Love this!

Turn off my school email right as I’m leaving the building! I can’t tell you how many times I was at home with my family in the evening and got a frustrating email from a demanding parent… And what can I do about it, anyway?

I finally figured out that I truly cannot give a good reply without being in my classroom with my student work samples and my files and things. I truly can’t give a decent, thoughtful reply while trying to make dinner or while running errands.

Keep the email turned on during the day if you want to, because it IS convenient to check it while standing at the copy machine for instance. But turn it off when you leave and don’t check it again until your planning period the next day. As far as social protocol goes, it’s fine to return the email within 24 hours. Don’t let anyone try to bully you into an immediate response on YOUR personal family time.

Plus, I have shaved so much time off my regular work time by simply “batching my emails”. This means I ONLY check email during my conference period when I can quickly look up an answer I need and get it done, one after the other. (Standing at the copy machine is used for deleting the unimportant ones that come through, thus leaving more time to respond to the important emails later).