April 26, 2021. How to get your teacher work done within your contract hours. We are busy teachers. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are one of the only teachers that have to teach all subject areas. So seriously, how do I get all my teacher work done during contract hours? I promise I have no magic wand, no fairy godmother. Need to keep yourself on track? Grab my to-do list below. Planning periods. I cannot stress this enough. If you have planning periods, make sure you are taking the time to use them. I understand that this may not happen every day, but you need to let other staff take over and give them responsibility when you have your planning period. Whether your students are at lunch or at specials, you should plan to take this time to get your own paperwork and planning done. Realistically, I know things will come up and you may need to support your students occasionally, but ask an assistant or other staff member to respect your plan time. You need breaks too. If you are not getting your planning times, make sure you talk to your principal, director, or union to solve how you can have prep time. Teachers need to be able to get their teacher work done during your contract hours. Disclaimer, planning periods are perfectly okay for you to sit in your room in the quiet and not get work done. Related Service Time. Take a look at your schedule and see if there is a time during the week that related service staff are working with the majority of your students. Maybe they are running a group with your students. If the majority of your students have a group or related service coming around the same time, assign your assistants to work with the students that aren't being serviced. This could be a time to revisit old skills, or a leisure time to play a game. Once a week, my social worker and speech and language pathologist run a social group for 30 minutes. I let my assistants help the group, and I take that time to work quietly in a corner on my computer or make copies. That 30 minutes helps give me some extra paperwork time. Independent work time. Schedule a time in the day where students are expected to work alone. Teach your students 15-30 minute tasks that they can do alone or with very little teacher supervision. This may take some time to teach and practice, but your students can do it. You can work on your computer while students are working independently. You can take data on them while working or watch from a distance. If you need some tips on how to teach your students to work alone, check out my stations post. Before or after school. Check your actual working contract hours. Teachers are expected to be at work before students arrive and stay slightly beyond when students leave. For example, my school day is 8-3. Teachers are expected to be at work by 7.45 and can leave by 3.15. That's an extra 30 minutes of time that you can work each day. I don't suggest doing it often, but figure out if you are a morning worker or an after school worker. For me, I am much more motivated in the morning, so I typically come to work between 7 and 7.30. This allows me some extra work time during those busy IEP seasons. Again, I don't do it all the time. I do it enough where I feel productive, but not burnt out. Delegate tasks for students or staff. Students love to help you. Let's face it, if your staff is there to help you as well. If you're like me, you hate asking for help or giving someone else the responsibility to get it done correctly for you. I'm the type of person that thinks, if I want something done right, I'll do it myself. This isn't always the case. If you have something to print, deliver to another teacher, or cut, I may ask a trustworthy student to do that for me. Previously, I've had students laminate materials with a laminator for me. It was a class job. My students loved having that responsibility, and then seeing us use it in the classroom gave them so much pride. If you have to set up for the next activity or reset any tasks, delegate that to your staff. Assistants can set up or take down activities, and they'll gain a sense of ownership and sense of belonging to the classroom. They are there to help you, so don't be afraid to put them to work too. You'll have pockets of time to work in. Just give it a try. Sometimes 30 minutes each week more than what you've had. It is very helpful to get your teacher work done during your school contract hours.