Being a dedicated teacher doesn’t mean you need to be a slave to your profession, devoting every spare minute of the day to planning, preparation, and thinking of new and wonderful ways to engage your students.

It doesn’t mean poring over lesson plans and new methodologies whilst crouching over a sandwich at your desk.

It doesn’t mean devoting your home time to research, mountains of marking, and making phone calls to parents at the expense of your own family.

Other professions are not accused of a lack of dedication if they dare to have a life outside the job. You don’t hear of nurses going home to chase up the concerned families of their patients long after their shifts have ended.

Plumbers don’t lay awake at night thinking of new and inspirational ways to create a washer that will save you the worry of constantly dripping taps.

How effective is it anyway?

How effective is it really to devote untold hours to the job, when those untold hours cut into your home life and ultimately your health? Your life outside the classroom helps to make you a more relaxed and well-rounded person. And you’re more likely to get that burst of inspiration you need after a cool morning dip in the ocean, than slaving over a hot keyboard at midnight!

Teaching is a demanding profession, physically, mentally and emotionally. Take a look at these suggestions, and look after YOU in the 2019 school year!

Prioritise
Make a list of the things that MUST be done, (and make time for you one of your priorities). When making the list, ask the question – is this absolutely necessary to advance the learning experience of my students?

• If it’s not – ditch it!

Draw the line between work and home
Work professional hours, STOP taking work home with you, and don’t answer your phone or look at your emails after a certain time.

• The world won’t fall apart!

Drop your perfectionism
Spending hours and hours planning one lesson, steals hours away from something else, (possibly YOU time). Besides, not every lesson is going to shine, so let it go.

• Sometimes good enough is good enough!

Let go of some control
What can your students do to help in the classroom? Get them to peer up, share their knowledge, help one another and provide feedback on each other’s work.  It fosters discussion, debate and better understanding.

• Free yourself a little!

Learn to say NO
Change your mindset and gift yourself some time back without feeling guilty. Be assertive about the things you will and will not do.

• The fewer things you do, the more you do better!

Don’t reinvent the wheel
There’s no need to create your Workplace or Careers Education program from scratch. There are plenty of engaging lessons, materials and activities that have been professionally created for you to tweak for your classroom.

• Utilise WORK-READY!

If you haven’t already, jump on to take a test drive to see how Work-Ready can help make 2019 a productive year.

www.work-ready.com.au/