher wasn't that way when I was student teaching. She was always go, go, go! But I am. I plan my day so that I get my "me" time. If it truly was the whole 30 minutes I wouldn't complain, but it is not. After dropping the kids off at the cafeteria, make sure they get through the line safely, go to the restroom myself, check my mailbox, grab my lunch-bag and finally sit down: oh no, only 15 minutes left!

I have this week coming up off and I plan to enjoy every single minute! I hope next year we can come up with a better plan to allow for our playgrounds to be safely supervised, reducing behaviors, while also giving teachers their true 30 minutes. Since I'm on Leadership I have a voice! This year I will just get through it as best I can.

I am feeling more and more that this year is like my very first year of teaching in that I am constantly planning and remaking the wheel. I have no lessons I can reuse and tweak to make better like previous years. Everything must be made from scratch to fit both 2nd and 3rd, and sometimes I have to make 4 lessons for one subject block per day to incorporate the different abilities of my students. My planning time has been taken up with meetings and extra things so that I rarely have time to just sit and plan.

My goal this coming week is to only use my planning time for PLANNING. Any extra stuff will need to wait because my kiddos come first and I am ready to stop bringing stuff home almost every single day. I got a HUGE chunk of planning done on Saturday, but no more! 

If you saw my Instagram over the weekend you saw what my Saturday was like from 11-5! 

I was still able to get a date night in, I told my husband 5pm was my deadline no matter what and miraculously I worked smarter and not harder and got it done. I am still using the same template I have always used in years past for reading, guided, and math. The time consuming part comes in when I am deciphering 2nd grade's curriculum requirements since it is new to me (first year flashbacks!).

Let me know what your highs and lows from the week were!

​-Mae