I have been teaching outside of the UK for 2 years now, but over the past 2 years I have seen an increasing number of teachers take to Twitter to complain about the unrealistic workload expectations and the effect it is having on them outside of work.
I also see multiple blogs outlining how to reduce workload or how to cope with the fall out of increasing workload so I thought I'd write my own blog to see if I can support teachers feeling like this.
I was always good at managing workload. I ran a busy PE Department of 6 staff and most of the time I was able to leave shortly after my extra curricular club or fixture and didn't do much work at home. 'But you don't have to mark books' I hear you scream. In my last year in the UK I taught 47 GCSE PE and 18 BTEC Level 3 students. That's enough marking to keep anyone busy!
Here are my tips of how to ensure that you keep workload manageable:
1. Write a stop doing list.
This will be a familiar topic for anyone reading this blog who's had the chance to read the incredible 'Good to Great' by Jim Collins. Write down a list of things that you need to stop doing and put it by your desk. Look at it every day and make sure that you avoid doing these things. For example, stop going to the staff room to make a cup of tea in order to avoid completing a task on my to do list, stop checking my phone during the school day as I know it distracts me, etc.
A stop doing list is a great way of channeling your energies into being productive at work and taking less work home with you.
2. Learn to say no!
Initially you may worry that this makes you look lazy or not very helpful, but you should say no to the little extras that you may be asked to do that have zero impact on students holistic development. For instance I was once asked to take on an extra lunch duty to cover a member of staff who was on long term sick. This would have put strain on me (I use my lunches to work as I'd prefer doing that than taking work home) and wouldn't have any impact on the development of the students so I said no.
We find it hard to say no as teachers as there is always something more we can be doing and we feel like saying no to people is letting them down. Whilst it may disappoint in the short term, you need to focus your energies on the tasks that have the most impact on the students you teach, that benefits everyone in the long term.
I am an Assistant Head now and if someone says no to me when I ask them to do something extra then I accept it first time. It's their prerogative.
3. Prioritise your to-do list
We all have a to-do list. It's good practice and it feels really good to tick stuff off of it! However we don't all use these correctly.
When a student revises for a test, they will never go straight to the hardest topic first, why would they- it'd make them feel really bad about themselves. Instead they revise the easier topics and make themselves feel really good about themselves. It's human nature and it's how most people use their to-do list. They tick off the small, easy to achieve, tasks and feel like they're making real headway, but they're not.
Prioritise your to-do list based on what is most urgent and what will have the most impact on the students you teach. You can number them or highlight them using the system below:
RED- Not urgent and low impact on the students
ORANGE- Not urgent and high impact on the students
GREEN- Urgent and high impact on the students
4. Don't try to consistently deliver 'outstanding' lessons
It's never going to happen or it will happen and you'll end up leaving the professional very quickly!
A teacher who consistently delivers good lessons is an outstanding teacher. Never forget that.
Yes, if someone is coming to watch you, go the extra mile and try and get the famed 'outstanding' badge (if your school is still performing the awful practice of grading lessons), but don't do it on a day to day basis. Yes, Ofsted say that's how to achieve amazing progress but you'd be on your knees trying to deliver every lesson that fulfills the outstanding criteria. Consistently deliver good lessons and your students will still flourish and you'll enjoy teaching. Everyone is a winner!
5. Build on your strengths
There's a lot of research in the excellent 'Work Rules' book by Laszlo Bock (former head of HR at Google) that says that worker's weaknesses will always be their weaknesses. CPD will help, but it'll never turn your weaknesses into strengths.
When you're planning your lessons stick to your strengths. If you're really good at explaining things in small groups then plan your lessons so that you can circulate and work with small groups, if you're really good at standing at the front and going through a topic or concept systematically and thoroughly then do this.
Be the teacher you enjoy being and plan for your lessons to challenge all students using your strengths.
This is not a definitive list and you may already be doing some of these, but I hope you picked up some tips from reading this.
You also may not agree with all of these and that's OK- no two people work in the same way.
If you feel that I have missed anything out and want to add, please do so in the comment section.
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