As an educator, a tremendous amount of time is utilized planning engaging lessons, purchasing classroom supplies, participating in after school clubs and activities, and fulfilling professional development requirements. With these responsibilities consuming much of your free time, balancing work and family can become more challenging than one would think. It is necessary to devote the proper amounts of time to each to find harmony in your life. To find balance between work and family, it may be helpful to keep an agenda notebook to help organize your schedule, communicate with your family, and always plan ahead.
I find it very helpful to organize my schedule by keeping an agenda. Life can be very hectic with all the responsibilities that come with being a family and consumer sciences teacher. Some events that you may schedule in your agenda may include, open houses, department meetings, and FCCLA events, and competitions that require a lot of time out of the classroom. With each of these tasks that you are writing in your notebook, you may want to set a time limit for these tasks. When holding FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America) meetings or department meeting, I schedule what time the meeting will begin, and have a time that the meeting must end. This helps everyone to stay on topic. Everyone knows what the topics of discussion are, and we have a time limit, so we must stay on task. Once time is up, the meeting is over, and all can leave and go on to their next obligation which in my case would be getting home to my family.
Communication is also essential to creating the balance of work and family. If you know that you have an important event coming up that will take you away from your family, let them know ahead of time. People like to have a heads up to mentally prepare for your absence. By letting your family know about the important activities you participate in, you are showing courtesy to them, and they can make plans for things that they need to accomplish while you are absent. By doing this, all parties are able to complete needed tasks in each other’s absence. When you regroup, all minds are clear having accomplished all goals. You can then relax and enjoy each other’s company. By simply creating the space to communicate freely about your obligations at work, there is more understanding about your duties as an educator.
To eliminate unneeded stress, planning ahead is always a good idea. If you know that you have a huge assignment due at work, don’t wait until the last minute to complete it. This causes you be under unwanted stress, and your family can sense this. Your stress in turn causes your loved ones to become stressed too. Plan your work and then work your plan ahead of time, so that you live your life a little easier.
For those that work outside of the education field, it can be hard to understand that our profession requires dedication and extra time outside of the classroom. Keeping an agenda notebook and following it, communicating with your family about each other’s needs, and planning ahead will make life a little easier. It takes patience as you do this. Teachers also have to learn to say no to unnecessary things as it may take more of your time that you dedicate to your family. By nature, teachers want to give and help others, but you must not spread yourself too thin, as it causes you to be less effective in executing your goals. Balancing work and family is quite a challenge, but these few but important reminders can help exponentially.
