teachers- coteacher question text

[Anonymous]

I'm sure a lot of teachers deal with this, my co teacher texts me usually on Friday after work and will continue to send texts into the evening.
I want to put a hard boundary on my weekends to spend with my family. Do you think I should just shoot her a quick text back when she asks questions on friday, sat or sunday? Or try to maintain that boundary?

Part of my feelings are that we work closely together and if I don't maintain good communication and availability it will hurt our very intense and good working relationship if that makes sense.

Also, I'm older and she's younger so she might just have a different idea about the texts as more casual??

[Anonymous]

Maybe have a quick debrief at the end of the day on Friday if she’s asking about school stuff.

[Anonymous]

Set up a shared google doc and tell her to put the information she wants to share with you in the Google doc. Tell her you are in a place right now where texting about work isn’t working, but that you’ll check the Google doc once over the weekend (let’s say Sunday morning at 9am) and she can highlight in yellow any thing she really wants a response for before Monday.

[Anonymous]

Is she a special education teacher who is co-teaching classes with you?

[Anonymous]

When my coteacher texts me on Friday or the weekend I respond “let’s talk Monday, have a great weekend!”

[Anonymous]

I am going to offer another perspective as a special educator, which is that it's not uncommon for me to get a barrage of information on Monday morning, that I then have no time to respond to, and it seriously impacts the quality of my instruction, and cuts into my family time because I go home on Monday night with hours of planning work that I would have rather done on the weekend.

So, I'd at least consider the fact that the texts are coming because you aren't sharing things in a timely manner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am going to offer another perspective as a special educator, which is that it's not uncommon for me to get a barrage of information on Monday morning, that I then have no time to respond to, and it seriously impacts the quality of my instruction, and cuts into my family time because I go home on Monday night with hours of planning work that I would have rather done on the weekend.

So, I'd at least consider the fact that the texts are coming because you aren't sharing things in a timely manner.

This, if the texts are about planning for the next week, 8 would let her know that Friday evenings are family time for you, but see if she’d like to set up a time Thursdays to discuss the next week.

[Anonymous]

If she’s doing work on the weekend then yes you text back.

[Anonymous]

Tell her to put it in an email or Google doc. You’ll check it by Monday morning.

You just don’t want the notification popping up unless it’s necessary.

I assume you don’t use email notifications. If that’s true, then limit it just to a google doc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell her to put it in an email or Google doc. You’ll check it by Monday morning.

You just don’t want the notification popping up unless it’s necessary.

I assume you don’t use email notifications. If that’s true, then limit it just to a google doc.

What if that means that she can't do her work? If her students act up because OP failed to provide the information needed to support them, is OP going to blame herself? The kids with disabilities? The special ed teacher?

[Anonymous]

If she needs a reply Friday night to do her work, then they need to do their co-planning together earlier in the week. If the coteacher is doing plans on Friday night or the weekend for the next week, it hould just be a formality--everything that needs to be discussed and planned as a team should be hammered out prior to COB Friday afternoon.