When I first started to teach it was work, eat, sleep, repeat. There is not that much free time at the beginning. I was drowning in the workload. To balance the work I have to constantly  reprioritize so the things that need to get done get done. Sleep is last on the list otherwise I feel guilt towards my kids at home and my kids at school.  Now I’m just perfecting the lessons that I teach, so there is not that much planning. I have a calendar with what we are doing for each unit. If something needs to be tweaked to make it better for next year the science team I am with will tweak the schedule or lab activity.

Sometimes it gets frustrating. One time, the kids were given two weeks to take notes on their reading before the lab practical.  When I was looking over their work it looked like they did not read, so the next day I told them whoever had notes could use them for the lab and only one person in my eighth hour did them. It made me really mad. For the first time I had to add some rules. Most things do not upset me, but when students do not do their work that really gets me mad.

When the topic is dry, the students still do their work. They always have something that will make it interesting and fun to learn. The questions they ask are on topic or off topic. The questions make me have to think about the response because they are really good questions. It makes me happy that the kids get into the lesson even if it one that is not as interesting.

Even if I am home the students know how to get a hold of me and that I will get back to them as soon as I can. During the week, after school, I take my kids to Boy Scouts, religious ed and all their other activities. My husband or I help them with their homework. We go over previous worksheets to make sure they understand what they did. If they got a question wrong especially if it was class work we would talk over what they did wrong to see if they now know the answer. We then sit down for family dinner. During the weekend I do minimal  grading because the weekend is designated for family time. We do fun things including roller blading and sometimes go to the movies. We also set up playdates with the kids’ classmates, so they can can build relationships outside of the classroom and play with friends from their old school.

Staying home as a stay at home mom was not an option for me. My kids drive me crazy when they fight with each other. At the beginning of the summer I am excited to hang out with them, but by the middle of the summer I am ready to go back to school.

Coming back to school is the start of a new year with a new group of kids I can call mine. I can teach them how to think and use their minds.

Coming back to school is great because I get to come back to a group of kids that I can teach valuable things. I know most people will not use biology and anatomy, but they will be able to use the skills I teach. The main ones are thinking, work ethic and being a family. Being a family inside the classroom I’ve never had a student that thought I did not have a life outside of school