As teachers, it is inevitable that we carry our work with us wherever we go. Our students are always on our minds, and we are constantly searching for ways to improve our teaching and our classrooms.
However, as a 2nd year teacher, I have learned so much about balancing my personal life and my professional life. Here are 3 simple boundaries I maintain as a 2nd year elementary teacher that have saved my mental load!
- I don’t give out my personal phone number to parents.
- We currently use a secure messaging system through ParentSquare, but I have also used Remind, and I love that system too.
- In my first year of teaching, I reluctantly gave my phone number out to one parent, and of course, that ended up being the worst kind of parent to give it to. The amount of times she texted and called me over petty matters was ridiculous, and it caused me to take so much more work home with me than I was already doing. It in no way helped me separate my professional life and my personal life.
- I don’t respond to messages or emails past 6pm on school days unless they are absolutely pressing.
- If it’s not pressing, I don’t respond.
- Things I do respond past 6pm for include events that are happening the next day only, like quick field trip, birthday, test, or homework questions.
- Things I do not respond past 6pm for include angry parents, parents asking questions about an assignment, or general questions about our classroom.
- Angry parents are simply not pressing matters. If a parent is angry with me as their child’s teacher, I know that I need to give them time to calm down and not give them an immediate opportunity to further approach me with anger.
- If I think of a response to a parent email immediately (i.e. I know exactly what I need to say), I will type out the response, but schedule it for 8am the next morning so that I don’t have to think about it. This helps me not forget the email, but it also helps parents further understand that I have a life outside of school and that they will not get all of the answers to their questions immediately! It’s a simple way to establish firm boundaries, both for me and for them!
- I never stay more than 30 minutes after school unless we have a faculty meeting or another thing I’m required to be at.
- I, like most teachers, quite honestly do not make enough money to make staying long past my contract time worthwhile. I deeply love and care about my students and work hard to provide them a quality education, but never at the expense of my personal family time. What I don’t finish past 15-30 minutes beyond my contract time can be finished tomorrow morning. Yep, you heard me…the graded papers can and should wait.
I totally understand that these boundaries won’t work for everyone, but these 3 boundaries have been so, so helpful for me!
At the end of the day, you have to do what is best for yourself, your family, and for your students. Find boundaries that work for you, and most importantly, stick to them!