488 - Where Did All the Teachers Go? An Interview with Angela Watson

Angela Watson is here again! If you're a teacher and you don't know Angela, you need to meet her! She was a classroom teacher for 11 years and has spent over a decade as an instructional coach. She has a podcast called Truth for Teachers and created the 40 hour Teacher Workweek program to help teachers take back control of their time.

In this episode, Angela and I dive into what's going on in education and the classroom post-pandemic. A survey from the NEA says that 55% of teachers are looking to retire sooner than they had the previous fall. That's a scary number when the typical attrition rate for teachers is 8%. Education Week says that teachers work an average of 54 hours a week and half of that time is spent on non-teaching time work. Angela's surveys have found that the average in her audience is 62 hours per week. Teachers know when they go into this profession that work doesn't end at 3pm, but at the same time, teachers are being taken advantage of because of their deep care for their work.

What's the solution? How can teachers work fewer hours and be more productive? Angela and I have both spent a lot of time working on different angles of this issue so we chat about ways to fix this problem! It comes back to boundaries and organization.

Angela's contribution to the solution is the 40 hour Teacher Workweek program. One of the things she does in this program is help teachers understand the difference between hobby work and required work. We have a long discussion about what hobby work is and how to cut back your work hours by reducing this type of work. Using Angela's program, most members have been able to cut 5 hours off of their work week in the first month in the same way that Sunday Basket® users are able to save 5 hours a week after using the system for 6 weeks!

My contribution to the solution is the Education Friday Workbox®. This system compliments Angela's solution by helping you organize the administrative and paperwork side of teaching. Instead of missing deadlines and spending time looking for important papers, you have more time to focus on the lesson planning and the teaching that you love.

I love talking with Angela! I hope you teachers out there find help and hope in these solutions!