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Leaving Work at Work


As a teacher it's so hard not to grade at home. I know I won't be able to avoid it 100%, but this year I have made a promise to myself and family to leave work at work.

I am completing my grading at school so far. I am getting behind by a week and may have to break the promise I made a bit, but so far I have improved greatly in the time I used to spend grading. In the past, I would grade every. single. assignment.

Why?!
I worry so much about classroom management that I would grade everything: classwork and homework. Some teachers would have about eight assignments per six weeks grading period. I would have like 20+ (I would also include daily participation). By the end of the semester, I would have so many grades entered in. Since I took a year off of work for maternity leave, I now see that this was absolutely maddening.

I am also not going to check my email while I'm not at work. I cannot allow myself to check it because it does affect my mental health. The anxiety of there being a possible angry email from a parent would ruin my day (though I usually only get about one or two a year, knock on wood). I received my first angry letter from another coworker ever in my eight years in education. Luckily (or not?) I was not the only one.

I had many appointments I had to attend to today; it was unavoidable to refrain from taking the day off. I want so badly to check my email right now. I want to see if I got any reports on the day, if anyone needs anything. But I am not going to check it.

Back to that angry email I mentioned earlier...my coworker opened his email on Labor Day and it somewhat ruined his day off because he carried this extra worry with him. I didn't see my email until I went back to work. Had I opened the email on Labor Day too, I would have been sick with anxiety, ruining the time I had with my family.

I want to still check my work email, but I'm writing this instead, then forcing myself to go to bed. Work can wait.

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