There was a Twitter chat a few weeks ago about finding balance between school and your family. I have realized this year that being a single teacher is much easier then being married because last year I didn't have to worry about spending too much time at school. Now that I am married, balancing work and my family is much more difficult and I know it is only going to get harder.
I don't believe that school and family can be 50/50 each day, but I do believe that over the course of days or weeks there needs to be balance. I have found the most important factor is staying healthy. Without staying healthy, there is no way I can give my best to my students or my family.
One of my goals for 2013 has been to be a member of the '5 am Power Hour Club.' This is a phrase I learned in a video by Robin Sharma. The idea is to start the morning with 20 minutes of reading, 20 minutes of exercise and 20 minutes planning/journaling. I have found that this time gets me ready for the day and exercise has been key to keeping my stress level down.
How do you find balance?
My principal gave me words of wisdom when I told him that I wanted to continue teaching after we had our first child: in every day, someone/something will lose. Sometimes it will be your career. Some days it will be your family. Some days it will even be you. You have to be at peace with that and make sure that no one thing is losing all the time.
ReplyDeleteThat is great advice. Thank you Sarah! I will keep this philosophy in mind during the course of this next school year.
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