I can't work 10 or 20 hours extra anymore.

[Paige]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOksW_NabEk

This should be You Life in Jelly Beans. If it isn't maybe someone who is more tech saavy can copy the link. Anyway, I realized this week that I have to stop putting in 10 or 20 extra hours a week. I got ready for school conferences (middle school teacher) after the principal announced that the conferences would be student led and completely different 3 weeks ago. Two nights ago I was at school until 10 p.m. and the day before that I was correcting at 4:30 a.m. Anyway, I just needed to announce to the world, that I have to, need to, will be done putting in all these extra hours. I don't know if that means kids correcting their own papers, my T.A.'s correcting like crazy, me hiring the neighbor girl to help me, but this is crazy. I have five classes of an average of 30 kids each so if they just do one assignment a day that is 150 papers that need to be corrected and entered into the grade book in the 50 minutes I have to prep each day. Anyway, I am exhausted and I need to have some joy, friends, crafts, in my life (I have managed to keep my exercise routine.)

[Tradd]

Here it is:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOksW_NabEk

[SteveinMN]

Good for you, Paige!

My experience is that they will keep asking and keep asking. The less ethical will use intimations and innuendo to establish the expectation of more and more time spent on work. Either way, people are being expected to run marathons at the pace of sprints and it just cannot be done without causing serious damage. The organization will survive. Take care of yourself.

[Tradd]

Paige, when I was in middle school, I made some cash by correcting papers for a teacher that my brother got tutoring from. I enjoyed it.

[lhamo]

What subject do you teach? Is a written assignment a day really necessary at middle school? I'm not currently a teacher, but I taught at the university level for a time. I would:

1) Cut down on the number of assignments overall -- go for depth, not frequency. The kids will probably appreciate having less homework, too (as will many of their parents -- I say this as a middle school parent who is very happy her child has recently moved to a school that has a much more reasonable expectation about homework load. I have watched my son's attitude and ACTUAL LEARNING improve greatly during this transition -- he is much happier now that he isn't weighed down with 2-3 hours of busy work every night).

2) Change the nature of assessment -- go for a mixture of self-assessment (e.g. take home quizzes that you provide a key for the next day), peer-assessment, TA assessment, and those assignments (preferably "capstone" types, that show final mastery of a block of material or knowledge) that you grade. Keep an eye on how they are doing with the self-assessments and peer assessments so that there aren't any last minute surprises, though.

3) If you can, stagger the timing of the "capstone" type assignments so that you don't get them all at the same time. College faculty who are teaching multiple courses often do this. You don't have all your mid-term papers due on the same day -- that is asking for disaster. Similarly, you can do things like assign writing journals (which can be self-, peer-, TA- or instructor-assessed) and alternate those with formal paper assignments in a staggered way. So for class one, you would have weekly writing journals on weeks 1, 2, 3, and a paper due on week 4. For class 2, you could do journals week 1 and 2, a paper on week 3, and another journal on week 4. You can also mix it up with quizzes, etc., and stagger due dates throughout the week to try to ensure you don't have total overload at any time.

Obviously this kind of approach works better for humanities subjects than math and science -- knowing what you teach might help us give better advice.

Good luck. Agree with the others that it is difficult to manage workplace expectations no matter what your profession. I just spent several hours dealing with urgent stuff that came in to my inbox overnight, even though it is supposed to be my weekend. Just easier to reply and get it off my list now rather than waiting until monday morning.

lhamo

[ApatheticNoMore]

Good for you.

If you need inspiration, a pep talk, see the book "Work to Live" by Joe Robinson (only a penny used plus shipping :)) :
http://www.amazon.com/Work-Live-Joe-Robinson/dp/0399528504/

Because we have self-help books firing us up for every goal under the sun (some good goals, and many quite stupid ones :)), but there aren't many giving us a pep talk to stand up against the social and work pressure to get MORE TIME for ourselves!!! Because it's not that easy and yes you'll be pressured. The book: "Take back your time" is also good on the value of free time, and all the good things people could do if they weren't so time poor, but it's a lot more political (yes, I'd like a movement for more vacation time etc. but if none exists at the present time, then we're on our own, and should at least be pepped to negotiate against ridiculous demands).

[Tiam]

What subject do you teach? Is a written assignment a day really necessary at middle school? I'm not currently a teacher, but I taught at the university level for a time. I would:

1) Cut down on the number of assignments overall -- go for depth, not frequency. The kids will probably appreciate having less homework, too (as will many of their parents -- I say this as a middle school parent who is very happy her child has recently moved to a school that has a much more reasonable expectation about homework load. I have watched my son's attitude and ACTUAL LEARNING improve greatly during this transition -- he is much happier now that he isn't weighed down with 2-3 hours of busy work every night).

2) Change the nature of assessment -- go for a mixture of self-assessment (e.g. take home quizzes that you provide a key for the next day), peer-assessment, TA assessment, and those assignments (preferably "capstone" types, that show final mastery of a block of material or knowledge) that you grade. Keep an eye on how they are doing with the self-assessments and peer assessments so that there aren't any last minute surprises, though.

3) If you can, stagger the timing of the "capstone" type assignments so that you don't get them all at the same time. College faculty who are teaching multiple courses often do this. You don't have all your mid-term papers due on the same day -- that is asking for disaster. Similarly, you can do things like assign writing journals (which can be self-, peer-, TA- or instructor-assessed) and alternate those with formal paper assignments in a staggered way. So for class one, you would have weekly writing journals on weeks 1, 2, 3, and a paper due on week 4. For class 2, you could do journals week 1 and 2, a paper on week 3, and another journal on week 4. You can also mix it up with quizzes, etc., and stagger due dates throughout the week to try to ensure you don't have total overload at any time.

Obviously this kind of approach works better for humanities subjects than math and science -- knowing what you teach might help us give better advice.

Good luck. Agree with the others that it is difficult to manage workplace expectations no matter what your profession. I just spent several hours dealing with urgent stuff that came in to my inbox overnight, even though it is supposed to be my weekend. Just easier to reply and get it off my list now rather than waiting until monday morning.

lhamo


I might wonder how much control there actually is to alter or control the curriculum. I find that with each passing year, more and more control is taken from me and I am just spoonfed a curriculum to conduct.

[Paige]

I teach Language Arts and true, we are given more and more to do, but the good news is that I have a flexible principal who supports us. I love these ideas and thanks for putting up the jelly bean post, Tradd. I could certainly do a lot more and you guys gave some ideas that are always floating around, but I have trouble applying. But with these, like staggering assignments, maybe I can work smarter, not harder. I figured posting here was better than letting my blood pressure go up or crying or hurting the dog.Thanks for your support. I am going to order the book, too! I will report back as to my progress.