Suppose this...
You are a first-year teacher trying your hardest to be the best and most effective teacher you can be. Between creating the most effective lesson plans possible and grading your students' assignments, it seems as though there is no time left for yourself. You also have to run a club or an after school activity per the request of the school. Meanwhile, you are also trying to get your master's degree. It seems as though you are quickly heading down the path of being burnt out. What would you do to prevent this?
This is so accurate a depiction of what happens to young teachers. It is kind of ironic that in the first years of a teacher's career they have to do the most in order to reach the next level of certification while at the same time finding out how to plan, manage a classroom and find out what value added activities you want to do with students. A new teacher may also be in a relationship, getting married, having kids of their own, and going through rent and all the other adult things that no one preps them for.
ReplyDeleteI was there. I got my first masters degree before I started teaching, but I found myself, in my first two years: teaching in three different subject areas with a total of seven different preps (over two years), coaching three sports, working a part time job (25-30 hours), and doing planning and classroom management on my own. Not fun. Being single helped (but it also helped keep me single with no time for relationships), but I really loved it and kept plugging away. Eventually, I made enough money to shed the part time job, but I kept the teaching in a few subject areas, and I kept the sports, added community service and fund raising, but the planning and management became easier.
This is not what I would recommend to everyone.
Decide what is most important. Budget those hours as sacred to you. Budget time to do things you love outside of school. Then, take a look at the activities you feel comfortable doing. You can say no to things without worrying too much about repercussions related to employment. Just make sure that you do not give up on an opportunity or bite off more than you can chew.