February 12, 2014
A typical Tuesday
5:14am Alarm goes off. Out of habit, I check my phone for school closures. We're open. Not sure whether to be happy or sad about that. Lay in bed and watch the news for a few minutes. Scott and the dog were in Rolla for the night, so I had it all to myself. Also, when there's no dog to take care of in the morning, I have more time.
5:30am Put laundry in washer and dryer. Make coffee. Drink some warm lemon water while I wait for the coffee. Check email.
5:45am Get dressed and sit back in bed, reading blogs, drinking coffee.
6:00am Start getting ready. Hair, make-up, pack lunch and breakfast to go. All in small stages. I can't move quickly in the morning.
7:00am Start car. Put out the garbage. Gather up ALL THE STUFF.
7:05am Listen to Dead and Gone on the way to school. It's actually a really nice way to start the day, listening to an audiobook.
7:08am Stop for gas.
7:20am School. Unpack all the stuff. Check email. Set things up. Eat breakfast.
8:10am Children arrive.
8:45am Morning work, Spelling, Irregular verbs, Read aloud, Subtraction timed test.
9:50am Music class (a break for me to check email, to prep, make copies, attempt to call parents who keep dodging my calls, etc.)
10:40am Pick up children, give them a bathroom break, Proofreading, take them to lunch.
11:00am Lunch. Had a conversation with a student about why they cannot eat the school lunch and bring a hot dog for lunch at the same time. It's one or the other. (The hot dog was returned to the backpack.)
11:25am Reading. Abe Lincoln reports and a story about tornadoes and hurricanes.
12:25 Give them another bathroom break.
12:35pm Kids switch for interventions. I have a smattering of children from other classes (i.e. kids not as disciplined as my own). We do half an hour of Context Clues practice with foldables and the Science books. Bonus: We actually get to use the Science books. Normally I have no time to teach such content.
1:05pm Silent Reading time. Kids read. Sometimes I read too. More often than not, I check email, prep materials, pull kids for fluency testing, etc. I also spend a lot of time policing…"WHY AREN'T YOU READING?"
1:35pm More Proofreading, a bit of Writing.
1:55pm Math. Bar graphs. Give another timed test.
2:30pm Too cold for recess. They sit on the carpet and watch The Magic School Bus.
3:00pm Start packing up…this is the point in the day where my voice starts to go and my frustration starts to show.
3:25pm Take the 1st group of kids to the buses. Send the 2nd group to another teacher's room. End up explaining that we do not have boyfriends and girlfriends in 2nd grade. And you definitely cannot trade your "girlfriend" to your friend for a toy that you want. (Make a mental note to call some parents.)
3:45pm Leave school, go to Panera for green tea, the water treatment office to pay the sewer bill, and head to the district's career high school for my Foldables class.
4:00pm Check email, listen to audiobook in the car to relax. Eat a Luna Bar and trail mix.
4:30pm Dinah Zike's Foldables class. It's a good class. Relaxed. But still…it's 3 hours on a Tuesday night.
7:30pm Drive home.
7:45pm Contemplate bringing the garbage can in. I don't.
7:47pm Make a smoothie, call Scott because he's still at school, get a report on how bad the dog was that day.
8:00pm Watch an episode of The Following, drink my smoothie and eat some tortilla chips (still not feeling well and don't want real food), catch up on blogs. Contemplate answering emails. I don't.
9:00pm Shower, #28daysofpilates Day 11, read a chapter of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Contemplate doing some dishes. I don't.
10:00pm Watch the weather report. Wonder why there are still schools in the area that are closed due to weather concerns…Some are on snow day #6.
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That's a long day! I"m also the type to have an early alarm so I can do a few things in the morning and not just rush off. I was probably the only college student with 8:00 am classes who had a 5:00 am alarm at my school!! haha. Schools have been closed a lot here, too.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was up early in the morning...your day is packed!
ReplyDeleteHOLY cow friend! You have such long days. I can't even imagine. I haven't had days that full since college. You have a lot of patience that's for sure! <3
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ReplyDeleteUntil yesterday some of the schools in this area have had 10 snow days. Right now one of my districts I sub for is going til May 30th, the other June 3...assuming nothing else happens. When's your last day?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a pretty awesome and loonnggg day. I have so much admiration for school teachers. You all do so much!
ReplyDeleteHow are you liking the Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks? I need to pick it up one of these days.
I love these. I'm that person who is interested in how people spend their days and what they do when.
ReplyDeleteSOMETIMES I wish my days were this busy so they'd go by faster...but mostly, I don't. Hello, superwoman.
ReplyDeleteThat picture of Scout cracks me up. :)
ReplyDeleteMy frustration starts to show by 8th period. At that point I have had enough of the "I need a pencil." "I didn't know we had homework." "I need to go to the bathroom." "Can i go call my mom?" "I don't know what you're talking about" statements.
ReplyDeleteMy frustration starts at 8:30 AM...when the kids arrive and ruin my peace and quiet. :-p
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who contemplates doing household chores and chooses not to. Today, I was going to fold yesterday's load of laundry and do another load. I didn't. I need to make my valentines for my class party on Friday. I didn't.
I SHOULD get up as early as you so I can take my time in the morning (or stop myself from running late every day). I used to be able to get ready in an hour. I can't any more. I don't know if it's because I'm getting old or what. Haha. I am so not a morning person, and I just can't bear to see a time that early when I get up. As it is, I've been doing 5:45 instead of 6 since the weather's been lousy...
That's a really long day. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteI've started doing the warm lemon water in the morning too. It might be too early to see if it's having any impact though. :)
Yuck 5:15am! It's interesting to see your day. I bet it's busy being a teacher!
ReplyDeleteI wish I was more of a morning person. I think I'd get a lot more done in a day because when I get home from work in the evenings, till I eat, feed and bath the baby, do a few necessary chores, and watch some TV, I am SPENT and useless. I have a Tuesday night class, too. It used to be Thursdays, but, regardless, for the past two years, I've been taking these classes to get my ESL Program Specialist Certification. It's taken so long because only one man teaches the classes. The classes will give me another certification and help me get my Level II (which I need by this June... ugh! It's been 6 years already)! It makes for a LONG day. I don't think people realize how intense of a job teaching is and how much extra training and schooling we have to do... we need those summers DAMN IT! I have family members who say, "Must be nice to have summers off," and all I can do is say, "Yep! Maybe you should have been a teacher since it's so easy." *Sighs* It doesn't pay to try to make them understand. Shawn understands now that he's married to a teacher, and he defends me when people bring stuff up like that. We are a special breed of human that's for sure! :)
ReplyDeleteP.S. We are on another snow day today. *Sighs* We will be in school FOREVER!