Teachers?

candycana

I'm a middle school special education teacher for students with emotional and behavioral "issues"

I can totally relate. My lunch today ended up being a parent-teacher conference while I politely smiled all the while thinking I'm starving and I have to pee. The conference ended when the students walked back in.

You don't get a "duty-free" lunch? I thought we had it bad here with no planning time....but at least we do get lunch. We may work through it, but it's by choice. A parent conference instead? Yikes!

jessieinblue

I teach high school literature and composition and direct two plays a year. I feel spoiled after reading your post though, because I get an hour for lunch :P Haha

Anyone can feel free to add me as a friend! Just let me know where you found me

candycana

Oh, and this is my 22 year teaching 8th graders. Regular math and Algebra One. After ending up in the hospital due to job stress, the constant demands, I'm determined to take care of myself. My students now remind me to drink (water-tee hee) and I run to the bathroom 30 feet away during class change. We're supposed to supervise in the hall, but I've decided I come first. My mom's a retired teacher and just had bladder surgery. I'm not going there. I'm drinking my 64 ounces and taking my bathroom breaks! Plus, if I go in early, I leave by 4. No more taking work home. I love the kids. I know I'm a great teacher. But we have to save something for ourselves.

Seriously, the kids (and parents/administrators) will take everything you give them without a thought, and then begin to expect it. Be the best teacher you can be. Go the extra mile...the kids need us. But don't forget to take care of yourself. If you don't, you'll get burned out. Nobody needs that, you or the kids. Take your 30 minute lunch. Drink your water and take your bathroom breaks. Take care of yourself. The kids will respect that. I'm sure of it.

MacWells98

Try making several "meals" on Sunday afternoon/evening that you can divide up for the week - depending on what you like. I've prepared salads, steak, pork, chicken, etc. When I do this, I eat much better during the week. I enjoy the variety also. It's nice spending the time on Sunday afternoon getting things ready. Each morning, I just need to grab a container of whatever I want to eat that day. It doesn't take any time at all in the morning.

Also, I do my grocery shopping on Sundays. When I get home and put everything away, I also get my snacks ready for the week. Have a variety of snacks planned out. You can keep some at home, and have some for work during those times when you need a "pick me up".

frida001

Can we keep this thread going? When I joined last week, the first thing I did was look for a teacher group. We do have unique issues.

I don't drink water during the school day. The bathrooms are too far away and usually occupied. I've had 3 kidney infections since I started teaching.

BTW - I teach 6th grade ELA/Social Studies and had my car tagged today.

Kezzanna

Although on holidays at the moment, I do have trouble both with drinking water during school and getting to eat luch....then by the time 4pm rolls around I'm ravenous and will eat anything and everything in sight! That's part of my problem. I joined this month to try and get some good habits in place before school starts again - not that the Ed Dept has placed me yet! Could end up relief teaching - stress eating anyone???

steacher24

I'm a preschool teacher. My biggest problem is the amount of energy that I have at the end of the day. I'm wiped, which makes it hard to be active or even make a good dinner. I'm getting better, but it's definitely a struggle.

atomiclauren

I'm not exactly a teacher, but maybe in the same neighborhood - I'm an archivist at a university library and my schedule can be iffy depending on how many students/researchers come in, meetings, and so on.

I always bring my lunch - a bad thing here is the availability of campus food which I see folks getting every day - I pretty much always make my lunch the night before (usually soup and salad) with a couple of snacks (low carb pita/lavash + hummus is a staple). If I don't make anything I have some backups in the freezer to take (Amy's, Kashi, *some* Lean Cuisine varieties).

I try my best to get in some stretching, walking, or stair climbing at some point during the day, usually after lunch - it helps me feel better at the midafternoon slump...!

alaskagrown

I'd love to keep the thread going. I had my first BAD bladder infection this year and when I told the nurse I was a teacher she just rolled her eyes and said, "figures."

Ha!

candycana

I don't drink water during the school day. The bathrooms are too far away and usually occupied. I've had 3 kidney infections since I started teaching.

I keep seeing these references. It's a common problem for teachers. That's why I started the 64oz a day challenge. Think about it, do your administrators have this same problem? I know mine do not. I'm not a rebel-rouser but seriously folks, is this job really worth your health? You HAVE to drink. It makes your body work better, and it helps you lose weight. I mean, c'mon, shouldn't going to the bathroom be one of your basic human rights? AND, although initially you have to run to the bathroom every class change, your bladder does adjust. Take the challenge. Drink that water. You don't want to be retired and having bladder surgery like my mom. Hugs, everybody. I know it's not easy. But it is important.

Feel free to friend me. Just tell me your a teacher.

LJ0125

I joined the 64oz a day challenge and did great...for 3 days. All this week I barely got down 2 bottles of water a day. We only get 2 planninng preps a week! Our lunch is supposed to be an hour but since I have a "special" class they get a half hour and then a half hour for recess later in the day. The second half hour is supposed to be my lunch but typically it is spent running to the copy machine 3 floors up.

It is so great to have a group of people that understand the life of a teacher. Friends say "you have off all summer" or "you're done at 3:15" Yeah, I have off from this job all summer, however, I have to work another job just to make ends meet. As for being done at 3:15, that's the official time I can leave...that doesn't mean I do. Lol.

Have a great day everyone!

candycana

Feel free to friend me. Just tell me your a teacher.

Ummm...I teach math, but I do know it's *you're. Sigh. And today's been tough. Fire drill, etc. End of 2nd period I still hadn't had a drop of water. Trying to make up now, but afraid to drink too much. It is tough. Hang in there, everybody.

alaskagrown

I shut my door at lunch today and ate the salad I brought. It's prep period now-- the one time a week I get to sit in my own room in peace! Thank goodness!

candycana

Good for you! I gave up on salads at lunch. They just plain take too long to eat.

jesseroyal

Benchmarks? Or semester finals? I teach middle school English. I feel like I'm at work ALL the TIME.

7th grade language arts

jesseroyal

Ha! Another 6th year, 6th grade ELA teacher! I bet we could swap stories! They're so ridiculously cute/ cutely ridiculous.

They ARE adorable right now, but I know it's coming....

Something happens to them around Feb/March and it's like they go BANANAS! The hormones kick in, they get snippy, they're all dating each other...yay. Can't wait. :-)

And thats when they come to me!

alaskagrown

I had a parent meeting today with the sweetest little kid. This little dude is like a black hole of LOST. I caught him yesterday at 5:30 (waay after school), wandering around the courtyard in a circle. "Where are you supposed to be?" I asked him.
"After school program," he whispered.
"And...?"
"The teacher's not here."
"So what are you supposed to do?"
"I'm just wandering around 'cause I don't know where to go."

Awww. He's 12 and he's been here 5 months! I love him, but he needs a map for life.

TakeOne

I am totally down for a teacher board! Great idea. Haha..good to hear that I am not the only one who is dying by 2pm because you haven't had a chance to eat, use the restroom, or even touch your water bottle. The only way I can do it is to prep lunch the night before and eat a good breakfast. I try to bring a snack, but stopped because I was never able to get to it. I am a special education teacher and work with students with autism. Must say that I do love what I do..but it would be nice if I could sit down to eat lunch or run by the restroom whenever I needed to.

And how embarassing is it to sit in a meeting with your stomach growling?! : )

alaskagrown

And how embarassing is it to sit in a meeting with your stomach growling?! : )

Yes! ALL THE TIME. Even in class; the kids laugh out loud when my stomach growls away. It's my fault-- I said I'd take early period this year, meaning I have to start teaching at 7:15. Next year maybe I'll go back to the regular start time and then I can eat breakfast!

frgnadorbl

i am in my 6th year teaching as well. i did my student teaching in a middle school reading/english class, but now i teach 3rd-5th kids with severe cognitive delays in a self contained room. i would not give up my job for the world! i guess all in all, i have it pretty easy. i have an assistant, so i can go to the bathroom whenever i need to. also, working in the inner city is a bonus because most of the parents don't care much about the education, so they're not calling me, and God forbid i have a working phone number if i need to get a hold of them! so my lunches are the full 45 minutes (we have a very strong union that fights tooth and nail for us).

as far as packing lunches is concerned, i pack up leftovers from the night before in lunch containers so i just have to pop them in my bag when i leave in the morning. either that or a lean cuisine and a packet of frozen veggies for one. i'm also keeping a bag of baby carrots and dip in a fridge at work so i can eat during my planning period (which of course cannot be used for actual planning because of all the other crap my school wants me to do instead). and i don't work out. i have exercise planned into the day with my kids. during our writing block, we work on our week's vocabulary/spelling words. so rather than just spell them or write them, we do jumping jacks as they spell. the kids love it, they get excited to be up and around, and they actually ask for it if i get carried away doing something else and forget! they also decided that we should do jumping jacks during math when we do skip counting. so we'll jump to 100 by 2s, 5s, and 10s. they love it!

frgnadorbl

oh...i will say that for some reason, drinking water is frowned upon at my school. one teacher had it written in her review last year that "this is not a park, and water bottles are unacceptable." she immediately called her doctor who gave her an excuse and basically prescribed her to drink as much water as she needed to prevent kidney stones and bladder infections. they've gotten more lax on it, but i'm fairly new at the school and don't like to make waves like that.

candycana

oh...i will say that for some reason, drinking water is frowned upon at my school. one teacher had it written in her review last year that "this is not a park, and water bottles are unacceptable." she immediately called her doctor who gave her an excuse and basically prescribed her to drink as much water as she needed to prevent kidney stones and bladder infections. they've gotten more lax on it, but i'm fairly new at the school and don't like to make waves like that.

OMG!!!! You've got to be kidding! Wow. I'd taught about 5 years when I got a severe case of laryngitis. Lasted over a week. Turns out I have vocal nodules, common for teachers. I was told I had a choice, either keep water to drink often, or have surgery. I can't imagine what I would have done if I'd been told I couldn't drink water. It's not a park? Wow.

alaskagrown

Yeah, that's crazy. I'm sure that's some kind of contract violation.

LJ0125

Work has been so stressful this week. Ever sit at your desk and just cry during your break? Yeah that has been me three days this week.

alaskagrown

Work has been so stressful this week. Ever sit at your desk and just cry during your break? Yeah that has been me three days this week.

Noooo! That's awful. Yeah, that's happened to me before-- mostly in my first year!

THIS year, I have to deal with my math teacher's unexpected immediate resignation-- given last Thursday, effective last Friday, one week before the end of the semester! I'm so mad I can't see straight. It's not like bagging groceries at the store; you can't just walk out in the middle of the year.

newmeat30

I teach 2nd grade. I just finished all of my benchmark testing and it has been EXHAUSTING! Math benchmarks, writing prompts, fluency reading, and DRAs. Unfortunately 2nd graders can't use bubble sheets (Scantron) so everything is paper and pencil (show all of your work and explain how you came up with the answer). The best part (:sick:) is the reading because you have to read with each of the 22 students individually (literally took 3 solid hours, 4 days out of the week). Benchmark testing at the lower grade level is just sooooooooo time consuming. I get to spend my entire weekend grading the 20 page long math benchmark (that's 20 pages per child so...440 pages) and the writing prompts. Let me just pour myself a drink now....:drinker:

frida001

TGIF!!!

alaskagrown

Hell yes, Frida001--or is that FRIDAY001!?

Have a great weekend, teachers!

IreneAdler

Middle school science/math teacher here, in my 12th year of teaching. Forget drinking 8 glasses of water a day. The bathroom is too far away. After escorting kids to where they need to be and being available for recess tutoring, my average lunch is 14 minutes. If I have to prepare for a lab for the next class, I have less time. Most days, I teach kids straight from 9:00am until 12:10 am, back to back with no way of getting to the bathroom.

Every day, I eat a Lean Cuisine lunch under 300 calories and have some orange juice.

I keep tea, fiber one bars and slimfast bars stashed in my desk for when I get the munchies at 10:00 and 2:00. I'm learning to substitute carrot sticks for chips when I'm grading papers.

When does anybody have the energy to exercise? I'm on my feet and on high alert all day long, and when I get home, I'm exhausted.

Last week, I gave up my traditional Friday morning jelly doughnut. ;(

LJ0125

Work has been so stressful this week. Ever sit at your desk and just cry during your break? Yeah that has been me three days this week.

Noooo! That's awful. Yeah, that's happened to me before-- mostly in my first year!

THIS year, I have to deal with my math teacher's unexpected immediate resignation-- given last Thursday, effective last Friday, one week before the end of the semester! I'm so mad I can't see straight. It's not like bagging groceries at the store; you can't just walk out in the middle of the year.

I haven't done that since my first year! My supervisor has decided nothing I do is acceptable and it berating me.