Recently, I shared on Facebook “I had wondered where I might eat lunch at work when the weather turned colder. These past two days, I’ve found my answer – in my car. The sun warmed car is a much more comfortable temp than the building” A former ag teaching colleague responded “You get to eat lunch ???” Which was followed by me responding “Part of my new self care practice. I actually take the whole 30 minutes we are allowed” She then added “Please tell me more information about this self care practice you talk about….”
This post is inspired by that conversation. Although I recently gave a professional development session on Self Care Bingo (some of the resources from that are here) and have blogged on both my not so stellar September Self Care Bingo and my more successful October Self Care Bingo, lunch time is a much more fundamental care aspect than that.
In school years of past, I often was making copies, responding to emails, tracking down students, and grading work during lunch. I would make it to the lunch room to chat with my colleagues, but the thirty minute allotted lunch was 20 minutes IF I was lucky. This year, we currently have students for a half day. This helped to make actually taking lunch easier. Additionally, not wanting to eat in a space where several people have been breathing is great incentive for getting away from the computer and out of the classroom at lunch time.
When I walk out of the classroom for lunch, I set the 30 minute timer on my phone. More often than not, I then walk out of the building, take my mask off and eat in fresh air. I have a work friend who often joins me from about 10 feet away. I’m not working through lunch as I have no desire to touch my keyboard and then my food. I don’t start office hours until 1:00 so if I wrap something up after my last class and my lunch doesn’t start until later, I’m still not sacrificing that time to get a breather. It felt odd to do this the first two weeks of school, but I am glad I started the practice.
A second boundary I have set this year which was not necessarily one in the past is not responding to parent/ student emails or Google Classroom private comments beyond school hours. With several components of this year being remote learning, there is a perception that teachers should be “on call” 24/7. That is an incorrect perception and a boundary I set for my own mental health. I have communicated to parents and students that during non-teaching time during the school day, I will be addressing their communications. I do check my school email beyond school hours because of the professional organizations I am involved in, but have held firm to my school hour boundaries otherwise. The result has been both positive (students answering their own questions in the time delay of reply and more time in my evening and weekend to attend to personal responsibilities and relationships) and negative (parents reporting me to administration for not responding to emails on the time table they think I should – nights, weekends, and days school are closed).
For some people, taking an uninterrupted half hour for lunch and not responding to emails beyond work hours may seem like a given, but more often than not, it is something teachers don’t experience. Making and taking time for a non-working lunch and email boundaries part of my work life this year, have not been without challenges, but for the sake of my serenity have been smart choices to make.
What teacher boundaries have you set this year to take care of you?
McTeaching Ag 