I honestly cannot express just how truly life-changing the 40HTW Club is! I joined the club in January 2018, when I was burnt-out and debating if I should be a teacher at all. I was constantly stressed, overwhelmed, and doubting my own abilities. To add to the stress, by the time the 2018-2019 school year came around, I was at a new school, in a new grade, with a new curriculum, newly-engaged, and wedding planning! Not to mention my then-fiance’s father was diagnosed with cancer on the first day of school. This year should have been the craziest, most difficult year of my teaching career. Instead, it was calm, inspiring, and fun! The club truly changed the way I ran my life, and it made all the difference! My husband has even streamlined his work and home life using tips I’ve learned in the club, too! All year, friends and family have constantly told me how amazed they are at how organized, put-together, and calm I am, three adjectives that never would have described me the year before! People at my new school even came to me regularly for organization and streamlining advice! While the year still had its challenges, it was the first year in my 6 year career that I felt like I was actually a good teacher. And while the changes in my classroom were enormous, so were the ones at home. I was able to have plenty of time for wedding planning, relaxing, and weekly date nights! On the last day of school (two days before my wedding!) I was completely calm, my classroom was set-up for the next school year, and I was able to just play games and enjoy my last few moments with my fourth graders. 40HTW truly made me a happier, calmer, more mindful person, and I cannot thank Angela enough for putting this club together. It has truly changed my life, and that’s not an exaggeration!

This club is amazing ! It has some great resources on time organizations and classroom, library , management etc. This year I felt so much relaxed and enjoyed my teaching unlike other years where I was so stressed. This year I was able to focus more on class time than over planning.

This club is very user-friendly! Involvement is based on your comfort level. Since information was provided passively and broken into small chunks, I never felt overwhelmed. I could access it if I had time, or skip it during busy times, knowing it would be there for me to access later. I like that the social aspect of the club is totally available, but not required. The club was like sitting down with an organized mentor and saying, “What works for you?” Then I was able to try out the tips to see if they were a good fit for me. Most of them were!

This program is worth every penny. In fact, after having completed the program I am convinced that you can’t put a price tag on getting back time! Thank-you Angela, for everything! My family and I thank-you.

After many years in the teaching field, I at first wasn’t sure this club would be helpful…it proved me wrong! I found things that I wished I had known years ago, and others that I was so happy to find out now that I’ve had many years in. The materials are easy to understand and spelled out for the “tired teacher/wife/mom/nana brain”. The greatest thing is you don’t have to “do it all” to feel successful, little steps can be added as you go into the next week, or month, or years to come! So happy I joined, looking forward to my 22nd year in theclassroom!

In July I signed up for this course because I needed help- even after 28 years of teaching. While still loving my job, I did not feel the time and effort I was putting into it was paying off (and I acknowledge I was putting way too much time into school work and very little into my personal/family life. I had read books, listened to podcasts, etc but it wasn’t enough). It dawned on me while doing my post-observation evaluation that successes I had reached during this school year could be attributed to the 40 Hour Work Week Club.

I was very diligent about what was provided to me as resources every week at the beginning and did a ton of prep work from the summer lessons. I admit to slacking off some during the school year as I needed to manage my time; there were weeks school or personal events took priority. (This was part of what I gained through the coursework! And I plan on readdressing them this summer while I can devote time to them as I still have access.)

I took the organization piece to heart! I redid my filing system as even though I use electronic docs, I still like some paper copies (another thing reinforced: we all have different systems; it is making them work more efficiently for us that matters.) I planned with another colleague two weeks ahead; we divided up tasks and had color coded systems for organizing. When I used ideas, I saved them in a file for next year. Ideas I have used in the past, I saved in separate part of folder; I purged a great deal. I am an organized pack rat but insuring everything has a proper place was refreshing. (I slid some…but did not beat myself up; I simply took a couple of hours here and there when I had the time to reorganize. I am amending 28 years of habits and it is working!!)

The list system provided great help; not having items hanging over me actually allowed me to sleep at night! It also helped that I scheduled certain nights for doing school work at home; it was not a nightly occurrence as in the past. I still hope to lessen the hours I spend at school each day, but I am a work in progress!

The resources provided are awesome and I have used many of them regularly. I was wise in following suggestions and not trying to integrate too many all at once; I have done that with disastrous end results in the past. When attempting to change everything, all that is altered is your desire to change in the future. When overwhelming oneself, nothing is given the chance to be successful. Much of what I do is effective; I desire making it more effective not starting completely over. I needed to take credit for what was working. I so appreciated the positive messages inherent in the weekly club materials; they recharged me.

For the first time in 28 years of teaching, I had my grades entered and classroom packed up only an hour after check out time. Historically, I spent hours/days doing so! The beautiful thing is I feel organized for next year; I know where things are, processes are in place. I will schedule time to go into my classroom before workshop, but I will plan it to fit into my life. I have a lot I want to learn for application to my classroom next year, but I am being strategic about it. I am in control of it….and feel the best I ever have about heading into summer vacation. Even piloting new reading series, I am not feeling as though I need to spend excessive amounts of summer preparing. I realize how important it is for me to take care of me; I need to fill up also. Naturally, I have known these things for decades. It took this club for me to internalize them and actually apply the concepts. This was the best investment of funds ever!

I learned invaluable lessons from this club- far beyond what was referenced above. I am modeling for my adult children (and younger new teachers) how to strive for balance in their personal/professional lives so they can establish healthier habits; I am enjoying more time with my husband and friends. I am a more effective teacher……and next year, I intend to be even more effective. I am grateful this club has afforded me the opportunities for continued growth.

It is easily the most valuable professional development for teaching I have invested in. There is so much content; not all of it is relevant to me, but I would say 80% was highly relevant and became integral to my daily practice. The PDFs and audio files made it easy to stay on track with the material, and I was able to quickly find resources I needed because everything is well-organized. The advice is relevant and practical on the ground level, not some high-minded idealist stuff that admin would give me!

The club showed me (20+vet teacher) the following: it is ok to view the teaching load as overwhelming, no shame with implementing strategies to help you, most of all it is OK to need help and a community of educators who share and offer helpful tools. Educators are always made to feel they should know how to do everything. This is a loving/supportive/empowering place/space to find something that works for you and your personality and life.

Since I’m a college instructor, most of the club materials don’t apply to me or have to be heavily adapted for my teaching context. Even so, I completely feel that I’ve gotten my money’s worth. The price of the club could be multiplied by ten and still be worth it for grade school teachers.

Do it. Invest in yourself. If you’re wondering if it’s worth it, it absolutely is. Not everything will be the perfect fit for you, but you will find tips and tricks that make this amazing job more rewarding than demanding. I cannot begin to explain how many resources and excellent ideas are included in your membership. And it’s yours forever – no expiry date on your access. I have less stress, more time for the people I love and am down to a fairly consistent 45 hours per week (except during those Seasons of Sacrifice). I even forgot the alarm code to the school because I stopped going in after hours!