Hitting a wall
Teaching CPR and First Aid is not a steady business. I'm either super busy or listening to crickets. Some months are fairly even with course registrations and scheduled on-site classes. I've had some pretty quiet months with almost no one calling, but usually my schedule isn't too crazy-busy.
Until now. Last month my phone and inbox literally started overflowing.
In May I taught 26 classes, 13 of those were scheduled on-site courses. As of June 17th I will have taught 21 classes, traveling on-site to 6 of them. I still have 2 hospital courses towards the end of June. 8 of those June classes were just this past week. And yesterday I had 2 emails asking to schedule courses before June 26th.
Last night in class suddenly my brain felt like I had hit a wall. I've hit teaching exhaustion. I felt like I hit a brick wall.
I'm not great at saying to no to scheduling classes, if I can fit it on my calendar I'll usually schedule it. My last scheduled class in June is on Saturday the 17th. My kids begin summer vacation during the following week and I want to have time to do fun things with them. I teach fewer classes in the summer, mostly because fewer people register for courses in the summer but also because I want to enjoy the summer with my kids. Teaching more classes before school starts means I have money in the bank to cover the rent and utilities on the studio over the summer months.
The past two months have been busier than normal though, I can't remember having 8 classes in one week. Less than one week actually, those 8 classes were over 4 days.
Going forward I think I'll be more cautious about over-scheduling myself. When I look at my calendar, each week isn't just booked with classroom teaching time. I have to plan time to pack up my equipment if the class is on-site, travel to the class, set up the class, teach the class, pick up after the class, drive back, unpack the van, clean the equipment, and submit the roster. I also need time to reply to emails, register students, send course confirmations, send links to online courses, return voice mails, file rosters, scan cards, mail certification cards, invoice organizations I've taught at, chase down organizations that haven't paid for their class, follow up on students taking online courses, create course schedules a few months ahead of time, post those classes and keep the website up to date. There's a lot of work that goes on outside of the physical in-class time. And that's the stuff I'm falling behind on.
I set a firm date as my last teaching date for June. I'm sticking to it so I can enjoy the last few days of school volunteering and clearing the last of all my cards and paperwork so I can enjoy the start of our summer vacation.
Until now. Last month my phone and inbox literally started overflowing.
In May I taught 26 classes, 13 of those were scheduled on-site courses. As of June 17th I will have taught 21 classes, traveling on-site to 6 of them. I still have 2 hospital courses towards the end of June. 8 of those June classes were just this past week. And yesterday I had 2 emails asking to schedule courses before June 26th.
Last night in class suddenly my brain felt like I had hit a wall. I've hit teaching exhaustion. I felt like I hit a brick wall.
I'm not great at saying to no to scheduling classes, if I can fit it on my calendar I'll usually schedule it. My last scheduled class in June is on Saturday the 17th. My kids begin summer vacation during the following week and I want to have time to do fun things with them. I teach fewer classes in the summer, mostly because fewer people register for courses in the summer but also because I want to enjoy the summer with my kids. Teaching more classes before school starts means I have money in the bank to cover the rent and utilities on the studio over the summer months.
The past two months have been busier than normal though, I can't remember having 8 classes in one week. Less than one week actually, those 8 classes were over 4 days.
Going forward I think I'll be more cautious about over-scheduling myself. When I look at my calendar, each week isn't just booked with classroom teaching time. I have to plan time to pack up my equipment if the class is on-site, travel to the class, set up the class, teach the class, pick up after the class, drive back, unpack the van, clean the equipment, and submit the roster. I also need time to reply to emails, register students, send course confirmations, send links to online courses, return voice mails, file rosters, scan cards, mail certification cards, invoice organizations I've taught at, chase down organizations that haven't paid for their class, follow up on students taking online courses, create course schedules a few months ahead of time, post those classes and keep the website up to date. There's a lot of work that goes on outside of the physical in-class time. And that's the stuff I'm falling behind on.
I set a firm date as my last teaching date for June. I'm sticking to it so I can enjoy the last few days of school volunteering and clearing the last of all my cards and paperwork so I can enjoy the start of our summer vacation.
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