Half Term Fun

I don't know whether it's the time of year, my new job, or that I'm just less organised this term, but I seem to have brought a lot of work home with me this half term. I've spent most of today either marking or planning, and I've still not done everything I need to do.

Today has obviously been the day to crack on with work - we've had a rest for a couple of days, we want a rest at the end of the week and... it's raining. My HOD thought so too, and has sent me 12 emails during the course of the day! So although a day slumped on the sofa with a good book and some Sky Plus was tempting, I knuckled down and made a list.

This is how the list read at 9.30am this morning:

Year 8 APP Marking
Monday Planning
Y11 Media Mock Marking
Media SOW Planning
Y10 Controlled Assessment Marking
Y11 Revision Day Planning
Sort out teaching file
Sort out handbag
Sort out Stanley
Y11 Coursework Folders

I've been good. I've not checked Facebook once. And apart from a long-ish lunch break, I've tried to stay away from distractions. Despite the fact that I hate marking at home, my to-do list now reads:

Y11 Coursework Folders - they only need the individual scores putting on, I haven't actually got any marking to do...
and Y10 Controlled Assessment marking. I just couldn't face it after all the other marking I had to do.

These jobs will have to be done on another rainy, miserable day. Probably Sunday afternoon, knowing me. But I've broken the back of it.

The thing about working at home during the holidays is that you can do it if you guard yourself against distractions. I tend to find I'm fine as long as I don't start reading that book, or traipsing round the internet looking for 'resources' which I know will be quicker to make myself. If you're working in school, I find, you tend to want to leave, so get less distracted.

The problem is, that you're bringing work home. And that's never a good thing for your work-life balance. We all know how important work-life balance is: if you type 'Teaching' and 'Work-life balance' into Google, you come up with over 6 million hits. 6 million! There are books, courses, articles, advice...

These Top Tips come from Teaching Expertise, and although I don't agree with all of them ('me time'???), I totally agree with number 2.

1. Think of your day as 24 hours. Decide how much time you are going to spend sleeping, eating, being with family, working, leisure and time for 'me'. This isn't always easy, but try just 10 minutes for yourself at first, and build up.
2. If you take work home, set times when you will deal with this and be strict about it. Don't get distracted and then allow the work to drag on all night/weekend. Make sure you have a 'stop time' so that you can relax.
3. Once you've built up on 10 minutes 'for me', try to spend 30 minutes
   just doing nothing. If you can, let your mind drift.
4. Clear your desk every evening and be less hassled when you get in the next day.
5. Keep up to date with technological short cuts. Ask your IT department to advise.
6. Delegate more - be honest, is there anything you can pass to the school office, or the support assistants?
7. Ban sticky notes from your desk. You'll be distracted and react to them, rather than completing anything.
8. Refuse to argue over small things. It's a waste of time to bicker and causes more stress in the end.
9. Above all - strike a balance: work out when you have to give 100% and when just 70% will be OK.