Teacher Talk Tuesday

How things were going midway through the first day of school. 

This will not be a regular thing but I thought I'd go over a little of what my teacher life is like..mostly because I've worked in more districts, schools, and classrooms than I can shake a stick at and I still find it so ridiculously fascinating how different they all are. 

This is my 11th year in my own classroom, but my 14th year of teaching because I did 3 years of subbing. Pennsylvania, Alaska, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri... I've mentioned all that before. I've thought lately about how we've lived in Missouri for 3 years and I've worked for two districts plus I took a year off in that time here. Kind of insane. I've taught mostly 4th grade, but did one year in 2nd and then this is my second year teaching 3rd grade. 

This is only the third time I've done a repeat year in the same classroom. I switched classrooms once in Alaska because I wanted to in order to get a better one. So I did two years in one classroom there and then I did 3(!) years in one classroom in Colorado (Colorado seems like a foreign concept to me at this point). But the last time I walked back into the same classroom in the same school for another year was in 2017, four states ago. 

I work in a district that is Prek-12 in one big extended building. It's still very much split into elementary and high school, though, with two principals. We function as two schools. There's an attached daycare for teachers' kids under age 3 if a teacher wants to make use of it. They have two teachers, a separate budget/supplies, a curriculum, and everything. They also get to participate in things like field day, assemblies, etc. They get to join the preschool for art, music, etc. That daycare is the only reason I can work right now. I couldn't justify paying double (or even triple...I've seen the pricing) for an industrial-style daycare near the military base and driving 40 minutes one way to the school I worked at before Sutton was born. 

As for Wells, he is in first grade now and he is two doors down from my classroom. Last year, he was three doors down in kindergarten. He said he can't wait to be in my class. I don't really want to burst that bubble: I don't think we'll still be stationed here in two years.

But the school is a 7 minute drive each morning, which is about the best I could hope for, you know?

The school day starts at 7:30 for both teachers and students, which I don't love. I'd prefer for teachers to start at 7:30 and students to start at 8:00, but whatever. I drop Sutton off at 7:15 and, I've finally formulated a system: I park behind the building and go in a back door because it's quicker. (Last year was a crapshoot with dropping off/parking/getting everyone inside.)

Wells runs off to breakfast and I have like 10 minutes, if I'm lucky, to set up for the day. Kids start coming in at 7:30 and by 8:00, I'm teaching two back-to-back Reading classes. My school departmentalizes 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. I don't love this or even like it very much but whatever. Apparently they've done it this way for years so it's just what the teachers are used to. I don't necessarily think what's best for teachers is best for kids but whatever. I could outline my thoughts in a dissertation at this point but mostly I keep them to myself :) 

I teach two Reading classes (one to each 3rd grade homeroom), I have lunch duty, I have my lunch, I have my RTI class made up of 2nd and 3rd graders, I have my prep period (50 minutes...last year it was 60), and then I teach two Social Studies classes (one to each 3rd grade homeroom). Last year, I realized there was not enough time to teach all of the ELA standards if I taught Social Studies every day so, this year, I'm doing Social Studies two days a week and Writing two days a week. While I call it "Reading", it's really reading, spelling, grammar, writing, phonics, fluency, research, speaking/listening/presentation. Plus Social Studies. I have about 120 minutes a day, 4 days a week to fit all of that in. (I spent all of last year writing curriculum, rewriting curriculum, asking for curriculum, and doing the math to figure out these minutes. There is no answer that I've been able to conclude.)

Without the departmentalization, I would have a lot more time because Math is generally an hour in every district I've ever worked in, and you don't teach Science and Social Studies every day in 3rd grade. You pick one and alternate. We used to do a Social Studies unit for 2 weeks and then do a Science one for 2 weeks when I taught 4th grade.

This is how quickly I can lose focus and start in on my disagreements with the methods! Literally don't even remember where I was going with that...

On Fridays, we have a 1pm dismissal, so I get an hour with each class instead of 120 minutes. From 1:30-3:30 on Fridays is when we do all of our PD, meetings, etc. Nothing is before school or after school or during preps. It's all on Fridays. I like this but I do think that a full 5 day week would be better for kids and families. Fridays are seen as fun day or not a serious day because for the early release. It's also when assemblies are held. I'd rather go to a 4 day week or a full 5 day week. I'd happily start school at 8:30, having meetings from 7:30-8:30 if we could go to a 5 day week. 

On Fridays, Wells stays with me and goes to all my meetings with me. He usually has a Chromebook to play on and this year he is able to join an after school club so I will do that with him on Fridays and maybe some other days too. I haven't figured it out yet. Sutton is allowed in my classroom under only the most dire of circumstances because she get into things and/or cries or yells and I can't take that. She stays at daycare until 3:45 every day. 

There I am, getting lost in the methods again though...

Monday through Thursday, kids are dismissed at 3:05 and I have to pick Sutton up by 3:45 so I don't stay after school. Any work usually goes home with me. I usually have time to prep for the next day before I leave...usually Wells is asking to go play with his friends in "their" rooms (really their moms' rooms) but I have to get Sutton before 3:45 because the daycare closes. So, more often than not, I am setting up for the day when the kids are coming in at 7:30 :) I can't drop off at the daycare until 7:15, so the timeline is tight. 

Anyway. That's what things look like at this exact season/snapshot of my teaching life. It wasn't always this way, it won't always be this way, and I can't lie: I've daydreamed about what it would be like to maybe send Wells off to school in a new location in a year or two, send Sutton to preschool, and just be at home with the dogs lol. We'll see what the Army decides to do with us.