I'm relatively young and healthy, but after a day at school I'm wiped out and just want to nap and eat. Add in grading and lesson planning ( forget exercise) I don't see how people do it, especially for the pay we receive.
Be more efficient with grading and everything in your day to day. Stagger the assignments that you receive so you don’t grade them all in one sitting. In my case, I always make sure that my grading is done the day of so I don’t even have to think about it. I do this before I go home and it only takes about 30 minutes in total, on average, for quizzes and tests. To clarify, as I’m grading I grade the first page of the exam booklet for every student and then I do the second page, so on and so forth, ad nauseum. The students do peer grading when we do homework discussion and tell me their scores immediately thereafter, which I promptly enter into the grade book on my school computer. My advice is to digitize everything and modify things as needed per class. I have this down to an art form and rarely ever have to lesson plan for more than 1 hour a week, if that. If you have prep periods like I have, make ample use of those and relax only if all of your work is done beforehand. I like to think of it as a competition with the clock for my free time and so I rush through everything, so that I can just sit and watch Netflix for the rest of the time, lol! You should do the same. Organize everything on a Google Drive or a flash drive and group files by folders and subfolders. I have folders for everything you can imagine and for every possible math class I can teach (I teach HS math). Concerning grading, I have printed out score cards on my desk for commonly used score totals. For example, 30/30 = 100%, 29/30 = 96.66%, 28/30 = 93.33%, etc., etc. This makes it incredibly fast to put the score totals at the top of each page because I don’t have to use a calculator or mentally calculate the score each time. Basically, try to figure out a system that works for you and stick to it. Have desk organizers, use binder clips to group paperwork together, set up reminders on Google calendar, etc. since every little thing counts and adds up to make your overall job seamless. Good luck with your time management!
I'm sure there are many coaches who are excellent teachers, but many of the coaches in my school happen to be mediocre teachers. The head lacrosse coach teaches math, and he spends most of his class periods just giving the kids busy work and working on lacrosse stuff at his desk. Some of the coaches have their sport as their main priority over their teaching. I advise two clubs, but those are in the morning before school. I also do a lot of tutoring after school because the money is so irresistable. I don't know how long you've been teaching, but I would say for me it was after the 3rd year that I was really able to auto-pilot and teach efficiently and effectively. It's all down to just print and go for me now. The first couple years were much harder getting things organized and finding effetive systems for myself so I didn't do any extras those years.
Your situation very closely parallels mine! The only difference is that I worked myself extremely hard (60-70 hr workweeks) in my first year so that every year thereafter was smooth sailing. I did that because I wanted to basically just show up to work, teach with minimal effort and then leave, which I now do, basically. (And because we’ve talked about our various tutoring ventures before: Isn’t money always irresistible?! Second, the parent of a regular client of mine recently agreed to raise my hourly rate for them to $120/hr since they are moving an hour away from where I live — I argued that I would have to pay for gas to drive to meet them and that would cause further wear and tear on my vehicle. I’m excited because I already have 23 2-hr sessions scheduled with them this month which comes out to $5,520, and they are paying in advance tomorrow! Cha-Ching! Single-family house, here I come! And they booked me for the rest of the year! That means I will make six figures (about $130k) for the 2018-2019 academic school year! Sure, I’ll have less free time, but who cares if I get rich!)
I coached cheerleading last year, as a first year teacher. I had after-school commitments at least 4 nights a week. During basketball season, I was at games until 9 o'clock PM at least 2 times a week. I was never so stressed and anxious in my life (I was also planning a wedding and buying a house.) My teaching suffered because of it, because I was too tired to come up with creative and engaging lesson plans. I'm not at all a lazy person, but this took everything out of me. This year, I quit coaching, and I am going to focus on being the best teacher I can be. I may advise a few clubs or after-school programs in the near future, but for right now I'm going to put all of my energy into teaching. Since I haven't been coaching or anything this summer, I already have a much clearer head and I am ready to dive into the new school year. My advice to new teachers: don't take on an extracurricular activity that is a huge commitment. The first year of teaching has it's own obstacles, now matter how prepared you feel.
I co-supervise two clubs in addition to teaching full time, but I could never coach concurrently. I have no idea how teachers manage that because that is hours and hours on top of everything else for several days a week. Plus, you have to attend games, which last into the late evenings. No way could I do that!
I coached our academic team for many years. It's like anything else, it's a matter of planning. If you need to get it all done, you just do. I had to give it up due to health issues.
Thank you! My desk was pretty barren at first so I put them there to also spruce it up some! I love looking at numbers, haha! They always bring me such great joy. And they are laminated and held in place by a large, clear desk covering.
Yes, my health did improve after that. However, the coaching and the health issues weren't related. The frequent doctor appointments and hospitalizations made it impossible to be a successful coach, so I passed the job to someone else.
Meet the EZ Grader....which I think has been around since the dawn of time. Do a search on Amazon. For a measly $5.99 it's all computed for you. I have a collection of them from various retired teachers, some which look like they date back to the 50's.
Y'all aren't going to believe this (and I wouldn't even be bringing it up if this thread hadn't been started), but last year, our cheerleading coach quit before basketball season started. The kids were so incredibly bummed as there are only two other elementary schools that have cheer squads and they were looking forward to showing off their skills. Anyway, word got around that I used to be a competitive gymnast and was a college cheerleader, so I got voluntold to take over coaching duties. Parents from the other schools asked, "You're the AP and the cheer coach???" Haha!
Our AP coaches! We don't have any athletic people who want to do it, haha. I'm really worried about this year and balance. I've got a new assignment and I assume I'll continue my Student Council duties. I'm going to need to plan carefully.
I do it because in the past students frequently asked, “FMP, what percentage is this?” This happened as soon as I handed them their graded work. I got sick of telling them to get out a calculator and do it themselves and so I do it for everyone now. It saves me the headache.
It’s laziness. They have to get out their phones, open up the calculator app, press the keys on the keypad, and hit enter. If I was right there, they wanted me to do it for them. I always told them that that’s a first-world problem, lol! BUT, they still asked! It got so annoying. I actually had a student tell me, “Yeah, but I have to look it up online and you’re essentially a human calculator, sooooo what did I get percentage wise?” I was like, “Are you joking me?”
Oh my gosh, this is a glorious comment. Hysterical! LOL! czacza enters the building. <trumpet sounds> Students loudly proclaim, “Pay homage to the Queen!” to which you respond, “You may NOT grovel, however, but admire from afar.”
Trust me, some of them surely do. My mother almost certainly had one, since she didn't make me calculate percentages when I graded spelling papers for her. (Teachers' kids' chores can be a little off the beaten path.)
That's when you explain the difference between calculation and mathematics. Preferably going into the kid's passing period.
