How I Leave School on Time Everyday
I love my classroom, but not enough to stay past my contract time.
As a first year teacher, I was accidentally forced into a really good habit: leaving school on time. My husband was deployed for almost my entire first year of teaching and I had a puppy. Since I was the only one who was able to go home and let my puppy out, I felt obligated to get home as soon as possible! I honestly felt sick to my stomach guilty if I left him in his kennel any longer than necessary. (Crazy dog mom over here!!) So, like I said, I was kind of “forced” into a habit of leaving school on time, even as a new teacher.
At first, it was really difficult. I felt guilty not spending more time at school. It felt weird to be a first year teacher waving good-bye to all of my veteran teacher teammates, at contract time, as they stayed at school to get work done. As time went on though, I realized how much this habit benefited me and my students! I got to the point where I would walk through my teammates classrooms on the way out and say, “Okay, let’s go! Everyone drop your work and go home!” (Obviously, I never actually made them do that, it was just a subtle reminder to take time for themselves!) Whenever I did that, I would always get the same question, “How are you able to leave on time everyday?" So, here’s my answer!
TIP #1: Don’t reply to emails after school
On the days I stay later than my contract time, it is usually because I decide to get a few “quick” emails out of the way. I don’t know about you, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t write emails quickly…especially if they are for parents!
I always save my email writing time for the morning. When I get to school, the first things I do is take care of any emails I need to send. I also try to save 5-10 minutes of my planning time to respond to any emails I get throughout the day. Of course, you will have to find a system that works best for you, but this works really well for me!
Unfortunately, there are some days that you need to let a parent know about something that happened during the school day and it may have happened after your planning time. In this situation, I do everything I can to avoid having to spend time writing an email. That means I either talk to the parents in person at pick-up time, make a quick phone call, or I write a note in the student’s take home folder. The note gives a quick summary of the information letting the parents know that I will follow up with an email in the morning. There are times when I decide that an immediate email is the best option, especially if it’s a conversation I want documented, but those situations are the exception, not the rule! Most days there are not urgent emails that require me to stay at school late.
I use a behavior calendar (Click here to check it out!) to communicate behavior to parents on a daily basis. This constant and quick communication helps me to be able to avoid those pesky emails!
Tip #2: Use your plan time to plan
This one is so hard! One those really tough days, I am definitely guilty of sitting in the dark during my plan time, staring at the wall, eating left-over Halloween candy, and pretending like I don’t have responsibilities. I’m also guilty of spending my plan time venting to my team about how many things I have to do while avoiding actually doing them. No one’s perfect, right?!
With that being said, I try my best to make the most of my plan time on most days! As a new teacher, this one is really tough. Obviously, when you have never taught the curriculum before, it takes a little longer to plan. I did not start out getting all of my plans done at school. After a few months, however, I was able to do almost all of my planning during my plan time and get it done a week in advance!
This may look different for you, depending on your curriculum and other factors, but this is how I do it.
Monday Prep Time: I finish any prep for this week that did not get done last week and review my plans for the week.
Tuesday Prep Time: I write down lesson titles in my planner. For example, I just write “Unit 2 Lesson 3: Readers Watch out for Endings” to have a basic idea of what the lesson is. Then, I make a list of copies I will need, materials I will need, or prep I will need to do for each lesson.
Wednesday Prep Time: I finish any planing that didn’t get done on Tuesday, take a deeper look at the content of the lessons, and start gathering materials and getting master copies ready.
Thursday Prep Time: I make copies! Then, I sort copies and materials into piles based on the day I will need them.
Friday Prep Time: I make adjustments to my plans based on what got done this week. Finally, I finish prep for next week’s lessons.
I make my prep time sacred and I try my best not to let anyone or anything stop me from getting each of these tasks done everyday. When I am able to stick to this plan, I have all of my plans ready and prepped for the following week without spending any extra time outside of my contract hours! Like I said, this won’t happen immediately or every single week, but it’s possible!
Tip #3: Prep for the next day before dismissal
Believe me, I know this one is way easier said than done, but it can be done! The key to making this happen is creating a system. I suggest having a list of tasks that you want to prep for the next day before you leave school. I use this list everyday to help me remember what needs to be done to set myself up for success for the next day. (It’s also how I am able to devote my morning time to writing emails!)
At this point you are probably thinking, “Okay Becca, even if I have a list of tasks, how the heck am I supposed to get it done before dismissal??” Great question!
First, figure out if there are any tasks that students can do for you. Chances are, there’s probably a lot! For example, I need my flexible seating choice board and my lunch choice board to be reset each afternoon. My students love to help with this! Sometimes I don’t even need to ask and they just do it for me! They usually do this after the pack up while others are still getting packed up. This helps me to reduce my list A TON.
If there are tasks that students can’t do for me, I do my best to get them done during my prep time. Thankfully, my prep time is toward the end of the day so that works for me. If your prep time isn’t in the afternoon, or if there are tasks that can’t be done until the end of the day (like changing the date on the board) see if you can do it during pack up time! It may seem silly to spend 30 seconds changing the date on the board during pack up time when I could just spend 30 seconds doing it after school, but those 30 second tasks add up and all the sudden it’s 5 o’clock and you’re still at school!
When I make a list of tasks to do before the next day, have students help me, squeeze in those tasks during my prep and pack up time, I have almost no “next day prep” left to do after school.
Tip #4: Write due dates on your to-do list
“I can’t possibly leave school right now, I have a million things on my to do list.” (When don’t we have a million things on our to do list??) This is what my co-workers tell me when I’m leaving school on time. Guess what, I have a million things on my to do list too, but if none of them HAVE to be done by tomorrow, I’m not staying! This tip seriously alleviated so much stress and guilt about leaving school at my contract time. When I make a to do list, I also write a date next to the task to show when it absolutely, positively has to be done.
This list making method helped me to think of my to do list as “must-do” and “may-do” tasks. The tasks that are “due” today or tomorrow obviously MUST get done. The other tasks MAY get done if I have time. If I don’t have any must-do tasks, I work on a may-do task that will be “due” soon until my contract time ends. This helps me to prioritize tasks because I work on them in the order that I will need them completed. Of course, there are going to be busy days or busy times of year when you have too many must-do tasks to leave on time, but again, this should be the exception, not the rule!
Free To Do List Template!
Are you starting to believe that this is possible?! You can totally do it! I challenge you to work towards leaving at your contract time, even if you can only do a few days a week at first!
Click the image to download a free to do list template to help you prioritize your tasks and leave school on time!
