One of the best things about being a teacher is the pace at which we work; it makes the job stimulating and invigorating. But it’s stressful, too. If you take your finger off the pulse for one second (it seems) you are immediately behind on everything. A day off can turn into something to be feared as the resulting back-log of jobs becomes insurmountable: inboxes explode; pigeonholes are overwhelmed and desks become rehoming centres for Post-it notes.
But I didn’t just have a day away from school, I had a year on maternity leave. And then I returned part-time, which meant not being in school for two days every week. I can’t lie, the thought of it was petrifying.
Learning curve
Adjusting to part-time teacher life has been, to say the least, a learning curve for me. I have had to change my understanding of my job to accommodate the feelings of “being behind” and “out of the loop” that, at first, seem unavoidable when you are physically not there all the time. The days off give me the chance to spend some quality time with my toddler, so I wouldn’t trade that in for the world. But adapting can be tough. I don’t think that I have got it totally right yet but I think I am definitely on the way. Here’s the benefit of my experience: it might not be right for everyone but it works for me.
1. Keep some information to yourself
I haven’t mentioned to any of my classes that I am not full-time anymore. I feel it’s information they don’t need to know and my hunch is that they respect you more if they think you are always there. Yes, it is important to role model that part-time working is achievable but, at the moment, I don’t think it is my job to do that and the benefits of not being explicit about it outweigh the negatives.
2. Advance planning
Before I leave school on the evenings where I won’t be teaching the next day, I make sure that everything (classroom wise) is ready for when I am next in school. My lessons are planned, my photocopying is done, my inbox and pigeonhole are cleared and my marking is packed up and ready to take home. Leaving behind a clean slate means that when I do return, the “catching up” is minimalised.
3. Give yourself time to get into teacher mode
For me, one of the hardest things about being a part-time teacher is the constant switching between who I am at work and who I am at home. When you have been running around after a toddler since 5.30am, it is hard to mentally switch modes once they have been dropped at childcare.
A moment of silence puts me back in the frame of mind for teaching
At the beginning, I was finding that my first lessons of the day were discombobulated. My mind wasn’t engaged in what I was doing. I could be teaching Animal Farm to Year 8 but thinking about whether I had packed nappies in the nappy bag. Now, after I have dropped off my daughter and driven to work, I tend to spend 1 or 2 minutes being quiet in the car. It probably makes me sound (and look) a bit mad but just that moment of silence, thinking about what is ahead of me for the day, puts me back in the right frame of mind for teaching again.
4. Create systems for your non-teaching days
There will always be situations where students genuinely need to hand in work on days that you are not there and, for this, you need to create a contingency plan. This means having a place (or person) where work can be handed in (mine is my desk but if you don’t have one, a pigeonhole works well). You need to have a fail-safe so that, “I put it on your desk, Miss, honest” can’t become part of the student “excuse” repertoire.
5. Make sure part-time means part-time
No teacher is under any illusion that all work can be done at school during the school day. However, if, as a part-time teacher, you spend all of your non-contact time doing school work, you are not part-time. I try to organise my “homework” to be done on the evenings of my teaching days so that days off are days off. I do often need to do extra work on a Sunday, too, but since that’s always been the case, I don’t mind about that too much.
This tip also applies to meetings and extra after-school commitments that your school expects of you. Make sure that you clarify with your head of department what is required of you and how this has been tailored to your reduced timetable.
Katie White teaches English at Kingsbridge College in Devon. She tweets @MrsWhiteWrites
