How do you balance the demands of teaching
and your personal life?
I think it’s important to have some way to distance yourself, or some place where you can be who you are, away from work because I think the load can become too great. The average length of time for teachers, sometimes in our profession, is maybe three to five years. I think one of the things we don’t learn in school, and maybe it’s one of those things people might feel badly talking about, is taking care of your self and doing some things that are healthy, getting some connections away from school. I spend time with my family. I have three young kids, three kids under seven, so that takes care of all my free time. But I love sports and I love being active and, as I said, my family is my top priority. But I do try and schedule in time where I can get away by myself sometimes or find something that I really enjoy doing, because the best thing you have every day to give to these students is yourself. So I am not being selfish. It’s about refueling yourself so you have more to give because in this job, you are going to need to have a lot to give.
