5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Non-Teaching Time - Week 4 #1

Tomorrow is my son's 2nd birthday. As his birthday comes up, so does the middle of summer. Knowing that I will be going back to school soon always makes me worry that when school starts again, I will miss so much of his daily milestones. He is going through the "language explosion" stage right now and I love listening to him come up with all of these new words and sentences!

As much fun as it is, I know that I have to go back to do the other thing I love so much - teaching! How am I going to use my time effectively in order to get home and spend as much time with my son as I can??? I am making a plan to effectively use my non-teaching time!

Maia Heyck-Merline has 5 easy suggestions. Each of her suggestions is listed below, along with how I personally plan on making that suggestion happen!

1. Start with a detailed plan.

Having a detailed lesson plan is an easy task for me to accomplish! In fact, I have already started planning using www.planbook.com. It is a super easy way to prepare detailed lessons that are accessible from any device that has an Internet connection. The lesson plans can easily be downloaded as a PDF file and emailed to a substitute teacher if I become ill, or my son becomes ill. Planbook even has a feature that allows you to bump lessons without drawing arrows or re-typing the whole lesson!

2. Batch Process Your Work

This is another task that I feel that I do effectively. I make my copies for a week or two or even three at a time and file them down based on the day. I pick out and organize all my materials for the following day before heading home. I choose certain planning periods to complete certain tasks. Maia suggests packing lunches for a week at a time, which is one thing that I really could do better. Stumbling around at 5:30am trying to make a lunch probably isn't the most effective way to do that!

3. Consider your energy levels.

I am 110% a morning person. I accomplish most of my tasks in the morning and work the most efficiently in the morning. Therefore, I arrive at school every morning at 6:30am. The students arrive at 7:40am. During this hour of time I accomplish everything that needs to be done. After school dismisses at 2:30, I gather all of my materials for the following day, straighten up anything that needs to be done and I don't feel guilty walking out of the door by 3:00 or 3:30.

4. Bite-Size your to-do's.

I have a love of list and I love crossing things off a list. I love crossing things so much so that sometimes I will write down tasks that I have already completed just to cross it off. However, I never think about writing my goals and to-do's in steps. Rather than write something like, "Finish Sally's report card," I will write "Finish Report Cards." This is a much larger task and feels very daunting when looking at a to-do list.

5. Use Small Pockets of Time

This is one that I can do better. If I know that I only have a short amount of time, I am more likely to check my email or call my husband or check Facebook. During these short 5 to 10 minute breaks, I could be grading papers, setting out more materials for the following day or even making that one copy that didn't get made with the weekly copies.

Using all of these suggestions, I feel like I can do a better job of leaving a little more work at work and spending home time at home, truly at home. I don't want to miss a moment, but since I do work, I want to be present for every moment that I can be and not just be here grading or planning or filing, but truly be here, on the floor, playing and laughing and learning together with my son. He is only little once!





Heyck-Merlin, Maia. "5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Non-Teaching Time." Posted 19 Jun 2014. Accessed 14 Jul 2014. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/make-most-non-teaching-time-maia-heyck