The Teacher-Approved Way to Leave School Earlier and Get Back Your Evenings [Episode 244]

Heidi 0:01
This is episode 244 of Teacher Approved.

Heidi 0:06
You’re listening to Teacher Approved, the podcast helping educators elevate what matters and simplify the rest. I’m Heidi.

Emily 0:14
And I’m Emily. We’re the creators behind Second Story Window, where we give research based and teacher approved strategies that make teaching less stressful and more effective. You can check out the show notes and resources from each episode at secondstorywindow.net.

Heidi 0:29
We’re so glad you’re tuning in today. Let’s get to the show.

Emily 0:36
Hey there. Thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we are talking about the art of leaving school at school, how to actually end your work day with intention so you can go home and have a life. And we’re sharing a teacher approved tip for protecting your personal time each week.

Heidi 0:53
But first, let’s start with a try it tomorrow, where we share a quick win that you can try right away. So Emily, what do we have for this week?

Emily 0:59
This week, try setting up an errand basket by your classroom door. So find a basket or a tray or a box, who cares, and put it somewhere near your door if you have the space. And then anytime you have something that needs to go to another part of the building, you can drop it there. So if you need to return a book to the library, put it in the basket. If you borrowed some math manipulatives from the teacher down the hall, into the basket they go.

Heidi 1:23
I love this. It gives all of those random items a designated home so they’re not getting lost in the clutter of your room or adding to the clutter of your room. And then you can grab everything when you are headed in that direction anyway, instead of having to make a bunch of separate trips.

Emily 1:38
Yes, so smart. You can even ask a student to add things to the basket for you so it’s out of your hair as soon as you’re done with it. And it’s really a small thing, but it keeps those little tasks from piling up and eating into your time, and, you know, helps cut down on the clutter in your room.

Heidi 1:52
If you like this idea, or anything else that we share here on the podcast, would you take a second and give us a five star rating? Ratings and reviews are one way that new listeners find us, so every single one really is a huge help.

Emily 2:04
All right, let’s talk about something that so many teachers struggle with, that moment at the end of this school day when the kids leave and you look around your classroom, and you think, Okay, now what?

Heidi 2:14
And then somehow, it’s 5:30 and you’re still there, or you finally leave, but you’ve got a bag full of papers and a mental to do list that follows you all the way home.

Emily 2:24
Yeah, it’s like, you know that scene in A Christmas Story? And maybe if you haven’t watched A Christmas Story as much as we have watched A Christmas Story over the years, this won’t immediately come to mind. But if you too watch this a lot at Christmas time, like our family, you can picture this. It’s when the family’s sitting down to dinner and Ralphie’s mom is like, finally getting ready to take a big bite of food. And then the dad asks for more, like, cabbage, wasn’t it?

Heidi 2:47
Yes, I think it was cabbage.

Emily 2:48
And so she gets up and takes care of that, and then she sits down again, and Ralphie asked for more potatoes. And grown up Ralphie narrates, “My mother had not had a hot meal for herself in 15 years.”

Heidi 3:01
Yes, yes, that is exactly what trying to leave school feels like. And you know, you can always count on us to have the most current cultural references.

Emily 3:10
I mean, A Christmas Story is timeless, Heidi. But you do know how it goes. You tell yourself, I’m gonna leave at four o’clock today. And then as you’re walking out the door, you notice the class library books are a mess, so you stop to fix them, and that’ll be quick, right? And then when that’s taken care of, and you go to leave again, a co-worker stops by, needs to borrow something, and by the time everything gets handled and all your distractions, it’s 4:30.

Heidi 3:35
And just like Ralphie’s mom, you are making sure everyone has what they need, but at a huge personal cost.

Emily 3:43
Exactly. But here’s the thing about that scene, if Ralphie’s mom had just put the food on the table so everyone could serve themselves, it would have been a completely different story, and that’s what we’re talking about today. If you can create a system that supports efficient planning, you can leave school at a reasonable hour.

Heidi 3:59
I think that every time I watch that scene, like, woman just put the pot on the table. You know, because teaching work does not have a natural stopping point, like a lot of jobs do, there’s no finished, right? There’s just, I guess I’m gonna go home now. And if you don’t decide when your work day ends, it will not end on its own.

Emily 4:18
And we do know this from experience, because neither one of us was good at this when we were teaching. We had no system for knowing what was actually a priority. We just stayed until we were too tired to function, because there wasn’t a way to know if we were ever, like, quote unquote, done with work, because you’ll never be done with work.

Heidi 4:36
Yeah, and I, I, honestly, I had co-workers who literally worked through the night.

Emily 4:42
Oh gosh.

Heidi 4:43
More than once, and multiple co-workers, like, more than 24 hours straight in the building.

Emily 4:49
Oh my gosh. And I was gonna say that I had co-workers that were leaving the minute that they could possibly leave every single day. And I was thinking, Man, how do you go to that? So I guess we’ve got both extremes. But let’s see if we can figure out how to be somewhere in the middle, because it’s so easy to let the work expand to fill whatever time you give it.

Heidi 5:10
Yeah, and teaching work is just notorious for that.

Emily 5:14
Yeah, and remember how we were gonna, we set up a time that we were gonna go after school to the gym, to our ladies gym.

Heidi 5:23
We don’t need to get into that.

Emily 5:28
Yeah, we are getting into that. Heidi and I decided that we were going to meet at the gym after work a few days a week, and that way we could hold each other accountable and get some exercise. We could catch up while we’re working out. It was gonna be such a good plan.

Heidi 5:41
Well, it was a great plan in theory.

Emily 5:43
Yeah, because I would get there and I’d be waiting. Eventually, I’d be like, girl, are you coming? And you’d be like, Yeah, I’m gonna leave in just five minutes. I just have to finish this one thing!

Heidi 5:55
Because I hadn’t even left by that point.

Emily 5:58
Oh, I know.

Heidi 6:00
But in my defense, like it was just one more thing, and then, you know, the one thing turned into another thing, and I’d look up and Emily had been sitting there for like, 20 minutes. I’m really sorry.

Emily 6:09
I’m sure I was an absolute delight about it too.

Heidi 6:12
And it’s not like we had the smartphone. So it’s not like she could have been reading Instagram or something.

Emily 6:17
Nope. But come on, that just one more thing trap is so real, and that’s exactly why having a system matters, not because you’re bad at time management, although maybe Heidi is, but because teaching will always ask for more. There’s always one more thing, so you have to be the one who decides when enough is enough.

Heidi 6:36
Which is what we are calling a shutdown ritual. We are always telling teachers to use routines with their students, because routines reduce decision fatigue and they help things run so smoothly. But often we skip this step for ourselves.

Emily 6:50
Yeah. So today we’re going to walk you through a step by step process for closing out your school day so you can actually leave, and not just physically leave, but mentally leave, too. So we’ve got six steps because, gosh, we love a step, a system with steps, so good, and we’re going to break each one down for you.

Heidi 7:07
Well, let’s dive in with step one, which is to close the school day in a way that sets you up for success. And this starts before the kids even walk out the door. You know that 10 to 15 minutes at the end of the day when the kids are packing up, that is your time too. You can’t leave school on time if you haven’t packed up already.

Emily 7:25
So instead of just standing there monitoring and waiting, try to use that time strategically. Assign class jobs for anything that students can manage. If a kid can sharpen pencils, change over the calendar, or reset the attendance board, let them do it. Your time should be spent doing the things only you can do.

Heidi 7:42
And make sure your students know your expectations for how the room should look before they leave. If you’re coming in after dismissal, and then you have to spend 20 minutes cleaning up after them, that’s a problem we can fix.

Emily 7:55
While the kids are tidying up, you can be tidying your desk, putting away any resources you had out, closing computer tabs you don’t need anymore. It would be tricky to do anything more complicated than a few light tasks, but getting even one or two things done before the bell rings helps you start your planning time with positive momentum.

Heidi 8:13
And really a bit of momentum can make all the difference in how your after school prep goes. If it helps, you could create a class end of day checklist, things like blinds down, projector off, desks clear, library neat, all of that. When everyone has a clear picture of what’s expected, you can hold the kids accountable to those standards.

Emily 8:32
All right, step two, once the kids leave, you need what we’re calling a reset, a way to switch modes on purpose.

Heidi 8:39
This is something most teachers skip, and it costs them. When you’re in teacher mode, you are on. You know how it is. You’re busy and responding to whatever’s happening in the room. You’re making 1000 tiny decisions every minute. Planning mode, though, is completely different. It’s reflective, focused, quieter, and it’s really hard to just flip a switch between them.

Emily 9:01
Oh yeah. If you try to jump straight from one to the other, your brain is very likely still going to be buzzing from the day, and that’s when it becomes really tempting to grab your phone and scroll for a few minutes to decompress.

Heidi 9:13
It’s a trap. Don’t do it, because that is how you end up losing 20 or 30 minutes of your after school time before you’ve even started working, then you’re behind before you begin, which makes everything harder.

Emily 9:26
And we’re not going to shame anybody for needing to scroll your phone, but if you focus now, you can go home and scroll your phone on your couch. So let’s pivot. Okay, try giving yourself a real reset, something that helps your nervous system transition without sucking you into a time vortex. This could be listening to two or three calming songs with your eyes closed, or taking a couple laps around the building to get your blood moving and let the stress of the day go.

Heidi 9:51
You could also try answering a couple reflection questions, something like, what went well today? What actually needs my attention now? You know the key is just to keep it simple, this is a bridge, not another task you have to keep up with. Think of it like putting the cabbage on the table. It’s how you take care of yourself so you can actually focus when it’s time to work.

Emily 10:12
And it’s probably easiest to pick one ritual to start with, but you may find you need different resets on different days. If you’re extra tired or carrying a lot of stress, the walk might be perfect. If you’re feeling scattered, the breathing and music might be better. Try keeping a little list in your desk so you don’t have to think about it in the moment.

Heidi 10:31
All right. Step three. Once you’ve reset, it’s time for what we are calling the triage question. And it’s it’s just one question, what must be done today so students will be okay tomorrow? Usually, this is the things like making copies, prepping materials, maybe entering a critical grade, or writing an important note. Just stick to the absolute essentials to start with.

Emily 10:52
If it doesn’t affect tomorrow, it doesn’t actually have to happen today. Hopefully you have some time and energy left after handling the essentials. But if you don’t, at least you can leave knowing tomorrow is covered.

Heidi 11:03
Which brings us to step four, the power block. This is where any extra time gets used intentionally.

Emily 11:10
So your power block is just going to be a single focus work session where you tackle one category of task instead of a little of this and a little of that, and trying to multitask a bunch of things at once, which is how I usually work, and then I’m like, gosh, I didn’t get anything done.

Heidi 11:25
I know that feeling. And we talked about this in last week’s episode, Episode 243, about protecting your planning time. We called it choosing your lane. You don’t have time or energy to be hopping all over the road. Pick one lane and stay in it.

Emily 11:39
So your power block might be grading or planning or organizing and prepping, but avoid doing all three in one go if you can. Switching between task types drains your energy and leaves you feeling like, I worked so hard, but nothing’s done.

Heidi 11:54
You might even want to assign one type of task to each day of the week. I know this is a really common hack for you know, business people. Mondays are for making copies. Tuesdays are catching up on grading. On Fridays, you plan out the next week, just whatever makes sense with your schedule.

Emily 12:09
And we talked about this last week, about how you could do the same kind of thing with your planning time during the day, and so it could be the same task after school to just continue whatever you didn’t get done during planning time, or maybe you want it to be different, but that is a great strategy to make sure you know what you want to focus on every day. And if you have regular after school meetings like Heidi’s school did faculty meetings on Mondays and collaboration on Wednesdays, you might need an adjusted routine for those days.

Heidi 12:36
Yeah, that schedule really made things tricky, especially when I had after school bus duty. Some days it could be like 30 minutes. So you might need to get creative with your plans. On meeting days, maybe you only focus on what absolutely has to be ready for tomorrow, and then you go home. On other days, you build in extra time to make up for it.

Emily 12:55
It will likely take some experimenting to find a system that works, but the time you spend figuring it out will pay off.

Heidi 13:02
To make the most of your power block, before you start decide what “done” looks like. It might help to finish the sentence, At the end of this block, I want blank to be finished.

Emily 13:12
That needs to be a specific, measurable task, not “catch up on grading,” because that’s so vague, doesn’t give you a clear endpoint. Something specific, like grades entered for one subject, or slides done for this week’s math lessons. That helps you know exactly what needs to get done during this time, and when you’re done.

Heidi 13:30
Yes, because if you don’t know what finished looks like, you’ll just keep working until you run out of steam, and then it’ll be tomorrow morning.

Emily 13:38
Okay, step five is the hard stop. This one sounds simple, but if you’ve tried it, you know, it can actually be really hard to maintain. Definitely the hardest for me.

Heidi 13:46
Yeah, we know how it is.

Emily 13:49
I do know.

Heidi 13:51
This is where you set a non negotiable leaving time, and when that time comes, you leave. Theoretically. Yes, absolutely do it, set an alarm if you need to, you know, set it on your phone.

Emily 14:03
And when the alarm goes off, give yourself like, five minutes to wind down. So save your work, close your tabs, turn off your computer, pick up your bag and then walk out the door.

Heidi 14:12
And if you find yourself thinking, Ah, just five more minutes, that’s a red flag. That five minutes turns into 15, which turns into 30. Ask Emily how many times she waited for me at the gym.

Emily 14:21
I don’t even want to talk about it. I’m still mad. It’s been a decade, at least. Something that might help with this is having a permission phrase you can tell yourself, something like, I’ve done what I can with the time and energy I had today, and that’s enough.

Heidi 14:34
Because, honestly, it is enough. You showed up, you did the work, you’re ready for tomorrow, so you’re allowed to stop.

Emily 14:41
Which brings us to our final step, which is step six, the closure ritual. That’s what I call closure. Oh, no, more really recent cultural references! For some of you young’uns listening, that’s from a TV show called Friends. Okay, so the closure ritual, this is about signaling to your brain that the day is actually done. Before you leave, make sure your room is reset for the morning. Maybe write an intention for tomorrow or the top three tasks that you want to get done in the morning. And then this part is important, leave the list at school. Do not carry it out with you.

Heidi 15:23
Physical actions can also help signal a clear shift in your energy. Turn off the computer, turn off the lights, close the door. This helps your brain know that work time is now over.

Emily 15:32
And then think about what happens when you get home. What’s your transition ritual for closing the door in school and opening the door to the rest of your life? This could be taking a walk, doing some yoga, dancing to your favorite song, playing with your kids, taking a hot shower, doing a puzzle. I’m only laughing because I know realistically that a lot of these are going to be hard to do when you get home and you have to do your real life, but if you can, have something that you’re going to do right away that will help you release the stress of the day and reconnect with another part of your life, it will make that transition so much easier.

Heidi 16:05
Yeah, and it doesn’t have to be a 30 minute thing. It can be a 10 minute thing, but it just helps your nervous system reset and helps you engage with the life that’s in front of you, instead of having your brain halfway back in your classroom.

Emily 16:16
Right.

Heidi 16:17
Because when your brain knows the work is contained and tomorrow is handled, it can just actually relax.

Emily 16:23
And then, if you find yourself thinking about school stuff anyway, just open the Notes app on your phone and jot it down, or send yourself an email reminder. That’s my go to. And then your brain knows that that thought is captured somewhere, and so you don’t need to think about it anymore.

Heidi 16:37
All right, Emily, give us a quick recap of our six steps for a shutdown routine.

Emily 16:42
Step one, close the day while students are still there, use that pack up time to get yourself ready too. Step two, reset your nervous system before you start working. Give yourself a real transition that is not your phone. Step three, answer the triage question, what must be done so that students are okay tomorrow? Step four, use your power block for one category of task only. Decide what done looks like before you start. Step five, set a hard stop. When it’s time to leave, leave. And step six, close the day with a ritual. Reset your room, write tomorrow’s tasks and create a transition for when you get home.

Heidi 17:20
If you want some help putting this together, remember that the February teacher survival kit has a page that walks you through these steps. It gives you space to plan out your routine, track what’s working, and adjust as you go.

Emily 17:30
And if you’re someone who wants this kind of targeted monthly support all year long, that’s exactly what we do in the Teacher Approved club. Each month we focus on a specific shift that matches where you are in the school year. It’s like having a guide who knows what’s coming and is there to help you prepare for it.

Heidi 17:46
And we would love to hear your tips for leaving school at school, please come share your wins and your struggles in the Teacher Approved Facebook group.

Emily 17:54
Now for the Teacher Approved Tip of the Week, where we share an actionable tip to help you elevate what matters and simplify the rest, and this week’s tip comes from our friends Ashley and Alicia at Rainbow Skies For Teachers. And we love this idea. Tell us about it, Heidi.

Heidi 18:08
Yes, and we love Ashley and Alicia. So this is such a good tip. They suggest dedicating one afternoon each week to leaving school as soon as your contract time is over. This is just one afternoon where you commit to a completely school free evening and do life for yourself.

Emily 18:25
I love this. And to make it easier, they suggest scheduling something that forces you out the door, a reoccurring commitment that you can’t skip.

Heidi 18:33
You know, like meeting up at a gym.

Emily 18:37
I guess I needed to get really brutal in my enforcement so that you couldn’t skip it.

Heidi 18:41
I knew you had to love me anyway, or you could have charged me, I guess.

Emily 18:44
There we go.

Heidi 18:46
I know Ashley signed up for French lessons every Thursday. She met her French teacher at a local coffee shop, and they practiced something new. Even if she didn’t become fluent in those afternoons, the point was to have something on the calendar that got her out of the building.

Emily 18:59
Oh, I love that. And Alicia took a similar approach. She booked a four o’clock Pilates class each week. When you know class starts at four, you have to be out the door, right? Oh, that was, that was a good that’s a good rhyme to help you with this! When you know it starts at four, you have to be out the door. There’s no room for just five more minutes when you have to be somewhere at a certain time.

Heidi 19:19
Yeah, that deadline makes it so much more likely that you will actually leave on time, and having that one protected afternoon gives you something to look forward to each week.

Emily 19:27
And it doesn’t have to be lessons or a fitness class. It could be a weekly coffee date with a friend or a hair appointment or a craft night or whatever works for your life, just maybe not meeting with your sister who is too nice and will let you get away with showing up late.

Heidi 19:41
The point is that it’s recurring. It’s on the calendar, and it’s something just for you. It’s not about, you know, making every day special, it’s about making sure you have at least one afternoon where you prioritize yourself.

Heidi 19:53
To wrap up the show, we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what gets your extra credit?

Emily 19:57
I’m giving extra credit to the game. Game a gentle rain. So I asked for this for Christmas, and mom got it for me.

Heidi 20:05
Is it digital?

Emily 20:06
No, it is a little, I don’t know what to call it, because it’s not boards and it’s not cards, it’s actually like little tiles. So it’s a one person game. You can play with two but it’s designed to be a one person game. And that’s what I liked about it, because I’m like, Well, I like doing puzzles, but it’d be nice to have something that was like, shorter and quicker that you can just like, finish in one sitting.

Emily 20:24
And so basically, the way it works is you have these little tiles that are like triangle shaped, sort of, and they have different halves of flowers on each edge of the tile. And then you have to match them up. So you lay down one tile, and then you just randomly draw out another and you try and match it to another flower. And so you’re trying to just grow out your whole design here, but every time you’re able to match it where four of them are meeting together, so it’s not exactly a triangle. It’s hard to describe the shape, but when you get four that are all met together, you get to put a little flower token in the middle of the four.

Emily 21:02
And so you’re trying to get all eight of your little tokens down before you run out of tiles. So it’s kind of, to me, a lot like doing a puzzle. It’s very puzzle like, but it’s shorter, easier, it’s tactile, it’s chill. It’s something I can do if I only have 10 minutes, which is what I like about having a puzzle out. But sometimes I don’t have a puzzle out, so you can just grab this and play the little game. And actually, my 15 year old has been playing it multiple times a day, so she loves it too. It’s just so nice. I’m going to be looking for some other little games like this, like one person puzzley kind of games that you can do quickly.

Heidi 21:37
Well, it’s so nice to have something that you can just unwind with that is not on your phone.

Emily 21:40
Yes, I need any more of those that I can get.

Heidi 21:43
Or, you know, doesn’t require a billion supplies, like a craft can.

Emily 21:47
Yes, exactly, or a setup, like, there’s not, you can just grab it and immediately start playing on the table. You don’t need to, like, do anything elaborate.

Heidi 21:54
Oh, that’s nice.

Emily 21:55
What are you giving extra credit to, Heidi?

Heidi 21:57
Well, my extra credit goes to candle wick trimmers, which is really weird if you never thought about this. So I got invited to a favorite things party in January, and the theme was hygge.

Heidi 22:13
It’s Danish.

Emily 22:17
Hopefully there’s no Danes listening to us right now. We’re so sorry.

Heidi 22:20
But it’s like the Danish art of coziness, which is what you want in the winter, right? So we were supposed to bring a favorite thing that helps us get through the winter, but it had to be $5 or less.

Emily 22:31
That’s so hard.

Heidi 22:32
Like, I can’t think of anything that’s $5 or less. So I was like, Oh, okay, so central to hygge is candles. Like so much of coziness revolves around candles. And if you want your candles to keep burning bright, you have to practice good candle hygiene, and that means trimming the wick before you burn the candle. So you can use scissors, but like, if your candle’s in a jar, it’s really hard to get the scissors in there.

Emily 22:58
Oh, I know, I’ve tried.

Heidi 23:00
I bought a special little wig trimmer that’s kind of shaped like an L so it can, like, just snip the little candle. And I’ll put a link in the show notes, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, I sound like a crazy woman. You can see what it is there, so you can just keep your candles burning. I have strong opinions about this. I have a special little foil wrap I put on it if it’s starting to tunnel so, like, the edges will all melt evenly.

Emily 23:24
Oh yes, I do that as well. Now that I know that, like, you need to, like, make sure the whole top is melted every time, or else it will, like, get that hole down the middle. And now that I know that, I always make sure it melts all the way to the edge, although it drives me crazy when you still get, like, an edge that just won’t melt down.

Heidi 23:40
Oh my gosh, that is so funny, because right before we started recording, I had this candle, and the edges were not burning, so I got out, I have a little scraper, I was like, I wonder if I can scrape this off. And sure enough.

Emily 23:51
Okay, so you have a little candle first aid kit at all times. Well, I need a candle wick trimmer because I don’t have one.

Heidi 24:02
Okay. Well, we’ll have to get you one. I think the one I put the link in the show notes too is rose gold, it’s very fancy, but mine is just silver.

Emily 24:09
Okay, well, I’ll check it out.

Heidi 24:12
That is it for today’s episode. Start by planning your after school transition ritual. Once you have that in place, experiment with the rest of the steps to find what works for you.

Heidi 24:24
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Teacher Approved. I’m Heidi.

Emily 24:28
And I’m Emily. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow or subscribe in your podcast app so that you never miss an episode.

Heidi 24:34
You can connect with us and other teachers in the Teacher Approved Facebook group. We’ll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Emily 24:41
Bye.