Teacher diaries: Sleepless nights, admin and no time for lunch or toilet breaks

Five Australian teachers share what they really have to do in a school day – giving insight into the professional and personal toll of the job. Read their diaries.

Exclusive: Teachers say they have never been so overworked and stressed.

So, we asked five teachers to document their day.

This is what they wrote.

Diary of an independent Catholic high school teacher

6am: Wake up, prepare self and family for the day.

7am: Drop child at bus stop. Drive to school and arrive by 7.40am. Seriously considering moving schools to make the commute more family-friendly. The mum guilt never leaves. Grab a coffee as breakfast will be at 11am

8am: Post lessons to Google Classroom and online for absent students. Follow up absent students with phone calls home.

8:20-8.45am: Staff briefing. Mark roll and check on the wellbeing of my pastoral class.

9am-3pm: A range of classes all with a minimum of 26 students, max 31 in junior years.

Plan differentiated lessons to accommodate all learning needs from autism / aspergers to gifted students. Some students with complex emotional needs and many with emotional need to be managed. Feedback on all learning activities to be returned by the start of the next lesson.

11am (recess): Finish coffee, cold by now. Quickly eat something to last me until 3pm, as most lunchtimes I have lunch duty/ meetings with students. Quick toilet break. No soap in bathrooms and cleaners do not appear to have cleaned.

3pm-4pm: Afternoon curriculum meeting. Could be covered in an email but will sit and be given more work to do. Grab a muesli bar/ yoghurt as hungry.

5-7pm: Time to take my child to after school activities, which I juggle with husband depending on work / marking commitments. Starving, so nibble while making dinner. Help with homework and watch TV as a family. Negotiate bedtime with the child all while thinking I have so much work to do.

8pm: Will use this time to plan lessons, marking, look for extra resources, reply to student requests for help.

The day at work is often not over for teachers when they get home. Picture: iStock

Independent primary school teacher

2:35am Wake with heart racing. What have I forgotten? Oh yes, I need to buy a door stopper to hold open the very heavy door to my classroom.

8am: Breathe a sigh of relief to get a spot in the school car park. Switch on my smartboard to find the sound is not working so I log a ticket with my ICT team.

8:15: Print reading comprehension worksheets for the lesson, instead of uploading it on Google Classroom as otherwise half the class would end up watching YouTube on their devices rather than working.

8:55am: About to go to bathroom, but students are let in early! No matter. I can control my bladder.

9am: During guided reading groups I notice students who are off task. I remove one of the rewards that the class has earned. A student cannot access the online reading program. I log another job with our ICT team.

12pm (lunch): I copy out the differentiated maths worksheets. A group of teachers is coming to observe my classroom. Go over maths problems quickly as I eat lunch. I rush to my duty. No time for toilet break.

1pm: A student returns to the classroom with an ice pack on their head. I need to monitor that student for the rest of the day for signs of a concussion. Maths lesson begins and the visitors observe, are impressed and leave. Class continues, but a disruptive student starts tossing materials around the room. My priority is now making the other students safe and calling for help, but no other staff member is available. The student eventually calms down and after lesson I write a brief outline of the incident to the person who oversees detention.

3.30pm: I finally go to the bathroom. I then work with a colleague to prepare the parent newsletter which is due tomorrow.

6pm: I leave demoralised. Another day where I didn’t get to really talk to that one kid who really needed it.

6.30pm: I remember that student who had a head bump and of course I forgot to send the follow up email to their parents. I quickly send the email.

7pm: I get my computer out to plan my lessons for tomorrow then I fall asleep on the sofa.

Admin takes up a lot of teachers’ time.

Public primary school in Melbourne

8am: Grab coffee, prepare for lesson, set out separate activities for students with individual learning plans. Liaise with colleagues about a new student.

8:50am: Collect student permission forms for future excursion, provide new forms for those who have misplaced them – at least 10.

9:00am: Maths – four different group activities to cater for different students’ needs.

10:00am: Writing lesson, class interrupted by students arriving late to school.

11:00am (recess): Raced to school library to quickly grab books for next week’s literacy sessions.

11:20am: Curriculum team working group. Offer support to new graduate teacher.

1:20pm (lunch): Ate lunch with the students as no time to get to the staffroom during lunch break, organised cricket training and chased up missing inter-school sport permission notes. Grabbed a quick cuppa while preparing literacy resources.

2:20pm: Teaching social skills and values. Prepared agenda for next day’s team meeting while students log their homework.

3:20pm: Familiarise self with new school software, then log incident reports online and chase up absenteeism, team planning meeting, correcting and locating student reading records.

5:30pm: Scrub permanent texta marks off classroom tables. Emails, lesson prep for next week, research educational support for students with additional learning needs.

6:10pm: Leave work (traffic again), quick dinner.

7:30pm: Correct student work. Behavioural report comment writing. Research adolescent eating disorders and mental health for following day conversation.

8:30pm: Laptop closed.

Teachers say they work long past 3pm, when the bell rings. Source: istock

Public secondary high school design tech teacher

6.30–7am (at home): Clearing emails, preparing lessons, recording data

8.15am – Arrive at school. Set and run laser cutter machine to prepare student work for class.

Period 1: Non-teaching period, a chance to prepare more laser cut designs for students,

plan lesson, mark student work and record notes on student files.

Period 2: Year 11s. Teaching a new subject, so developing, setting curriculum goals myself, on top of normal lessons. Very time consuming.

Recess: Discussion with a student about a homework task and packing up and organising work samples from Year 11 class.

Period 3 and 4: Double session with year 10s (Systems Technology) and it’s back to the 1980s. The class room is small, no overhead projector or screen or other technology. Class is restless and needs constant monitoring to keep on task.

Lunchtime: Poor behaviour from two Year 10 boys means I’m spending a large chunk of my break in the classroom supervising detention. Lunch on the run.

Period 5 and 6: Double Year 7s (Materials Technology). Great, enthusiastic young kids. Still establishing routine and expectations for the new year which requires an additional layer of organisation.

3.15-4.30pm: End of school day, followed by staff meeting on interpreting student results data. Not in headspace for numbers.

4.30pm: Respond to parent and colleague emails and clean up. Would be great if there was a support staff member to help!

4.45pm: Battle traffic on way home, then dinner and a bit of down time.

8.30-10pm: Work through emails, data and assessment recording and preparing classes for new Year 11 class.

Teacher say they are stressed and overworked.

Public secondary high school

7-8am: Arrive at work, prep/photocopying/checking emails from staff/ answering student questions from Google Classroom, email and in person. Usually, will involve helping to print and organise any teacher’s work that is absent that day from the faculty.

8am-8.30am: Yearly welfare meetings and co-ordinating with teachers to ensure lesson continuity.

8:30-1030am: Teaching (2 periods)

10.30-10.50am: Recess duty or counselling students. If possible, eat recess or go to the toilet. Usually a choice between the two.

10.50-12.50pm: Teaching (2 periods)

12.50-1.30pm: Lunch duty, counselling students, meetings regarding assessment tasks and welfare. If possible, eat or go to the toilet.

1.30-2.30pm: Teaching (1 period)

2.30-3.30pm: Prep/extra-curricular activities such as homework centre. Likely to be taken up by meetings. Attempt to ring home to parents for students of concern.

4.30-7.30pm: Travel home, manage family and cook dinner.

7.30-9.30pm: Prepare lessons for the next day. Easily longer if teaching an unfamiliar course. Answer email from students for questions they had regarding the day’s content and marking.

Originally published as Teacher diaries: Sleepless nights, admin and no time for lunch or toilet breaks