Prep, Plan, PTO—The Time Management Dilemma

Episode Transcript

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:00:00]:
Last time on year one, after her first parent teacher conference, Jenna was feeling optimistic. But she did have a few surprises.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:00:10]:
Something I wasn't prepared for was most of these parents were very emotional about their children. Like I felt like a counselor, like I felt like a therapist.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:00:20]:
And staying connected to parents is only one item on Jenna's long to do list as a teacher. On this episode, were digging into the unique challenges teachers face when it comes to managing their time. This is Year One from Carnegie Learning, a podcast that chronicles all the ups and downs of one teacher's first year in the classroom. I'm your host, Kanika Chadda Gupta. Now a few months into her teaching career, Jenna is settling into her new life as a full time teacher. A life that is a little less balanced than it used to be.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:00:59]:
It was like every time I finished one task, I was like, oh, that's another thing I've been putting off. Or like, oh, I should probably do that while I have the time right now too. It was just like every time the list kept getting longer and longer and longer until I was like, I have to go eat dinner. Like, I can't do this anymore.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:01:16]:
Just within the last few years, a survey went out to teachers to find out exactly how many hours they put in each week. The estimate, 53 hours. Seven more than the average working adult. And Jenna is finding that to be very true for herself.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:01:35]:
My mornings before school starts to normally, like, help myself feel prepared for the actual day ahead by looking at my materials and making my slides for the day and that sort of stuff. And then normally my time after school is to do all of that stuff. And if I'm lucky, if I'm free and I feel prepared enough for the day and I don't have anything going on, I'll use my prep to do it too. But mostly after school, which stinks because I get there pretty early to feel prepared. So then I'm there from like 07:00 a.m. to sometimes if I have a big task to do after school. My contract hours are up at 330, but I have to stay and get things done so I don't leave 434 45 sometimes. And I know a big thing with first year teachers that I've heard so many people preach is like, leave work at work and at home.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:02:23]:
Just be at home. And I've been really trying to hold to that, but it's really hard when I'm like, there are so many things that I have to do that if I were to leave work at work and just do work at work, I would be there until 06:00 p.m. every.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:02:35]:
Night with additional responsibilities like lesson planning, grading, meetings and administration, parent communication, professional development, and extracurricular school activities. A teacher's job begins before the students enter the classroom and goes on long after they leave, even when their salary says otherwise. Despite the 50 plus hours a week Jenna regularly works, she's only compensated for 40. And after a recent weekend playing catch up, she's learning. This may just be the norm.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:03:10]:
One of my other teammates was there, which was really funny. It was like, 03:00 on Sunday, and I was like, oh, thank God I'm not the only one. I'm not a crazy. You're here, too. And she was like, no, Jenna, I've been doing this for 30 years, and I still have to come in on the weekends all the time because I don't understand how all of these other teachers don't come in. I don't know if I'm doing something right or if I'm doing something wrong, but it's just always how I've been. You do not get paid for it. Just me being the person that I am, like, wanting to feel as prepared as possible.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:03:38]:
I would rather put in the work and not get paid for it, then, like, stick it to the man and not put in the work and not feel prepared, which I know that's me, like, falling into the system and the problems of the system that everyone talks about. But it's the truth.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:03:55]:
In the early stages of any new job, weekends, late nights, and early mornings are common. But three months in, Jenna recognizes that the pace isn't sustainable if she wants to stay on top of things both at school and at home.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:04:10]:
I just wish I had, like, a to do list that was everything that needed to be done and by what date it needed to be done by, and I could totally do it. But when you're teaching, you're also expected to sift through all of the emails that at the very bottom say, have this turned in by this date or do this by this time or pass this out to these students. And it's so hard to keep track of because in our day to day life, I don't think I ever sit down at my computer. Throughout the day, I am constantly on my feet, constantly pivoting around my room, either putting out fires, teaching, observing, walking, reading, constantly up and around. I'm lucky if I get a chance to sit at my computer and check my emails during my prep, which is only 45 minutes long because I'm normally prepping for other things or lesson planning with my teammates or resolving an issue that needed to be resolved with another faculty member. But it's just a. It's a give and take, just setting boundaries. I like to know what my plan is after school so I know I have to leave school by this certain time, no matter if I'm in the middle of something or nothing, just so I can, like, create that boundary.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:05:18]:
Like, oh, I'm meeting my friend at 430, so I know I have to leave school no later than 04:00 so I can get home in time or that sort of thing. This year, I don't think I have graded anything before school or during school. I think it has always been either I stay after and grade something or I'll take it home with me and grade it. So it's like a balance of finding things that, like, need to be done at school, that have to be done at school where I have all the resources versus things like grading. Not necessarily admin work, but things that I need to. To do on my own time. I'm fine to take those home with me because I can watch tv while I do them.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:05:53]:
While grading is typically one of the more time consuming tasks for teachers, Jenna has a few tricks at home to help her manage it more efficiently.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:06:03]:
I have an awesome, lovely boyfriend who's also a teacher and gets the grading thing. So every once in a while, I'll take home a stack of papers and be like, all right, you want to help me? And he's like, yeah, sure, I guess so. He'll help me figure out the percentages, and I help me put them into power school, and I've done the same for him with a couple of his classes and assignments. So it's nice to have that kind of camaraderie of, you know, someone who gets it. They're like, no, it is a very time consuming task, and, like, it's boring. But two people make slider work.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:06:34]:
Liam, Jenna's boyfriend, and a high school choir teacher can relate in most ways to Jenna's struggles with time management and work life balance. But there are some differences.

LIAM [00:06:45]:
I definitely have a moment of, like, oh, I have it easy. Like, sure, I gotta deal with older humans and have, like, deeper discussions or more intense behavioral issues sometimes. But, like, I think about how I kind of have it easier where I'm not constantly putting out fires and being in charge of the same kids all day and then, like, seeing you great on the weekends. I do think, wow, maybe I could work harder. Advantages of being a high school teacher on a block schedule is that I have an 80 minutes prep period. Jenna has a what?

JENNA MACNULTY [00:07:18]:
I got 30 room, 45 minutes prep.

LIAM [00:07:22]:
Then has a 45 minutes prep. So I have a lot of prep time, which is nice.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:07:27]:
Since you're with high schoolers, you can, like, give them an assignment and trust them to not burn the building down and focus on grading or doing what you need to do. Whereas, like, my attention has to be on my children at all times. Like, I can barely even pull small groups without being, like, my room is falling apart, so I get no work done at school, so I have to grade at home. Like, I only grade at home.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:07:48]:
Besides grading, another task that consistently consumes time outside the classroom is lesson planning. Thankfully, at Jenna's school, it's a team effort. While it saves some time, there are also some drawbacks.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:08:03]:
Luckily, I have a team that works very collaboratively because, like, at the school that I student taught at, all of the teachers planned independently. Like, they planned their day from start to finish by themselves, which I really liked because it was like, you had full control over what you're doing in your classroom and you know your kids best, so you're planning what's going to work for your group of students. But it was a lot of work at this school that I'm at currently, what my team has decided to do is to split up into pairs, and then each pair is in charge of one subject for each quarter. So, like, right now, I paired up with another teacher, and we're in charge of writing, planning our writing, and we're in charge of planning our science, because science is just so small right now, it's only 30 minutes, and then two of the other teachers are in charge of reading and word work, and the other teachers are in charge of math. So what we do is we pair up and we plan, and then we come together and we share all of our plans and our resources and materials. And what's nice about it is that it's all there for you and ready to go. But also there is that disadvantage of not feeling very connected to something that you didn't plan. That's definitely something that everyone else on my team is starting to realize.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:09:18]:
And we're trying to brainstorm ways how to fix it right now because we're, like, we're doing what we're being asked to do, but a lot of us don't feel connected to it at all. It's hard because, like, you're graduated with this degree. Like, you have the tools to know how to do it, but it takes a lot of time to become part of the school culture and learn and understand and really, like, work with what they expect from you and just figuring it out in the first place, I think that's just what your mindset has to be as a first year teacher, it's just like, oh, I'll do what feels natural and what feels right to me, but at the end of the day, you're still going to make mistakes, and you're going to see things that work and don't work, and you're going to have to ask for help.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:09:57]:
Starting your first job out of college is a major milestone in early adulthood. With countless new demands hitting them all at once, Jenna and Liam are discovering new strategies every day to navigate this new phase of their lives.

LIAM [00:10:12]:
The weeks where I don't get to decompress at all. This is go, go, go, go. And weekends, we're doing stuff. I'll get cranky real fast because I need, like most people do. I need time to relax and decompress. When you're working so hard, especially with teaching, it's not like I'm sitting at a desk all day, maybe only talking to someone, like once or twice. Essentially, I'm performing all day, socializing, teaching on my feet, dealing with everything. And so at the end of the day, I need something quiet and antisocial to do.

LIAM [00:10:45]:
At the start of the year, I definitely struggled because I was teaching two new classes to me, so that was a big learning curve. There are things I feel like I could be doing to go above and beyond. Not that I don't think I do a good job, but, like, sure, I could take an extra hour every day after school and, like, putting in grades for an assignment, really write a detailed paragraph giving that student every bit of information they need to know, or coming up with a weekly choir newsletter. But at the end of the day, I just don't think it is worth it because I'm only getting paid for the hours in my contract and I want to have a life outside of school.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:11:22]:
My advice is to just leave when you need to leave. Leave it there, leave the pile of papers, leave the messy desks, leave the chairs not pushed in, close the door and take a break. But then right before, whether it's coming early on the first day back or coming in a day or two before you come back from break, just. I know you don't want to. I know you want to stay at home in your comfy PJ's and put on a show, but just go for, like, 2 hours and get your mind in order. Get your stuff in order. It really had made such a difference for me in my classroom.

KANIKA CHADDA GUPTA [00:11:57]:
This is Year One, an exploration of one teacher's first year in the classroom, brought to you by Carnegie Learning. Join us for the rest of the series as we follow Jenna through every moment. And be sure to follow Miss MacNulty on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with her. For additional exclusive content, free teaching resources and more, visit yearonepodcast.com. Next time on year one, we explore special accommodations for kids, why they're important, but also why they can be difficult to manage.

JENNA MACNULTY [00:12:33]:
When you're working with, like, a literal eight year old who is growing and developing, you have to do the like, let's try this. Oh, it didn't work. Let's try this. It didn't work. Let's try this. It didn't work. You need to see what's right for them, and that takes so much time. And that's what's so frustrating as a teacher is because you only have so much time with this kidde.