Teacher Life with Erin Condren
Dress || Heels || Earrings || Bracelet || Watch || Erin Condren (c/o)
As much as I love blogging, my one, true passion in life is teaching. I’m about to cap off my 6th year of teaching and finishing my 1st year of teaching in NYC. Many of my non-teacher friends have asked me how I stay sane or how I balance everything. My go-to answer will always be organization! Over the years, I’ve dabbled with several types of planners and my preferences have made slight changes along the way. Teachers, there’s just one name you need to know to help you keep track of your school day… Erin Condren!
For the past three years, her Teacher Planners have been my life boat! Coming from a family of educators, she really has a sense of what our needs are. When my job seems truly chaotic, I get so much relief in being able to open my planner up and have all of my notes and ideas written down. This planner can be customized just for you, depending on the school year or how many checklists you plan on making. The best part, though, is the fun of personalizing your cover! There are over 80 incredibly unique designs to choose from. Whether you decide to match your classroom theme or personal style, you really can’t go wrong.
I was so happy when Erin Condren reached out and asked me to help launch the new 2019-2020 teacher planners. How darling is this Fruity Beauty planner? The listing originally showed lemons, but I customized mine to look like Florida oranges. It’s also reassuring to know that your purchase helps a great cause! For every planner purchased, $1 will be donated to DonorsChoose. Even if you’re not in the educator world, it’s a fantastic opportunity to help teachers receive funding for their classrooms.
To give you a sense of how crazy a teacher life can be, I’ve decided to give you a taste of my daily life. Obviously this changes from day to day, but please know that teaching isn’t all all sunshine and summer vacation. Top that off with trying to maintain a blog, I feel like I have two full-time jobs.
- 5:00 am- Tripp starts to stir around this time, so it’s time to get up and start my day. Right away, this means taking the puppy out for a quick bathroom break and giving him his breakfast. He is always my first order of the business in the day.
- 5:30 am- I’m trying to get into better habits and I’ve been determined to workout everyday, Monday through Friday. Since the weather has been perfect here in NYC, my morning workout has been going for a jog down Madison Avenue. I love to take advantage of the quiet streets and admire all of the store fronts.
- 6:00 am- After my workout, I get changed and ready for the school day. I hate being rushed in the morning, so I definietly am taking my time. No morning is complete without chatting with David while he’s getting ready and the occassional cuddle with my dog. Now is the time to make my pot of coffee and start packing my workbag.
- 7:00 am- Since I’ve given myself some spare time, I take full advantage and do some last minute blogging. Recently, I’ve really enjoyed having my cup of coffee at my desk to answer e-mails and share some engagement.
- 7:45 am. I always try to be out the door at this time, even though somtimes, I know, I really push it. The beauty of living two blocks from where I work is that my commute is no longer than five minutes. That was honestly a huge factor into why we picked our current apartment.
- 8:20 am. Here they come! My 30 students start making their way through the classroom door and the school day has begun. I am solely focused on them, but have a 45 minute lunch break where I can collect myself. Since I am a first grade teacher, I teach all of the subject. My Erin Condren planner allows me to keep track of each individual one.
- 3:30pm. After the school day is through, I use this time in the afternoon to run any errands that I need to take care of. My school is very close to the subway and it’s easy to pop on and head to midtown if needed. Normally, I stay in the Upper East Side and treat myself with another iced coffee.
- 4:00 pm: There’s nothing like coming home to a wagging tail! Once I get home, Tripp has my immediate attention again. Since he’s been stuck inside all day, I like to take him on a long stroll through Central Park. Since he decides to sniff everything, we don’t usually get very far, but the 30ish minutes outside is always refreshing.
- 4:30 pm- Now that Tripp is taken care of, I have some quiet time in our apartment. If I’m feeling productive, I try and clean some things around the apartment: start a load of laundry, put away dishes, that sort of thing. Other days, when I have a lot on my mind, I get on the computer to a little earlier to start my nightly blogging.
- 5:30 pm- Since moving to NYC, I’ve had to take up most of the cooking. I know my way around the kitchen, but don’t have nearly the same kind of depth as David. Mostly, we eat a lot of salads and rice bowls, but I’ve been serving up veggie burgers recently. After a long day, I just want to plate something that is both easy, healthy, and well balanced.
- 6:00 pm- As soon as David comes home, it’s time for dinner. We decompress together and talk a lot about our days at work, plus whatever else is on our minds. The Kennedy’s believe in a nightly dessert and our dinner isn’t complete without a little bit of ice cream or a few cookies.
- 7:00 pm- Both David and I still have a lot to get done, and we normally go to our seperate nooks to do some work. For me, I take the time to edit pictures, get the next blog post ready, and engage on Instagram some more. Around 9 o’clock, I try to get off the computer and do some paper-based work, like writing out my content calendar. Whatever show we’re watching will probably be playing in the background.
- 10:00 pm- At last, I start thinking about going to bed. Slipping into my pjs and sipping a cup of tea is probably my favorite time of the day. I try really hard to be screenfree at this time and love to lay in bed, reading, before it’s lights out.
Once again, thank you so much to Erin Condren for reaching out and letting me help launch their new Teacher Planners. With a workday that is packed to the brim, it’s nice to have a little helper to keep my self organized.
If you’re outside of the teaching world, but want that same kind of organization, be sure to check out their Life Planners! They are just as amazing and are something that everyone can get behind.
Love from NYC,
Katie
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