Time waits for no man:
Not even the ones with slick costumes.
Not even the ones with slick costumes.
(Note: This post was inspired by this entry from So You Want To Teach?)
Time management. It's never been a problem for me, before.
Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't been slacking. I've been going to school full time and carrying two jobs for the last four years, so I'm used to an 8+ hour work day with few breaks and no breathing room. Student teaching, however, has left me without breathing room, sleeping room, showering room, shaving room, and...well, I'm just out of room. As such, I've been looking like I've been hit by a truck full of stubble and eye-bags.
Because of the long commute to and from my placement, I need to wake up at 4 in the morning, and I get home at around five in the morning. This has been resulting in my falling asleep around 8 p.m. every night. This gives me three waking hours in which to write lesson plans, grade papers, work on the peripheral projects required by the student teaching course, and do all the little things that a person needs to do in order to function (eat, shower, shave, laundry, housekeeping tasks, grocery shopping, bank visits, etc.). The weekends are a little better, since those are only 8-hour (sometimes 12 hour) work days.
In short, I think I've met the first of many Super-Villain nemeses: The Clock. He is able to tire me out, weakening my one super-power: Passionate, energetic teaching.
Right now, I'm coasting through. It's the beginning of the term, so I'm mostly doing grunt work - running copies, grading/checking in papers, entering grades into the computer system. I can operate at half-power and manage that kind of stuff. What worries me is the upcoming weeks, in which I'll be doing everything I'm doing now, but also engaging in massive amounts of preparation, and expending tons of energy by actually teaching.
I don't mind the half-hour lunches - I don't get lunch breaks at all at my other jobs - and the hour-long planning period is helping a lot, but I don't know if I'll hold out for much longer without sleeping.
Master teachers: How do you do it all in three hours a day? I'm not looking for free time so I can sit around eating Spaghetti-O's and watching The Jetsons - I just want to sleep. I already quit one job to make room for student teaching, and I can't afford to quit another: my family is below the poverty line as it is, and although scholarships are covering most of the cost of tuition for the semester, the extra costs (a "professional" wardrobe, TONS of gas, materials for class, the cost of brown-bagging lunch every day) are killing me.
Will Magister L. defeat his newest foe?
Will he fall asleep behind the wheel and crash into a corn silo?
Will he force his students to play "Watch the Spot on the Wall" while he secretly naps behind a copy of Savage Inequalities?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!
SAME TEACHER-TIME,
SAME TEACHER-CHANNEL.
-The Educational Man of Mystery
Time management. It's never been a problem for me, before.
Now, don't get me wrong, I haven't been slacking. I've been going to school full time and carrying two jobs for the last four years, so I'm used to an 8+ hour work day with few breaks and no breathing room. Student teaching, however, has left me without breathing room, sleeping room, showering room, shaving room, and...well, I'm just out of room. As such, I've been looking like I've been hit by a truck full of stubble and eye-bags.
Because of the long commute to and from my placement, I need to wake up at 4 in the morning, and I get home at around five in the morning. This has been resulting in my falling asleep around 8 p.m. every night. This gives me three waking hours in which to write lesson plans, grade papers, work on the peripheral projects required by the student teaching course, and do all the little things that a person needs to do in order to function (eat, shower, shave, laundry, housekeeping tasks, grocery shopping, bank visits, etc.). The weekends are a little better, since those are only 8-hour (sometimes 12 hour) work days.
In short, I think I've met the first of many Super-Villain nemeses: The Clock. He is able to tire me out, weakening my one super-power: Passionate, energetic teaching.
Right now, I'm coasting through. It's the beginning of the term, so I'm mostly doing grunt work - running copies, grading/checking in papers, entering grades into the computer system. I can operate at half-power and manage that kind of stuff. What worries me is the upcoming weeks, in which I'll be doing everything I'm doing now, but also engaging in massive amounts of preparation, and expending tons of energy by actually teaching.
I don't mind the half-hour lunches - I don't get lunch breaks at all at my other jobs - and the hour-long planning period is helping a lot, but I don't know if I'll hold out for much longer without sleeping.
Master teachers: How do you do it all in three hours a day? I'm not looking for free time so I can sit around eating Spaghetti-O's and watching The Jetsons - I just want to sleep. I already quit one job to make room for student teaching, and I can't afford to quit another: my family is below the poverty line as it is, and although scholarships are covering most of the cost of tuition for the semester, the extra costs (a "professional" wardrobe, TONS of gas, materials for class, the cost of brown-bagging lunch every day) are killing me.
Will Magister L. defeat his newest foe?
Will he fall asleep behind the wheel and crash into a corn silo?
Will he force his students to play "Watch the Spot on the Wall" while he secretly naps behind a copy of Savage Inequalities?
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK!
SAME TEACHER-TIME,
SAME TEACHER-CHANNEL.
-The Educational Man of Mystery
I know the feeling - I've been working full-time (or more, with additional jobs and responsibilities) for almost six years now, and student teaching is a different beast. I have more time that's not committed to specific activities like work, but it's still very difficult to manage all of the different aspects. I've started teaching one of my three classes, honors American lit (I have 2 sections of that, 2 sections of AP Brit lit, and 1 very small section of 8th grade language arts), and it's hard to get all the planning and preparation done just for that one class. I start teaching AP late next week and have to get my planning done for the week after by the end of next week in addition to the U.S. lit stuff.
ReplyDeleteI can commiserate on the job front, too: I did quit my full-time job, and my wife started working part time to provide some income. I'm still doing a very part-time job that allows me to work from home or wherever, and I have a writing fellowship this semester as well, but it's hard to manage the extra stuff. Just don't burn yourself out trying to do it all. I almost think it would be better to find some alternative loans or whatever if possible - I'm taking out extra this semester in the form of a capstone loan so that I can afford to live without working what I would otherwise need to in order to support my wife and 2 kids.
Best of luck,
GB
I would honestly love to give you great words of wisdom, but student teaching is just kind of one of those things that you survive. And that's it. Obviously, it is the one time when you want to do more than survive, you want to show yourself in the best light possible, so you'll want to get more of that sleep.
ReplyDeleteI will tell you for sure that I had to quit my job during that time. I was commuting a long distance too and I survived off of loan money for the semester. I will be paying off school until I die, and congrats for being extra brilliant and getting scholarships, but you might have to take the hit now to function better and get the job that will support you later.
Good luck!!! :)
I agree with others who have posted: Student teaching is more than a job, and you should give yourself a fighting chance at showing your potential as a teacher to your school community. Everyone is watching to see if you have what it takes.
ReplyDelete"Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion."
Teaching (like many professions) is hard, intense work, especially in the beginning. Life as a student teacher is generally not balanced, since some of your daily "three hours" is usually spent grading. Beg for your family's understanding.
Stick with it. Care about kids, and teaching will eventually become not as hard, still intense, and extremely rewarding.
Some advice based on what worked for me:
1. Block out 3-4 hours sometime on Sunday to plan most of the NEXT (not upcoming) week's instruction for each prep. Use time during the subsequent week to get feedback from your CT, prepare and copy materials, and refine your plans.
2. Never leave school without the next day's instruction "in the can," i.e. everything setup, copied, ready to go.
Good luck.
Thanks for sharing such an amazing information please keep Helping teacher in need
ReplyDelete