Giving Teachers More Time to Work and Live

How can teachers achieve work-life balance when classroom management might be unbalanced?

According to a 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey, U.S. teachers work an average of 46+ hours but only 28 hours, or 61%, of that time is spent teaching in the classroom.¹ As a result, 50% of teachers are looking for a new job and only 34% are engaged at work, according to a 2019 Gallup Perspective report.²

Educators do everything they can for our students, and their most limited resource is time. We talked to teachers like Denise S., an English teacher and Tech Innovator at Downingtown Area School District, who reiterated that, for virtually all teachers, the job doesn’t end when the bell rings. “Yes, I carry home assignments,” Denise says, “but more importantly, I’m worried about my students, how they’re doing as people.”

With that in mind, PowerSchool is passionate about offering technology that enables teachers to focus more of their energy on what matters most: dedicated time with students.

PowerSchool, now with Schoology Learning, and our Unified Classroom®, help bridge efficiency gaps when it comes to managing LMS, SIS, assessment, and special programs. Bringing these foundational classroom needs together is both a technological imperative and an educational advantage. Through the Unified Classroom, teachers can see attendance sync up with their gradebooks, and not only easily track work submitted by students present in class, but also know how absent students do—or don’t—interact with work.

The larger-scale implications of this are more than just time-saving. Having attendance and classwork information over weeks or even an entire semester empowers educators to find patterns that could help them offer students more personalized learning opportunities. Another way teachers can more efficiently build personalized learning plans for students with Unified Classroom is through easy access to historical student data from performance assessments.

Teachers deserve the time that it takes to not only build illuminating lesson plans and instruct them, but also time to rest and unwind. Unified Classroom offers tools that help carve out more time for teachers by reducing repetitive tasks. Tools like auto-grading assessments mean that teachers don’t have to lose time sorting through results—they can skip to analyzing outcomes and interpreting meaning in their students’ work.

With a search tool that can query by course, standard, and more, teachers can access their tried-and-true lesson plans and educational elements (like activities, discussions, videos, assignments, formative assessments, files, online links and even third party content), unit-to-unit and year-to-year. This empowers teachers to save what works and make time for their students and themselves. In addition, our Professional Learning Communities enable them to enrich their work and receive training in convenient, accessible ways online, instead of having to stay after school for training and development.

Teachers deserve the freedom to be well-rounded and to take care of themselves. They should be empowered to model healthy habits for students, and that includes self-care and work-life balance.

Liz L., Coordinator of Innovation and Learning at Manheim Central School District, told us about how often she and her colleagues sacrifice personal time to go above and beyond for their students. “That yoga class isn’t going to happen. You’re going to go without a haircut for a while, because you need to do something for your class,” she says.

While we know we can’t make a magical 25th hour for teachers, technology can help them save time in and out of the classroom to do more for their students, and themselves.

While we know we can’t make a magical 25th hour for teachers, technology can help them save time in and out of the classroom to do more for their students, and themselves.

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