Journal Entry # 2: How can I balance planning, grading, researching, etc., with the demands of daily life?

As my student teaching experience marches on, I have come to discover a very unexpected speed bump. Namely, I would have never considered the vast amount of responsibilities outside of the actual teaching itself a problem before I began my experience. Most of what pre-service teachers learn while training to become teachers involves the specifics of creating, structuring, planning, and carrying out individual lessons and units. While, on the surface, this appears to be the bulk of what teaching really is, I would posit that this is only about ten to twenty percent of the career of teaching. The amount of time I spend each day grading assignments, meeting with students for extra help, chasing certain students down to ensure that they make up the work that they missed, and organizing myself for various responsibilities in the future both inside and outside the school is truly astounding. Unfortunately for young teachers like myself, things of this nature aren’t typically “covered” in educational classes.

            While the first few weeks were a struggle in terms of trying to balance all of the responsibilities of a teacher (everything from running to the work room to make copies to consoling a student who is upset about a grade and everything in between), I have begun to finally get the knack of it all. A helpful practice I learned early on was trying to get as much accomplished as possible during my prep periods. Grading assignments, beginning lesson planning, sending important emails, and any other time consuming activity can usually be accomplished during the vital periods in between my classes. I have also continued the habit of setting aside a few hours every evening at home to work on what needs to be accomplished. Initially, one may assume that after one leaves the school for the day, one’s job is over. This is simply not the case. I have just as much “homework” now as I had while I was taking a full time college class load. Buckling down and remaining on top of what needs to be accomplished is simply the only way to tackle all of the extra stuff a teacher needs to accomplish, especially young teachers who are starting most of their lesson planning, unit planning, and material collecting from scratch.

            In addition to student teaching, I have also chosen to pursue an honors thesis with the Hofstra University Honors College. This thesis began last semester and has carried over in to this semester. The extra work can be daunting to say the least, but I feel that it is a rewarding experience that will add to my feeling of accomplishment after my graduation. Even on the most stressful of days, I have learned that squeezing each day for every second I can get is truly the only way to stay on top of my work. Time saving strategies like cutting back on some leisure time (which was almost non-existent to begin with) and utilizing every second during the school day can be demanding, but undoubtedly worth it.