Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 207: Work-Life Balance: How New Teachers Can Protect Their Time and Avoid Burnout

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Ep 207: Work-Life Balance: How New Teachers Can Protect Their Time and Avoid Burnout · New Teacher Talk

Welcome to New Teacher Talk.
My name is Isabel Wilde,
and I am a first year English teacher at Oswego High
School.
My name is Amy Howerton,
and I'm an English teacher and English department
chairperson.
Today we are here to have an honest conversation around the
challenges, learning curves,
and small wins of achieving a work-life balance.
After today's podcast you should walk away with a few
strategies for protecting your time,
managing your workload,
and giving yourself permission to grow into the profession
without burning out.
All of those sound like really good things for new teachers
in the profession.
Yes. Work-life balance so important.
So things that are surprising about work-life balance,
you know, new teacher, first year, things that just,
you know, you think about, plan for,
and then things that are surprising.
First thing that came to my mind was the amount of time
spent on just little things day-to-day,
stuff from assignments and, you know,
something as simple as giving feedback to how long is it
gonna take me to turn all the lights on in my classroom
today.
Those are things that maybe you didn't prep for in your
undergrad.
No,
and you know what's crazy and we've talked about it before
having a classroom first year I feel like in high school my
program really told me you might not have your own space.
You might have to share a lot of spaces.
So coming in when you were like,
you're gonna have your own classroom I was like what? So
things that I definitely didn't think about.
Planning can we talk about planning?
Oh, planning
is probably one of the most significant challenges that I
help new teachers through in their first couple of years.
Because while the time in the classroom with students is
often the thing that we think most about as new teachers,
and it's very rewarding, right?
Working with children,
and that's what we picture in our minds,
and that's the reward.
That's what fills our buckets as new teachers.
But to spend that time with students,
there's so much that goes on behind it.
You mentioned turning on the lights and getting the room
ready and that's just the tip of the iceberg about planning
for the curriculum and the assessing,
and there is a mountain that goes into planning,
even before you get in front of the kids.
Yeah, I remember one of the first things I asked you was,
where's the curriculum?
Can you pass me the guide?
And I did.
Yes, and you did.
And there was something that existed for me to pass to you.
Yes.
And in some cases and in some schools that might not be the
case there could be a lot of creation that needs to take
place and so depending on where at school or what system
you're in there may be some creation that must take place,
and even in the system that we're in even though I did have
a guide, a curriculum framework,
a curriculum guide to give you materials to give you,
there's still creation to take place.
You still have to lesson plan.
Yep,
lesson plan. All that day-to-day stuff. Make your slides, i
ntroductions. It was nice having like a core guide,
but even where I student taught we didn't have like a
full, "This is what you have."
Right.
So yeah, definitely takes time.
So, there's a lot to plan for, yeah.
And all that planning makes you very tired.
I'm so tired, the brain goes.
But I think starting at the beginning of the year,
when it comes to planning, you don't know the students yet.
You don't know who's going to walk into your class.
I remember looking at the guide and having an idea of
things I can create on my own, but I'm like,
I don't know who any of these kids are.
And then once you start to learn personalities,
that planning and finding that balance of like, okay,
my first period's a lot different than my third,
but how can we still kind of blend everything to learn
those skills?
And it takes time, those prep periods.
Making those changes throughout the day is also really
important.
That's you know for a junior higher or middle school at a
high school period to period or an elementary school from
subject to subject.
You know changing for those different modalities all of
that goes into the planning, and it can be exhausting.
But it is also incredibly rewarding,
especially when you can see that those changes make a
difference in student learning.
Yeah,
so how do you overcome that or how did you overcome that
because I know you did. You are more than three-fourths
through your first year of teaching.
So how do you do overcome right?
It is kind of crazy.
That's fast So I know that that's what surprised you the
most about your first year of teaching is the amount of
work that goes in behind the scenes outside of the actual
classroom to get ready for the inside the classroom
experience.
So how did you overcome that to create that work-life
balance for yourself?
I think realizing that once you walk into the school
building, no matter what age level you're on,
like you're going from when you step in to even when you
step out,
maybe a little even after when you leave the building.
But being able to concentrate on what needs to be done
first, I think is really helpful.
And then allowing yourself the space to turn your brain
off.
I remember in August, September, October,
I would get to school at a minimum like hour 15 before,
like bell rang, anything.
And sitting there and just planning,
making sure I have everything printed.
My slides are done,
everything's uploaded to Google Classroom.
And I did that for a long time.
And then I think as, you know, you kind of move forward,
especially as months pass, you get comfortable.
Once I started to learn my teaching style,
I feel like I was able to slowly decrease how early I got
here because I felt more comfortable in what I had planned
for the day.
And it took a lot of time and using time in between school
to do the small things that are on my list.
But really just needing the rest because if you try to go
all day and especially on the drive home,
get into my car and I just go, ha!
And then you kind of just let the day pass and you know
what you have to do tomorrow,
there's always going to be stuff to do.
But taking that time to just rejuvenate your mind because
in order to be a good teacher,
you also have to take care of yourself.
That's important.
Recognizing and listening to your body's cues.
Like when you are tired you are tired,
when your eyes are dry and you've been staring at the
computer screen for way too long.
Take a break and even taking those breaks that means the
time that you do spend on your work you will do better
work.
You really will.
So taking those breaks is very important.
Yes.
So,
what else can we share to our listeners about work-life balance?
I would like to hear from you, veteran perspective and all.
You know, you've been in the classroom for so many years,
you've been in different roles,
but how does work-life balance change as teachers gain
experience?
What have you seen?
How does it go as time passes?
There's nothing that in year one can take away that first
experience, right?
That first year experience is going to be the first year of
experience and it is necessary to go through that first
year and soak it all up like a sponge.
Take advantage of the resources that are available,
take advantage of the mentorship around you and understand
that there are going to be some very significant supports,
some very significant perhaps challenges,
but those are all learning experiences to grow from.
And knowing that it does get easier.
It does.
I'm with you.
Good.
I hope our listeners do too.
I would definitely believe that after the first year and
the second year,
that third year tends to be a true shift in the way that
you think about education and teaching.
And that's actually based in some science from Michael
Fullen.
He is an educational theorist, one of my favorite.
Michael Fullen talks about things that run in three year
cycles.
And in the third year of teaching,
there's really a shift that takes place in the way that you
begin to plan.
You begin to understand student learning and understanding
your own patterns.
And that's where that work-life balance starts to come in.
Part of it is confidence that you have gained some
knowledge.
You have gained foundational understanding of the
curriculum or content that you're teaching.
You perhaps have had more experiences with students.
And so you have gained the confidence that you need to have
more automaticity coming more easily by year three.
And that is a significant turning point.
It does get easier.
It definitely happens over time,
like even like being three-fourths of the way done,
like I can sit here and say, when I started,
I feel like that's just how it goes.
And it's your first year and enjoy the chaos.
I've heard people tell me enjoy the chaos because each
year, you know, every year is chaotic.
But that first initial year is when everything's just all
over the place and different things come forward as to
what's important and what needs to be maintained as you
continue going.
I don't know if I did a great job of this with you,
working with you this first year,
but there is some good thing to take out of every day.
There's some joy to find in every day.
And that is what propelled me in my first year of teaching.
I had a great mentor my first year of teaching that tried
to help me do that,
to find something positive in every day and something to
learn from.
And that really helped me see that there was something fun
or something good or something joyful.
It could have been with a student.
It could have been with a colleague or a peer,
or it could have been just something that I discovered or
that I created or did, but something positive in each day,
something that I learned.
And that really helped me see that I was making growth or
progress.
And it happens incrementally.
It happens in those small steps forward.
So the person that you were in August is no longer the
person that you are right now.
So you are a different teacher now.
You're a different person now.
You will continue to grow in your second and in your third
year.
And now I'm in my 20 something year.
And I'm continuing to grow and learn, right?
We never really stopped doing that.
So,
and part of that is that work-life balance where I understand
that I'm still growing and learning,
but I have also learned how to create that balance in my
life.
That I know I need time to rejuvenate myself.
And, do things for you.
Even when you think of work-life balance, even having,
you know, you're saying conversations with colleagues,
things don't have to just be like, oh,
what did my students do today?
It can be like,
I had a conversation with you today and it was really nice.
And it took me away from my computer.
I thought about new things.
And I feel like that happened a lot when I would come into
your office literally every period.
We tend, at least in our department team,
in our collegial team, we tend to have many conversations about what we're teaching, right, but we have equally as many conversations about life and the joy that we have in our world. Like we tend to know a lot about each other's personal lives and families and friends and what are you doing this weekend and things like that and that is also helpful to create that work-life balance.
Not every place is going to have that. Not every work situation is going to have, or not every person wants that. Our team does.
Yeah, absolutely.
We're pretty tight-knit in that way, but that also helps create that work-life balance because even among that work day, we have those mental breaks, those emotional breaks where we can feel that sense of balance in our day. Typically happens during lunch, or maybe between the hall passing periods, you know, or right before school or right after school when we can have some personal moments and that helps create some kind of levity in the day. Also, you know people care about you.
Yes, you build that little community.
Well,
when we think about strategies for that work-life balance,
things that come to mind, I am very much type A.
I love a good list.
And I think a lot of teachers are type A,
but a lot of teachers are also type B.
But figuring out and prioritizing, like I mentioned before,
what needs to be done first,
what needs to be done for the day to be successful for you
to get through a full day of teaching.
And when the day is done, taking that break and saying,
okay, I've completed what I needed to for today.
Do I have what I need for tomorrow?
And then sometimes just leaving it at that,
I think is useful.
Yeah.
Prioritizing is something that you mentioned earlier,
and that is, as I would say,
a significant key in time saving is prioritizing what you
really need to get done.
Sometimes minds wander, and that is a thief of time.
I can't tell you how many times I've gone, "W
ait next week.
I need to do this."
Monday, what are we doing?
What are we doing?
I know I'm going to sound like the oldest person on the
podcast here, very clearly.
No!
But cell phones can be a time suck because it takes us away
from the other things we really need to do.
And so getting that distraction away from us can take us
into the things we really do need to get accomplished.
That is something that I can see more and more of in my
newer teachers is that it can sometimes take us away from
the tasks that we really need to get at hand.
I do see that sometimes that is an escape.
That's sometimes like that escape to that balance.
Just relax.
Right.
So it depends on how it's being used.
But prioritizing time is really, really of value.
That's really a value.
Yeah.
I even think to having a rough plan allows you to just kind
of have more space in your mind to be able to know like
what needs to get done.
Not saying you have to have all of next week planned,
but if you can sit there and be like,
okay I think I'm gonna do this this this and this next week
then you can just kind of pause and kind of take a step
back and again focus on what you're doing and it alleviates
some of that extra space in your mind where then you just
focus on the now and that priority.
Protecting a weekend day that's something that I've noticed
and even talking with some of my other friends in education
there are so many people that just constantly bring stuff
home and they'll do it Friday night they'll do it Saturday
they'll do it Sunday and then you come back and while
sometimes you have to do stuff sometimes outside of school
right but you can't but being able to just protect a day to
fully be human and live a life outside of your job and you
don't need to fill every available hour and just
taking a day.
When we give ourselves time to rest and rejuvenate when we
do put ourselves back in the the work mode we get more
accomplished in that time because we have set aside
alternative time to rest and rejuvenate those times are
really are incredibly valuable and necessary
And then that goes into setting some boundaries.
That's very difficult to do,
or it can be difficult to do but it's necessary.
How did you do that?
So, I quickly realized that having email, Google Classroom,
and everything on my phone was just a never-ending cycle of
me constantly getting notifications.
And in conversation with other teachers, they're like, no,
don't do it, turn it off, like, take your email off,
or at a minimum, take Google Classroom off of your phone,
like, there's no need.
And I'm like, yeah, you're right.
But again, those first few months, I was like,
I need to know everything and be on deck.
And he had some FOMO.
Huge FOMO.
I'm like, if a student sends me an email,
and the odds of that, too, like, super late,
why do I need to respond to an email at 9 p.m.?
You do not.
I do not.
No.
So, no longer looking at my email after, like, 5 p.m.,
it is still on my phone,
but I do set the timer thingy for 5 p.m.
Google Classroom is gone.
I really try to protect my evenings and, like,
I'll go to the gym and, you know,
get out of the headspace of teacher mode.
But setting those boundaries was really hard because I
constantly felt like I had FOMO.
And it's like if a student needed something or if someone
sent me an email, and it's like,
I didn't respond right away.
But it's also unrealistic.
One of the things that early on helped me set boundaries
was having young children.
Those other family responsibilities outside of teaching in
some ways forced those boundaries because when I left my
day job here with the children I was responsible for at
school,
I went to my home responsibilities with the children I had
brought into the world.
Yes.
And those forced some boundaries because I needed energy to
expend on the babies I loved and that really encouraged
healthy boundaries to be set because I could not spend time
on my work at home.
I didn't have bandwidth to do both at the same time.
And then I know some of our listeners have both of those
things going on at the same time.
They may have perhaps even during student teaching,
they had family responsibilities to take care of.
And so sometimes those boundaries can be set for you but
understanding that those boundaries are really necessary to
achieve a healthy work-life balance.
And it's okay to make those emails wait.
It is okay.
We have in our system here together,
we have a 24-hour kind of period rule to respond back to
emails.
Let it wait 24 hours, right?
And in some cases responding right away is not a good rule
of thumb because you want some emotion to dissipate before
responding to a parent email or a student email.
So it is a good rule of thumb to let some of that wait.
Yeah,
and I actually agree with like the phases of life and you
know People are in different phases where you know,
you go home you work another job.
Yeah, you have all these different things going on.
You have a second job outside of this full-time job,
so yeah.
Yep, going there today, yep,
and you know I have to turn off teaching and go into the
other aspect of my life and you know those are just
boundaries.
They're there.
I can't get...
It's a reality.
Yeah, it is a reality.
Another thing that I found is don't compare yourself to
other teachers, other people in your building because...
Or friends in the field.
Yeah, friends in the field at different schools.
I'm not saying you can't be friends, but don't compare.
It takes a lot of weight.
It does one of my favorite lines and I got this from a
colleague that we work with here.
Her name is Erin.
She exudes wisdom.
Yes.
One of her lines that she says often is that, "
comparison is a thief of joy." And it is it kind of gets in
your brain space and with the comparison to someone else It
robs you of your own joy.
It robs you of your own strength.
Because your journey is yours,
your teaching journey is your journey and it's not someone
else's.
You're in different places.
You're in different experiences.
You might have different resources and supports.
So your journey is yours own it grow from it.
Absolutely,
and we've talked a lot like I feel like I can't do this and
this didn't go well, and you said to me I'm not there,
but I'm not supposed to be there...
yet.
Oh, I'm a big believer in yet, but you will get there.
You will get there.
Wherever the there is, wherever the destination is,
you will get there because you're still learning, right?
And I'm not wherever the there is yet.
I'm still learning things and I'm just a voracious reader
and podcast listener and learner.
I was at a meeting yesterday and somebody mentioned this
research study and I Googled it right away and emailed it
to myself and I'm going to read it this week and we just
talked about boundaries,
but I'm going to read it this weekend.
But it's the yet, right?
It's that power of yet,
like you will continue to learn and grow.
And it's okay if it doesn't look like other people,
like you have your own journey, your own pathway,
and protecting your mind in that way too.
When you compare, it's really hard.
It takes a lot out of you and making sure you protect your
mind is really important.
Growth in teaching is something that takes time and you're
not going to get it all at once.
You might not even get it in five to 10 years,
but you're going to build yourself up piece by piece and
figure out, you know, who am I as a teacher?
You know your values and at your core,
everything for me at least is about the kids,
but just protecting your mind in comparison.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
You mentioned that growth is very good,
and growth in teaching takes time,
but there is incremental growth, there is.
And that's part of why I really come back to that mentor I
had in the first year of my teaching, who says,
find something good in every day.
Because then you start to see that growth over time.
You start to recognize, that worked.
I implemented that new strategy I learned.
I did this thing that I said I was going to do.
And you start to see that growth over time.
And you start to recognize in yourself that you are
improving,
that you are doing things that maybe you never thought you
could do.
And that's very rewarding.
Even if like a good thing, I'll be like,
oh this student really grasped this today amazing and then
you notice Them doing that as time goes on and it's just
it's really cool to see you know picking out that good
Yeah, really like that.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's part of why we
We do what we do.
Yes, it is.
Reminders, things won't always feel this heavy.
No, they won't, yeah, they won't.
I get sad sitting here, and I'm like,
my first year of teaching is almost done.
It goes by fast to those listening.
It goes by so fast, so fast.
It's such a whirlwind, and it's so much fun.
You know, I'm making a lot of things from scratch,
figuring out what things need to be,
and trying to find that balance outside of school,
and it's never going to be like this again.
It won't and you will always remember it.
I mean,
I'm well into my career But I still remember my first year
of teaching, and I still remember many of the students.
Yeah,
I remember their faces I remember their first and last
names.
I can tell you where they sat in the seating chart.
It's because it's so imprinted on my mind.
It is a very key part of my career.
Yeah, and in that it doesn't always feel that heavy,
but it feels important.
Yeah, it shaped a lot of who I became in my career.
And managing, learning your routines,
learning what's important to you in school,
outside of school, as, you know,
your seasons in life change, as you continue to grow.
And we love growth.
I mentioned to you a few days ago about sustainable
teaching.
I love that.
Oh my gosh.
When you mention that word to me, I'm like, oh my gosh,
you have to tell me more about this.
I love that phrase, sustainable teaching.
To me,
that just exudes the concept of work-life balance because
if we don't have work-life balance, it's not sustainable.
So what is a sustainable teaching?
Like, oh my gosh, heart emoji everywhere.
Hard emoji, love it.
Sustainable teaching is all about avoiding burnout.
And we hear teacher burnout, this, that, and the other.
And it's possible to have sustainable teaching where you're
not gonna feel like you're constantly drowning,
but you're also not going to feel bored.
And that when you learn that work-life balance and you are
taking care of yourself, doing things for yourself,
it isn't selfish.
And that it builds that sustainability for you to come into
school and be the best teacher you can be.
Some days are good, then better than others,
but it's necessary.
You dropping some wisdom there.
I love that taking care of yourself isn't selfish,
it's necessary.
And I feel like that's something that a lot of new teachers
struggle with,
is if I go home and I don't open my computer,
does that make me a bad teacher?
It doesn't.
It doesn't.
No.
It means that you are protecting your peace.
It means that you are rejuvenating yourself in a necessary
way so that you can come back to work and be fully present
when you are needed to plan, prepare, grade,
get ready for the kids, all those things.
But time away is equally as important.
For sustainable teaching, man do I love that term.
We should put it on a t-shirt.
We should.
We should.
We should hashtag that and keep it copyrighted or whatever.
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's good stuff.
But you feel like you've achieved some work-life balance in
this first year?
I do,
and I think especially once first semester was over and
coming into this semester,
I felt comfortable and that you know I know what my life in
school looks like,
and I know what my life out of school looks like even
though things change. Like the semester I took on tutoring
like that's different but it's still something that's
manageable and you know you can still figure out okay
what's important in my at-home life and then what's
important in my career life it takes time and there's no
right or wrong way and everybody's different and don't
compare yourself to others. It's the thief of joy.
It is. Those are really great pieces of advice.
Lots of great learning in that first year.
Stay sustainable.
Mm.
Mm.
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