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My work/life balance as a teacher is awesome! Congrats on your career change. Being a teacher really allows me to put my family first and thats very important to me right now.

As far as the day-to-day goes, I keep pretty tight hours so that I can drop off and pick up DD from her school. I often work through lunch and plan to stay one longer day after school when my mum picks her up. Teachers can be a passive aggressive judgey bunch and many frown upon those who don't arrive at 730am and stay until 5pm but I just don't care what they think. I want to get to my child and my family ASAP! Thankfully there are more and more young people coming into the profession who also feel the same and aren't interested in spending heaps of extra time at school.

As a whole year picture, having the same holidays as my child has just been so wonderful. We get the two months in the summer together, 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks at spring break. I never have to worry about childcare during those school breaks and absolutely LOVE having the time with her.

The tight hours are possible now because I have been a teacher for 10+ years. I have a wealth of resources that I can draw from and don't need to spend a ton of time creating my own anymore. So, it will take time but in the beginning I really enjoyed building my resources anyways. I'd do a little bit at night or on the weekends, even getting DH to help where he could.

My tips would be:

1. Try and work through your lunch so that you can leave at a decent time.

2. Partner up with a more senior teacher in a similar grade, hopefully she/he will share resources with you!

3. Plan to slowly build your collection of resources and teaching materials, a little bit each week and by the end of your first year you will have a good stash!

@DillonLion: Going from m-f, 7am to 6pm is going to be a huge change then - for the better! So nice you will be able to spend more time together. I switched from teaching in a classroom to teaching ESL and learning assistance a few years ago it I've found it offers even further flexibility!

I went from a regular desk job to teaching in 2014. This is my second year.

Good news: the summers off, the vacations that just happen without having to worry about using time and getting out a little earlier most days

Bad news: there's a lot of take home which you can get done during the day but is still a lot that first year. It takes time to find your routine and what works which is frustrating. A lot depends on your particular school culture though and your schedule.

Overall I'm glad I made the change. Year two is much better than year one. Happy to answer any questions if you have.

I echo EVERYTHING @katsupgirl: said.

1st year was tough but I was so fulfilled. 2nd year I made SO many improvements based on what I learned. Just keep moving forward and learning, don't let the "teacher superhero" guilt get to you.

I think I know what part of TX you live in (where I'm from), and I'm sure you will get a job easily with the certifications you have. I feel like there IS a lot of time required and high expectations for teachers in that area, but it is really well worth it and an amazing job. Of course, lots of breaks and summers off.

It wasn't until several years in my teaching career how much time I realized I was wasting on grading papers. I moved to a workshop model my last few years in teaching before moving into administration and it was a huge a-ha for me. The work was more significant and important to the kids because they received immediate feedback and I had way less grading to take home. For me, I manage(d) my calendar really tightly as a teacher and still as an administrator to use my time really wisely at school so I don't stay late every day. My kids have to be picked up by 530 daily, and I'm usually out the door by 4-430.

Establishing systems and routines are CRITICAL your first year teaching. I have seen so many teachers become burned out their first 1-3 years because teaching isn't what they thought it was. It can be emotionally draining and a lot of hard work that often new teachers or second career teachers don't expect. There are so many good teaching books out there, but my go-to/stand by is definitely Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov.

PLC's (professional learning communities) are the standard if you are in the location I think you are, and you'll be well-taken care of by your team members as you transition.

Holler if you have questions!

I think teaching is one of the best professions for a work life balance. Summers off, spring break, Christmas vacation, snow days... I get so much "extra" time with my kids. I typically work 8-3:30 (sometimes 4:00), but if I have to leave early for an apt or something I can leave at 2:10. I basically shovel down my food (we get 20 mins for lunch, no other breaks) but I like that the day goes by quickly and I'm done early in the day.

of course there's some evenings and weekends involved, typically around report card time, but I've found that good time management (I get a lot done from 2:10-3:30 when the kids are gone) limits at home stuff.

I've taught most grades from K-8 and found the upper grades less demanding physically and mentally...there's more formal marking, but you aren't EXHAUSTED at the end of the day like I was teaching Kindergarten

I ️ Teaching so much . Good luck with your transition !

@DillonLion: my first year my LO was napping still so I used that time to get work done. I was adamant about take home work not cutting into family time. I'm much better at it this year so a good work/life balance is totally possible.

Overall I have a great work life balance. For me, the best part is getting home between 3 and 4:3. Since having my LO, I don't take any work home, but I used I frequently spent most of Sunday's grading papers (English teacher). Now I'm just a lot more efficient and it's easier 10 years in. I do think dance team would add a ToN of extra time...id avoid it if you can get a job without the combo.

This thread has so much good advice! I've taught elementary & preschool and feel like the balance is good. The hours are nice because they can be flexible (I *could* leave by 3:15 if I needed to, etc) and obviously the school schedule is great. I definitely put in a 40+ hr week between staying late/going in early/weekends, but I feel like it all averages out when you consider the days off. The first few years are definitely more time intensive as you build your toolbox (seriously get a mentor or team member to partner with!!) and find a groove that works for you. It's easy to get sucked in to working an obscene amount, so you have to be deliberate about creating a balance. I've found that I can maximize my time most by just being very organized & sticking to a routine. But I will say that socializing isn't always a bad thing - I get a lot of great ideas & support that way.
@petitenoisette: I hear you on the teacher martyr thing. I've met so many teachers like that & they're so unhappy or stressed. But it doesn't have to be that way!!

@DesertDreams88: I totally agree that the amount of subjects or grade levels/preps that you have can make your job really challenging. I teach middle school Spanish and ESL and usually have 3 grade levels. The amount of lessons that I must prep compared to my colleagues who only teach 7th grade SS is drasticly higher. In our district, which is a top performing public school in an affluent NYC suburb, the trend is to hire dually certified teachers. My advice is to get dually certified if you can... You will be hired more quickly, and seems to be the future of education.

And lastly.... Teaching may sound like a sweet job. Summers off, vacations, work/life balance. But, and it's a big but... if you don't love the kids, the act of teaching itself, and can't put aside all the b.s. politics involved, you are going to burn out quickly. For me, there is nothing I enjoy more than being in a room with crazy adolescents. I laugh every day, although some days are just hard. Good luck!!!

I think work/life balance is just so-so, but so much of that depends on the particular school you work in and your administrators. In terms of time off, you definitely get the scheduled breaks, and that's nice....but taking time off during the rest of the school year has always been really tough for me (like when your kids are sick or need appointments). You have to get a sub and make all the plans to leave them and I find that administrators generally create a culture where it's discouraged to take the days you have. So that part is tough for me as a mom (didn't have an issue before having kids). Like, if our kiddo wakes up with a slight fever, there's no showing up a little late so I can take her to the doctor first--I have to take an official half day, I have to get a sub, send in my lesson plans, and all before the 6:30 am cut off--and you only get 4 days per year, so it's rough to make it through if you have sick kids a lot.

When I worked in Texas for 9 years, I worked exclusively in Title 1 schools and the pressure is unreal--I almost always had work over the weekends and at night. Also, when you are a good teacher in those settings, you are "rewarded" with more and more responsibility. By my 4th year in my first school, I was the GT coordinator, the English department chair, Spelling bee coordinator, did Odyssey of the Mind (after school club), was pressured into doing Saturday school for the months leading up to State testing. I felt really burned out by year 5. All of the "coordinator" positions require extra after school meetings and planning. And I taught about 175 students a day, which is a ton of grading. Each teacher had to offer extra help (not during lunch) at least twice a week before or after school. Every holiday in those years was spent with a giant stack of essays to grade, because we had a district wide rule that all English teachers had to grade 1 full process essay every 6 weeks. =(

My actual contract hours then were 7:50-4:00 pm. But I rarely left before 4:30-5pm and the only break I got was the 30 minute lunch, where 10 minutes was burned walking my class to the cafeteria and picking them up.

Now in another state, it's really different. Our contract hours are 7:50-3:00. I rarely work after school and it's not really expected that you do. But I also now work in a much smaller school district, so there's no district curriculum and a lot of time is spent creating classes and units from scratch. There's less departmental support.

That all sounds super negative but most of my family has been in education, and the particular jobs can be great or hell on earth.

@Anagram: I think regarding sick days, this is also very highly school dependent. I get 15 (ETA) sick days a year that roll over, I technically can use 5 for dependent care but no one ever questions that. I do not have to get my own subs and let's say I was on my way to work and LO got sick in the car, I would just call my school's secretary and they would take care of it for me. But I work in a relatively big high school and we have building subs and they can draw from teachers who are free certain blocks if really necessary. But basically, my administration takes care of it and it is not frowned upon to take days off to take care of your kids.

That being said, I obviously have to do lesson plans and that can be stressful and difficult from home but it's doable. And for Dr's appointments I usually have to take a full day off unless I arrange in advance to leave early (that you can't take too much advantage of at my school).

ETA: I realize I am really lucky. I work in MA and I think we probably have the best working conditions for teachers in the country. I don't mean to imply that it is like this everywhere! I'm sharing because I think it's important in terms of collective bargaining for people to realize where their school stands in terms of working conditions.

@petitenoisette: eys, so I get 10 sick days per year and 4 personal days. But my current district has it written into the contract that sick days are only for the employee (not family illness), and you are supposed to use personal days for kid illnesses. So 4 days for the whole year. Can you lie and call in sick? Sure. But it creates that atmosphere that makes you feel like you can't be honest and say, my kid is throwing up.

And I worked in 3 schools in Texas and they were same or worse in terms of taking sick days.

@Autumnmama79: yes, I've come to find that teaching in Canada is much different than the US, in terms of benefits , salary and general expectations. I used to live in NC and many of my NC friends are teachers so we often compare notes. I am saddened by how little they get paid. I feel lucky to work in a province that values teachers.