What's the latest you ever stayed up until doing planning?

Hi,

The latest I ever stay up till is 11pm, otherwise I am useless the next day! I try to do most of my planning in my PPA time, so on an evening I just have resources to make and lesson evaluations to do.

 

I tend to not stay up til that time when on placement as I need sleep and need to feel well, otherwise everything falls apart. The latest I stayed up was before my University Tutor visited last placement and I stayed up til 12 doing all the stuff I needed to. I would not stay up later than that on a school night - my alarm goes at 545!

 

I never stay up either, I need to get sleep! So the latest i've ever planned to is 9pm, and if it's not done then then it never will be!

 

I think on a normal day I plan til about 9 but on those days when there just seems so much to do Ive stayed up til about 1.30 before. I'm so sick of not having a life!

 

Not long, now! I have 51 school days left. That is about 40 days to plan for (as I am not teaching some of the days due to trips, SATs)... it's all ok! We will get through it

 

Hmmm, mostly 1.30/2.00 but there have been times when it has been later!
It's killing me!

 

I regularly stayed up til midnight on my PGCE cause I planned everyting til the nth degree and counted on the adrenaline to keep me awake, haha! (it worked too).

But seriously what is the point of having fabulously planned lessons if you are too knackered to deliver 'em properly??

My mentor on my long placement very wisely said to me (near the end) that I should ease off the planning and let lessons "stand on their feet" as it were, to learn how to be spontaneous and react more to what happens in the classroom. Worked too.

 

10 o'clock is my absolute latest as whatever I do after that time would be **** anyway, plus I'd be useless the next day. Hoping to cut back to 9.30 for final TP as can't maintain working until really late for 12 weeks.

I think the problem with lesson planning is it can always be 'tweaked' a bit more to try and perfect it but my tutor told me that sometimes you need to accept 'good enough' or you will never get a life.

YG

 

Too true, YG! And so long as my observation lessons (1 a week plus 2x10 minute agendas) are alright (oh and UVT visit lesson) then I really don't think flashfandangle lessons do you any good (mentally!). The energy has to come from somewhere and it's all very well having the paperwork, but if you've no presence because you are knackered then what's the point?

I'm planning to wow my UVT with my Gneville the Gnome stuff, so it's already planned out in my head ;o)

I am not saying you should deliver rubbish lessons but, as YG said, good enough is just that - good enough... good enough to pass, good enough to aid learning, good enought to push your through the various hoops! Saying that, I'm so glad we have half term off so we can 'catch up!'

 

Have pulled one all-nighter when things got really sticky before Christmas but generally 1am. My brain's most active between 9 and midnight so I can't sleep anyway. Not good, I know but I binge-sleep at weekends!

 

I, m averaging 1pm on this last placement. How many lessons do you all have? I have gone from 12 in first placement to 20 , with no time at school or computer to work there any how, I am Knack----. and counting the days.

 

You really shouldn't be 'punishing' yourself by staying up to these ridiculous hours planning.

I never did any later than 8pm during my 3 years of placements, and some nights I couldn't even go til that late due to work commitments.

If you are knackered in the classroom your behaviour management will start to suffer, which in turn will affect the lesson that you wasted all those hours planning.

Even now I don't spend hours planning and I'm the one in charge! You need to find a healthy balance or you will run yourself into the ground and end up very ill.

 

Post 12: I am primary and will teach 5 literacy lessons, 5 maths lessons, 1 science lesson, 1 RE lesson, 1 Geography lesson and a Citizenship/RE lesson. I get 8 hrs from a 26 hr timetable off (and actually it's currently 6 but got to talk to them about the rest of it). Should be more but it's not so I will have to deal with it! I just cannot stay up until that time: I feel drained, exhausted, useless, snappy, moody, sick, I come down with bug after bug and none of my lessons go well. I would rather do everything adequately than be getting 3 hours of sleep a night! That is torture and PFF is perfectly correct - you are punishing yourselves.

I WILL be up til at least 10 doing things because by the time I leave school (5), get to my horses and ride (really need to do this as I already resent the course enough), eat, I won't sit to start work til 830 if I need to during the evenings (I don't PLAN to do work every night if I am organised). I will need an hour for getting things ready for the next day, shower etc. So I have 1.5-2.5 hours to do work during the evning. I really don't see what more I could find to do beyond the 2 hours during the evenings, Sunday all day and my PPA/lunch/hour before school/hour and a half after school. I guess it might help that I don't have the taught course hanging over me now - it's all finished with, essays and everything. But I will still have planning, evaluations, tasks, agendas, observations, UVT visits, critical reports, meetings etc.

I have to have this balance because I know what happens when I stay up all night to do work (did it during my degree and stayed up til about 4 a few weeks back doing an application).

 

That should be citizenship/pshe.

 

5am once and never again. i was having a 1hr45min journey to school at that point so wasnt getting back until 7.30pm and then starting planning through til normally around midnight. This 5am was a one off.

 

When I was at uni I used to stay up until 2 or sometimes 3 - god knows what I used to do, but during my final year at uni I decided that I would do work as soon as I got in from school (around 4:30) and then I'd be in bed at around 9ish - even if it was to do a little marking!

Now I have a job - I rarely stay up past 10 on a school night, as I work part-time I use a lot of my free time to plan! It is harder with doing STP, but this does get easier - trust me I used to plan to the minute, but now I feel more relaxed and only need the basics during the lesson. I'd prefer to send time making resources for my class and preparing the classroom for the next lesson. I teach Year 1 and like to make things as hand on as possible.

 

I'm with PFF on this one - I have never worked past 7:30-8pm. I refuse to do it, my work life balance is too important! Whenever possible I don't bring work home, although I accept this isn't always possible.

Also, to add - I've passed all of my placements without any problems whatsoever. I refuse to believe staying up to plan until the wee hours boosts performance. Yes, your plans will look wonderful - but does it really matter when you look and feel like sh*t the next day when you're actually teaching?!?

 

You should probably tell your school how much time it is taking to plan - don't they have resources you could use? Next year we will be teaching full timetables and you wouldn't be able to keep that up! Try to make it as easy as possible for yourself - I started off wanting to create all my own lessons from scratch and teach really creative, unusual lessons but now I have so much else to do with assignments and jobs I just use all the shared resources at my school!

 

Snap bubblybubbles. Got outstanding report from my UVT, got good observations, got a tick saying I am working beyond the expectations for that stage. As soon as I have to start staying up til 2/3 I really am just going to walk away.

 

Bravo FluffyPinkFairy! Finding some kind of a balance is so important. If you've found it whilst you're on a PGCE, you've done really well. I'm currently finishing a 3 year BA course, and it wasn't until the middle of my second year I was able to find any kind of a balance at all!