Education resource specialist: Work life balance and parental leave

In pursuing a career in education you have a great work/life balance. My day typically starts at 7:30. And then school gets out at 2:10 PM. But I am writing the IEPs that I discussed, the individualized education plans. I'm having IEP meetings after school. I'm meeting with parents and teachers. And then I'm lesson planning and preparing for the following day. So usually I will leave the school at around four, 4:30. And then I'll take whatever materials are necessary for me to lesson plan when I get home. And I'll work an additional two or three hours at home in writing IEPs and planning and preparing for either the next day, or that following week for my students. On the weekends I usually take a break on Saturdays. And on Sunday evenings I kind of wind down and I get ready to prepare for the following week. The perks of teaching, obviously you have summers off. (laughs) Which is great. So I'm able to take some time off during the summers. I work at a year round school, so we're on for 12 weeks and then we're off for five weeks. So that's great perk in that while everyone else is still on the regular traditional school calendar I can take those five weeks off while everyone else is at school to prepare for the following 12 weeks, or just take a break and do some traveling within the school year. I just had a baby so I'm currently on maternity leave. I work at a year round school so our last day of school was in July. And so I've been on maternity leave since July. And we're in December right now I'll be going back after the New Year on January 9th. So I've had a great, was is that (laughs). Five months off of maternity leave with my baby. So depending on what district you're working in they have, or my particular district I work with the Unified School District, they have what's called staff leave. So that's half pay that you're getting while you're out on maternity leave. My baby is four months old right now. And I am extremely excited to get back to work but I'm also interested in staying at home and being a mother. I'm excited to go back to work because my students, I haven't seen them since July. And so, just getting back into the swing of teaching and making sure that they're progressing on their learning goals is going to be my main priority. So, yeah I'm just excited overall to get back to work. I haven't gotten back to work yet so I'm not sure what that juggle is going to be like. With juggling the career and the baby but I do have a lot of help. My mom will be watching my baby while I go back to work. And so I do have a lot of support so I'm hoping to be able to juggle both very swiftly and smoothly and have a good transition back to work.