Should You Be Feeling Guilty For Working Less as a Teacher?

Should teachers be feeling guilty for working less as a teacher? Here is my hot take on whether or not working less makes you a bad teacher. PLUS I share my personal story of going from a first year teacher who was always working late to a teacher who hardly ever brought work home.

These teacher time-saving strategies will help you confidently save time as a teacher, minimize teacher overwhelm, prevent you from staying late and start leaving work on time, and prevent teacher burnout.

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I’m Helena, a coach for new and first-year teachers sharing knowledge on how to have a thriving career and personal life.

The Present Teacher Podcast is a resource for classroom management, classroom organization, time management, and teacher wellness. Follow along and learn how to thrive in the classroom and in life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Teacher Culture
• 8:41 Efficiency and Time Management for Teachers

Transcript

Helena: 0:00

So this question popped up the other day and that was should I feel guilty for leaving work on time and getting all my work done during the school day and not bringing work home and working less as a teacher? Now, this was such a great question that I wanted to answer this question here on the Present Teacher channels. So let's dive in to whether or not leaving work on time and getting ahead and not working as much as a teacher is a good thing or a bad thing. So let's dive in. Hey Teacher Bestie, my name is Helena and I'm the creator of the Present Teacher Podcast. I'm a first year teacher coach and in this podcast you are going to learn everything from simple, actionable classroom management, social learning and teacher wellness strategies. You know that impact you want to make in the classroom. We're going to make it happen here.

Helena: 0:54

So before we get started, in general there seems to be this hustle culture around teachers and working hard. You see, society seems to praise those who work hard and struggle to get the end of the results. People love an underdog. Therefore, society tends to praise the underdogs who it's not likely, but they make it happen anyways. Well, you see, that has become the norm of teaching. Good teachers are identified as teachers who work hard, day in and day out for their students, but here's the deal. There's more to teaching than that and, in order to answer this question more in depth, I wanted to share a little bit more about my story and my journey to working hard as a teacher.

Helena: 1:42

You see, back in 2018, I graduated with my master's in elementary education and I moved from Oregon to New Mexico, to a small town named Pecos, where I started my teaching position, and I was super excited. I had my master's program and I was a kindergarten teacher. I had dreamed of teaching kindergarten since I was little and I was super excited, but I was quickly overwhelmed by the amount of work teachers were expected to do. It was considerably almost more work than my undergrad and my graduate program, which was amazing to me that it was more work. So by winter break, I was completely frazzled mentally, emotionally, everything in between. And I still remember the day my kindergartners graduated. They were walking across the gym with their little diplomas and in a moment I should have felt super proud of them. I felt defeated. I cried, and it wasn't because I was proud of them, it's because I felt like a failure. You see, I was so busy being the hustle teacher who did everything that I was chasing to-do lists that I wasn't actually there mentally, emotionally or physically to hold space for my students, and that was a year I could never get back for them and their education or for myself. Never get back for them and their education or for myself. Now don't get me wrong. My students made growth, but I knew deep down I was not being the teacher I knew I was capable of being, and it was because I was so unindated with the tasks of teaching that I had lost sight of what was important in the world of education. So that summer I dedicated my entire summer to learning how things could be differently.

Helena: 3:26

Fast forward about six months later. I was in the middle of teaching a kindergarten math lesson when I froze in the middle of the lesson and I said, oh my goodness, I did it. And my kindergartners were like what are you talking about, ms Haynes? Nothing, nothing, I'm fine. I had realized, oh my goodness. You see, for the last couple weeks, up until that point, I had left my teacher bag at work, I had not brought any work home, whether it was the weekdays or the weekends, and I was caught up and I wasn't behind and it was completely new to me. Me and I was leaving at contract time maybe 15 minutes later, but not staying the hours. I had my first year of teaching.

Helena: 4:14

That's when I realized I did it. You see, I didn't know it was possible that teachers didn't hustle or couldn't hustle or didn't have to hustle. I just thought that was the norm because that was the culture we lived in. And I didn't start thinking otherwise until I started noticing other teachers in my building leaving at contract time. They never brought work home, they didn't work on the weekends, they didn't come out early and they didn't stay late and I started to ask myself how can I be like them? If they can do it, I can do it too. I need to figure this out and kind of going off of this whole hustle culture thing. It's crazy how ingrained this culture can be.

Helena: 4:57

I still remember one of those teachers I was admiring for their dedication and being able to set that boundary and not bring work home and have that time management skills. I remember watching them leave one day after school and I, of course, as a first year teacher, was staying until six, seven, eight o'clock at school. And I remember one of my fellow teachers came up to me and said yeah, she clearly doesn't care about our students if she's leaving this early, right, and it's no wonder that we are so, you know, tempted to stay late. And so, despite all this, I decided that I am going to make things differently, and I did, and, using the fact that other teachers before me and other teachers in my building were figuring it out, I wanted to figure it out too. I wanted to be that teacher that other teachers didn't like because they were leaving on time. So at that time, that's when I started my business the Present Teacher and my community the Present Teacher.

Helena: 6:02

At this time, I had a podcast, I had an email list, I was using social media, I was creating content, I was creating TPT resources, because at the time, this was right around COVID-ish, and so there weren't a lot of digital resources and my particular district didn't have one-to-one devices yet. So I had to come up with these resources for my grade level. Either way, I've had to figure out how to manage it all while working on a business and working at, while working on a business and working at school. But I had to figure out how do I get all of that done in under 10 hours a week, because the reality was, if I stayed late teaching, I didn't have time for my business and I didn't have time to work on that. I had to figure out how to shorten my business time to 10 hours a week, maybe an hour or two after school during the work week, and then weekends were with my husband and boyfriend. So, regardless, I learned how to get everything done in a short amount of time.

Helena: 6:59

I learned about batching, I learned about Pomodoro, I learned about all these amazing things, your energy levels throughout the week, and I learned how to do that. And I was batching months in advance of content. And then I started to wonder, huh, could I apply how to do that? And I was batching months in advance of content. And then I started to wonder, huh, could I apply this to my teaching career? And I did. And the crazy thing is it worked. Don't get me wrong. It didn't work right away. I had to tweak some things, but regardless, it worked.

Helena: 7:26

So let's go back to the question Should you feel guilty for leaving work on time, not bringing work home? And that is my story is, when I first figured it out, I felt guilty. I felt like I was cheating the system, like I was a bad teacher because I had figured out how to get my work done in a short amount of time. I remember thinking this is supposed to be hard. I'm cheating if I make this easy. It's not fair that I found a way to make teaching easier when others are struggling. But you see, along my journey I've discovered there are three different kinds of teachers. There's the teacher A, who's a super organized team member that we love to have on our team. There's the teacher B, who I like to think as organized chaos. They have their own systems and from the outside it's a bit chaotic, but they get their system and then enter teacher C and if you're here listening to this video, pretty sure you're like me and your teacher C. Teacher C are those teachers that think there has to be a more efficient way to do things. There has to be a more efficient way to do things. We're not lazy. We like to find systems to make things easier and if that is, you welcome. You're exactly where you're meant to be. I'm a teacher, see.

Helena: 8:41

So, again, going back to this time, during this time I was wondering if I should make things harder because it was easier for me and it wasn't fair to others. Now that's silly. So I'm gonna walk you through the process I took to change my mindset, and that is transitioning my mindset. So the first thing I ask myself is how can I see things differently? How can I see me not working as hard as a teacher as a good thing, now? How can I see me not staying late as a good thing Now? How can I see me not staying late as a good thing? And the first thing I asked myself is what good things will come if I have more time for other things. And that's where I started listing out all the benefits to me having more time throughout the week for other things. The first thing was I had more time at the time to help teachers online. I had I showed up better and more energetically for my students because I wasn't frazzled from working all the time to help teachers online. I had I showed up better and more energetically for my students because I wasn't frazzled from working all the time. I had better relationships outside of work, which all of these combined led to me pouring more into my students. So actually it was very cyclical and it benefited my students and it came back around. So for me, it's a very good thing that I wasn't working as much.

Helena: 9:55

Now the next question I asked myself is what comes up for me that makes me think I don't deserve having more time? I know that's a heavy question. I'm going to say it again what comes up for me that makes me think I don't deserve having more time? What comes up for me that makes me think I don't deserve having more time? And these are the thoughts that came up for me in this moment.

Helena: 10:16

One I'm not smart enough. I'm not smart enough to figure this out. I shouldn't be smart enough to make teaching easy. Who am I to figure that out? The second one is I haven't worked hard enough. Like I need to struggle. I need to be that underdog who, like, turns, turns it around. The third thing is teaching has to be struggle. I need to be that underdog who, like, turns it around. The third thing is teaching has to be hard. I see it on social media all the time Teaching has to be difficult. And with all that being said, here's what you can do to change these is. You can ask yourself what can I look at to show that these are not true, that they're a lie. So one I'm not smart enough to figure this out. And how can I look for examples in the real world that change that? And for me I'm not smart enough turns into those teachers are doing it and I feel like I'm just as smart as them. So if they can do it, I can do. I can too. I haven't worked hard enough. I have worked very hard and I don't need to struggle to be good at my job. You can just be good at your job because you are. The third thing it has to be hard. Teaching doesn't have to be hard. It gets to be fun. Look at that teacher down the hallway who's having a blast teaching. Look at those teachers who have been teaching for 20 years and can't imagine doing anything else. Teaching gets to be fun.

Helena: 11:34

All of these I could turn and shift how I was looking at teaching and the benefits to leaving work on time and having more time outside of teaching, and so during my experience, I was then asked by. The next thing was I was asked by other teachers how are you doing this? I remember I was walking down the hallway and at this time I was teaching second grade, and this teacher down the hallway stopped and asked me hey, I noticed that you never bring work home and you never. You leave at contract time and you come here right before contract time. What's your secret? How do you do it? And that's when I realized other teachers need this information too. I could be that teacher that could share what worked for me and what might work for them, and that it is possible, because if I can do it, I'm no smarter than you. I'm not. You know, I didn't work harder than you. I, you know, it wasn't harder for me than it was you. I'm like if it worked for me, it can work for you. And so that's when I started creating resources online.

Helena: 12:43

So, with all that being said, if I were a new teacher wanting to start saving time, here's what I would do. The first thing I would do is do a time audit. So a time audit is you're looking at all the tasks you're doing throughout the week. Maybe you realize that you're spending a lot of time on email. Maybe you know you keep track of all the times that you're, you know, responding to families. You're planning all that, and then, after you have a time audit, you're going to look at your systems. So these are the systems that I particularly like to focus on and all the teachers that I coach and help. These are the systems I show them that they should audit and look at to fine tune and make better, and that is classroom management, communication, grading and data, planning and prepping and organization those five systems. Once you have them down, teaching is easy, teaching is fun. You have room to add some bazaar, some flair to your teaching style, and that's my goal for all teachers is to make teaching fun and having more time and enjoying your life outside of teaching. So once you focus on those systems and you make them more efficient, you're going to have more time.

Helena: 14:01

So, going back to the beginning of this video, is it bad to have more time and work less as a teacher? No, think of all the amazing things you get to do when you have more time. Think of your students who, when you come in the mornings, you're not going to be burned out and fried. Think of the relationships outside of teaching. Think of your kids. Think of your family. Think of your friends who you're going to be able to show up. Think of all that time you're going to spend pouring into yourself so that you can pour into others. Think of the businesses you might be starting or the hobbies you might be doing and the impact, or the volunteer hours or whatever. You're passionate about putting that out into the world because you have time.

Helena: 14:47

So, to summarize, I don't think it's bad that you have more time and that teaching gets to be easy. I think it gets to be easy because you are smart enough, you are worth it and you are capable of it. And just because we live in this hustle culture that praises hard work doesn't mean that you're not working hard. You're just being smart with your time and you're organizing the stuff to be easier and more efficient. And as a society, we should be praising efficiency, not necessarily the hustle and the grind and making things harder on ourselves. So if you find yourself wanting to dive deeper into this, remind yourself that you are where you are smart enough. You are capable. I'm a nobody. I mean, I love myself, I'm awesome, but I'm not smarter than you. I don't work harder than you. I'm not more determined than you. I'm a normal, average human being. And if I can do it, you can too. That teacher down the hallway, if they can do it, you can too.

Helena: 15:51

So if you find yourself wanting to dive deeper into learning how to leave work on time, to consistently not take work home, to not overwork, to have that space, that freedom, that ease, to love teaching and want to do it long term, I have a couple of resources for you. The first one is I have an ultimate prep guide and inside this guide I answer all the questions that I get. The top 10 questions I get about saving time as a teacher and efficiency and time management and organization and everything in between. So I recommend checking that out. And the next thing I recommend checking out is in the future I will be opening up the Leaming Work on Time course. This is where I walk through a cohort of students or teachers sorry, they're my students, they're teachers, but they're students teachers on how to figure out those systems, to set them up, to save them time during the school year so they can have that freedom to start businesses, to be present, family members, to make an impact inside and out of the classroom. So if that's what you're interested in, I would love to have you join us inside. I will go ahead and put the wait list in the description.

Helena: 17:07

So, final thoughts you are worthy. It's not bad if you are on your journey of if I could go back and tell myself anything, it's not bad that you're looking for a way to be teacher. If you are on your journey of if I could go back and tell myself anything, I'd be it's not bad that you're looking for a way to be teacher-sy and make things more easy and effortless and efficient. That's a good thing and welcome to the journey. You're going to get there because if I can get there, I didn't think it was possible for me. I, if you told first year teacher me that I would be here, I wouldn't believe you. I didn't know it was possible. I thought those people that did it were better than me. And here I am helping other teachers do it. So it's possible for you. All right, as always, remember we are stronger together and I will see you in the next one. Teacher Busty, bye as always. Remember we are stronger together and I will see you in the next one. Teacher busty bye.

Helena: 18:04

Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I hope that you were able to take away some value that will help you thrive inside and out of the classroom. It would mean the world to me if you could take five seconds right now and leave a review on this podcast. And if you found this podcast especially helpful, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode right now and tag me on your socials to let me know you're listening. As always, remember that we are stronger together with all the love in the world. Helena, aka the Present Teacher. See you next time, teacher Bestie.