This is my 2nd year teaching and I still feel farely new at this. I have some tricks and ideas up my sleeves but can still learn more. I am responsible for about 100 students. About 40 who are in the current bilingual program and 60 that have exited out. My question to teachers is how do you handle planning, a family, grading, all of it. I still find myself going in on Saturdays in which I can spend all day planning my lesson plans, grading until wee hours of the night, and feeling frustrated almost everyday because I do not have enough time for my own kiddos. How do you guys deal? Any advice?
Thanks!

You will find the longer you are in it, the more you streamline out of neccessity. You will always be able to do more, but you simply have to draw the line at some point or you will burn out. This is likely part of the reason more than half of new teachers leave the profession in the first five years!

Make sure any work you assign is truly meaningful and beneficial. Sometimes work is given that it more busy work that just ends up causing you more work.

Ask co-workers, when possible and feasible, for ideas that they have found successful. No sense reinventing the wheel for a lesson if it has already been done for you. Check out the many sites online for teacher lesson plans for ideas as well. Then tweak what looks interesting to suit your needs.

If you have any volunteers at your school, take advantage of their help where you are comfortable. For example, I know some teachers have volunteers sometimes grade papers, but personally I don't as I always feel I have to go over them myself anyway since I am ultimately responsible.

Maybe try to have one or two days that you stay afterschool to do your grading/planning. Make those nights someone else's nights to make dinner at home or use it as a good excuse for easy meals or pizza! Try not to take anything home on weekends... (easier said than done, I know! ) Ok, try to limit how much you take home on weekends... :)

Thanks! I think what I have been doing a lot is assigning meaningless assignments and then later on find myself asking myself "Why did I do this?" Thank you very much for your much needed advice. The teachers I work with are great! They are always willing to help but their sometimes isn't enough time to get down to their rooms to converse. Thanks!

Your 2nd year sound similar to my 39th year. Yes, we do go in over the weekend and keep striving for improvements, that's what good teachers do. Teaching never has been a 9 to 5 job. I am curious what setting you are in since you deal with so many students. Our current building class size average is 21 per teacher, they come in over the weekend too.