For the past nine months I have been trying to figure out how I will juggle motherhood and Literacy Launchpad. I always thought the two would mesh so seamlessly, but now that I'm dealing with the reality of managing both, I'm wondering how I will fare. I am a perfectionist, very all or nothing. So how can I be the perfect mom and the perfect teacher? They're both such time consuming jobs.
People juggle teaching and parenthood all the time though. I guess it's something you adjust to? I haven't even begun doing Literacy Launchpad work this summer in preparation for the school year, and already I feel as though there aren't enough hours in the day. I hope my life doesn't spin into total chaos once the school year officially begins...
So it's time for me to start working on lesson planning and such. I sorted through my lesson plans and have decided that I wasn't completely happy with how some of my September lessons went that are slated for repeat this year, so I want to come up with a new month of lessons for September. Hopefully I'll find some great inspiration. I also need to prep for enrollment kick-off; renew insurance and business licenses, line up a great sitter for my little one, etc. etc. Yikes!
So how do all you teaching mothers do it? I know there are many of you out there. Got any tips or encouragement? Can it be done??
For me it is about keeping balance (and I often don't do it well). I find someone, something somewhere is not receiving enough attention( I don't know if this is the best word but you know what I mean?) from me but for the time being I have to let it go. I can only be aware of it and try to figure out how to fix the balance. When I over indulge on anything or anyone, I want it to be my family.
ReplyDeleteI too planned on being wonder-mom while pregnant and then had a big wake-up call when my son arrived. Maintaining a career, raising a child, taking time for a relationship, and managing a website can sometimes be utterly overwhelming. This summer I'm working on freezing meals, storing up lesson plans, and, most importantly, logging loads of quality time with my son. Teaching is ultra-family friendly, but I always feel greedy for more time with my little fellow. I have future hopes of taking a leave of absence someday, but until then, I'm working on keeping all the balls in the air.
ReplyDeleteI hear you. I had the same glorious plans of being super mom/super teacher, but reality set in early for me since I un-expectantly went into preterm labor at thirty weeks and had my first baby six weeks later. I left my poor first grade class without ever getting to say goodbye to them in the middle of the year. It was very difficult and stressful, but from that experience I learned a lot about myself and how it was going to be going from being a teacher to being a teacher/mom. The next year I returned to teaching, but as a specialist and only part-time. I desperately miss having a class, but this is the best I can do right now. I still get to teach (my passion) and spend time with my children (I had another baby last summer and took a leave last year.) I am now preparing to return to work sixty percent. While I have not figured everything out I have learned that for me I can’t be as planned as I once was before I had children. I have to be okay with mapping my general year out with themes and units of study and then actually planning my units of study as I go, maybe the month before I plan on teaching the unit. Even though, I am only teaching sixty percent I have a HUGE workload as a specialist, more prep than I ever had as a classroom teacher and more paperwork as well. Before children, I was the teacher who had her year planned out before the year started, who stayed well past five every night and had additional extra duty contracts every semester. Now I have forced myself to take several steps back because I don’t want to miss my kids growing up. I have come to the conclusion that I MUST have balance between teaching and being a wife/mom. I am still learning to do this effectively, but I am sure I will get better and better at it as time passes. I keep asking myself if what I am doing really matters, will it help my students become mathematical thinkers, lifelong readers and writers, independent learners or improve my teaching, if the answer is no I simply don’t do it (unless I have to like mandatory paperwork.) I know this is long winded and not eloquently written (it is late), but I hope it helps. Have a great year!
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Are you interested in reducing your work load? Me too! Today is the beginning of the Mentor Text Writing Workshop Mini Lesson Challenge. If you submit one Mentor Text Lesson to ZZWRITER.com you will receive a guaranteed twenty lessons in return. If I receive fifty or one hundred I’ll dump them all over into a pdf file and email a link to you so you can download all of them at at your leisure. Here is the mentor-text-lesson-template
ReplyDeleteDownload the template and select or delete my text / pictures and add your own. Email it to me [davidastoner@gmail.com] as an attachment and I will compile and distribute to all contributors on the 30th of each month. Tell your friends and we can make it big! The more the merrier. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll create a mailing list specifically for distribution of the lessons.