It's a Career... not a job

A wise woman who works in the district office in the county in which I teach said ,"it is essential for teachers to find a work-life balance, once attained you must maintain for the entire year." This was said prior to starting my Level 3 internship for the county, I kind of brushed it off thinking yes this is true and never put anymore thought into it. During the new teacher orientation this August prior to the start of school she again stressed the importance of have this balance daily throughout the school year. As a first year teacher, each day feels like I am flying by the seat of my pants, not knowing what to expect and not completely confident in the lessons that I was teaching. I was getting to school around 6:15am ish leaving around 4:30pm and working at home until about 10:00pm just to get up and do the same thing again. After a week of this I was burnt out and regretting my career choice that weekend I applied to graduate school and my mind set was this is just a job- get me to the end of the year. Giving up is not something I have ever done in any aspect of my life normally when this get rough it makes me more determined to find the solution to make it work. I knew that this mind set would not be good for an entire year. I really started thinking about why I was feeling this burt out feeling already and it hit me, the wise words from a very wise woman, "it is essential for teachers to find a work-life balance, once attained you must maintain for the entire year." From day one this balance was already lost, this second week of school I decided I needed to work on achieving this balance. I still arrive to school early I am the first person there (next to the custodian) but I am also one of the first people to leave. no matter what I am doing at 3:30 I stop and leave for the day, I go to the gym, then I come home play with the dogs actually have conversations with my new husband when he gets home and then I do a little work and stop at 9:00. This work- life balance is tough and its not completely evened out yet but I am getting there and loving the career that I have chose once again :)