“[There's a balance] that I didn't have in my previous life. I felt like my brain was completely overloaded. I didn't realize it at the time. Now, in this life as a teacher, I'm not always preoccupied. Once I leave work, I leave the school—I obviously think about things that have happened, but it doesn't weigh me down. I think about them, but I try to have some perspective.”
“Above all, what also gives me a sense of satisfaction is that I don't feel like I have a lot of work outside of school hours. Because I chose a particular approach (...) I told myself that for designing my lessons, there are publishers who have already put a lot of thought into it. I'm going to follow their methods. And when I started at the school, the principal asked me, ‘Would you be willing to adopt the so-called Singapore Method for Mathematics?’ (….) I said, ‘Okay, I'll do it.’ I had a teacher's guide. That meant that at the beginning, I only had to read the day's lesson in the evening or early in the morning when I arrived. I had the conceptual understanding of Mathematics, but the didactic and pedagogical aspects were fully described for me. It outlined the structure of my forty-five-minute Math lesson (…) I don't have to invent anything, I don't have to prepare anything.”
“The second piece of advice my principal gave me was this. He said, ‘Listen. Think carefully about how you're going to optimize your grading and consider all the assignments, all the notebooks, everything you're going to do—and how parents will look at it.”
“Following the advice of some colleagues and my principal, I found an approach that works for me. I do a lot of my grading between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. I quickly eat [my lunch] and I go to my desk. I settle into my classroom, put on some music, and I grade papers. I work, I reread things. I probably spend about an hour and a half working, but in the evening I never take anything home with me. At first, it was because I had a constraint. Since I travel by bike, I can bring home a few papers, but I can't bring home notebooks. It's not possible, they're too heavy. So I organized myself accordingly (…) So I need to have time between noon and two o'clock [when I’m not with students]. I need to be able to check student work sufficiently so that a parent who looks at what their child is doing thinks, ‘The teacher sees what's going on, he sees my child's work’—and that the child feels supported.”
“For me, the goal isn't so much about correcting everything, but rather having time available for the children who are struggling—to set up activities where some children can work independently so that I can dedicate myself to others and not be running around the classroom constantly correcting and checking student work. So I choose to correct certain things—and honestly, there are some things I don't correct and for a number of students I don't really check their work. Sometimes you call a child to do an exercise on the board, you take their notebook, and you just glance at it—since they're a good student, you know it isn't really necessary anyway (…) and on the other hand, I dedicate more time to children who need it. I find this way of managing time works for me. I don't feel overwhelmed. I don't feel overloaded when it comes to grading time or planning time.”
“I have to distinguish between what I try to control and what I accept not to control.”