7 Tips for a Better Work-Life Balance for Spanish Teachers

A few years ago, I was at a new school and I found myself getting there at 6:30 in the morning and often “closing it down” with a janitor saying goodnight on his way out the door around 7PM. It was NOT healthy and I knew I needed to make some changes. Today I wanted to share some tips on things that helped me with those changes to find a better balance!

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Background Info

Like I said, that particular situation was a few years ago now. It was my third year of teaching, I had just moved to a new school, and it was my first time with 2 new preps. Looking back, I wanted to share some tips that I wish I had realized sooner!

7 Tips for a Better Work-Life Balance for Spanish Teachers

• Break your to do list up – “Must do, should do, can do later”
• Remember that done is better than perfect
• It doesn’t have to be cute
• Ask for help, and accept it when it’s given
• Lean on the online communities
• Don’t grade everything
• There’s always next year!

Organize the “To Do” List

Something that was pretty life changing for me was when I started accepting that I will never have everything done. Ever. I started splitting my to do list up into when it has to be done (today, this week, sometime), and I got better at saying, “It’s okay if there’s things left for future Ashley.”

Also, many of those sometime things just never happened, or didn’t happen til future years of teaching. That’s totally fine! Some of those sometime things turned into “Do this week” and some of them turned into “Do today”. It helped me prioritize and focus.

Done is Better than Perfect

This is a saying I started embracing as I got further into teaching. Often I would find myself scrolling and scrolling, searching for the perfect authentic resource. Too often I’d find something that was close, keep scrolling for hours, then go back to the close option because it wound up being the closest thing I could find. So what if something uses a word that isn’t on the book’s vocabulary list? Expanding their horizons is a good thing!

It doesn’t have to be cute.

Okay, this one kind of breaks me to admit. I LIKE when things are cute and pretty and colorful. Hopefully you’ve seen that in my resources! But there are times where the extra moments to change font colors just add up too far, and bedtime was calling several hours ago. Give them the plain slides, it’s FINE.

Ask for help AND accept help when it is given

This is also a tough one for me. I can do it, really. But you do not have to do it alone. Ask for help. There are so many places where we can connect with each other online. Check out this post for my recommendations for groups and pages to follow!

Don’t grade everything

I have a whole post on ways to make grading more manageable, but the thing I really want to stress here is don’t grade everything. Check out the post for 5 more specific tips and ways to shortcut the mountain of grading to be done, but my favorite one is to make the recycling bin your friend.

There’s always next year

Teaching is a journey and a process. Year after year we’re working to improve. It’s okay to say, “I can’t handle that this year. Maybe next year.” Especially if it comes down to self preservation and your own health. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and something to eat – there’s always next year.

Resources to Lean On

While you’re trying to find a better work-life balance, I thought it might be helpful to share a few resources to help! Here are some of my favorites:

• Peardeck library
• Edpuzzle library from Maris Hawkins
• Free resource library