A chronicle of my attempts to live a classy life as a single girl in the Nation's Capital

Monday, August 9, 2010

Day in the Life of a Teacher

After my previous rant, I though it might be helpful to do a little timeline of what a typical day is like. I am not exaggerating...

5:30 am : Get up and get ready for school.
6:40 am: Arrive at school and get in line for copier to make necessary copies.  Also answer questions from students who are already here and have some urgent need
7:00am: Go to classroom.  Review lesson plans for the day, double check copies and open email.  I have about 20 from overnight.  Only 2 of those are junk mail. The rest fall in to these categories: 1. Last minute freak-out from procrastinating students (OMG I need more time!) 2. Parents wanting to know why their student's grade isn't higher (see #1) 3. Administration updates on things like schedules or paperwork that MUST be completed today  4. Counselor's setting up conferences with parents or Special Education department setting up IEP reviews. 5. Newspaper stuff (I am adviser for the school paper)
 I don't get to reply to any of these emails-- I just see what's there.
7:05 am " Oh crap! I forgot to copy this crucial document!"
7:10 am: Return from copy room.  Listen to stories about Harry Potter and/or Twilight from excited students, field questions about upcoming projects, listen to sob stories about why said projects aren't done.
7:25 am: The school day officially begins.
7:25 - 8:55am: Teach Pre-IB 9 English. Also battle with students who want to spend the 90 minutes texting, gossiping, trading Silly Bandz, sleeping, or talking about last night's game of CoD. (If you're a teacher you know what those are and why those students don't have their homework). Occasionally deflect questions about my age or dating habits. 
8:55 to 9:00am: Monitor hallway during class change.  Tell lovestruck couple that the lockers are not appropriate place to make out and that they need to get to class. Tell another student to stop jumping up in an attempt to punch the ceiling. They look back at me with blank faces.
9:00-10:29 am: Teach another section of Pre IB 9 English.  Deal with similar issues. (also notable: I have been standing since 7:25)
10:30-12:08: Teach journalism I-IV (in ONE class!) and send kids to lunch. During this class I have students in 2 different rooms I have to run between.  While in one room, a girl gets bullied in the other.  Parents email me about this later. Students are also all over the building on interview assignments. I am bombarded with 10 different questions at once ("so-and-so missed their deadline, what do I do?" "How do I do X in photoshop?" "OMG! Indesign just crashed and I didn't save!!" "Does the name or said come first in attribution?" "Who should I interview? What do I ask?" )  Try not to let my head explode.  Discretely take migraine pain meds at some point.
12:10-12:40pm: LUNCH!  I get to talk to adults finally! (teaching is a job done in isolation).  Several students interrupt lunch. And yes, we are talking about them.
12:40-2:15pm: My planning period.  I spend about half responding to those emails, which have tripled now.  The other half is spent running around the school doing administration stuff or things for the newspaper and grading essays / student work.  No planning actually gets done.
2:15pm: the kids are supposed to go home.  They don't. Usually there are about 5 in my room.  Some want to hang out, some want extra help.  I continue to work with various students until about 3:30 or 4:00 pm. Also during this time, I meet with parents if a meeting is scheduled and call parents if there is a need. Sometimes I get one of the 5 kids to run across the street and get me something from McDonalds.
4:00 pm: The building is finally quiet.  I work on grading papers or planning. Fight off sleep (there have been occasions where I fell asleep at desk with pen in hand over a paper).  Wander the halls to talk with other teachers (again, about students or their parents) in attempt to stay awake.
4:30 pm: Go home.  Loaded down with my computer and a stack of papers.
5:00 pm: arrive home.  Turn on TV and continue to grade papers for 1 hour
6:00pm: Dinner and break
7:00 pm: Review and tweak lesson plans for tomorrow.  Make sure all handouts are ready to be copied
8:00 pm: Finally stop working.  Though probably still reviewing tomorrow's plans and any student crises in my head.
10:00pm: Pass out and get ready to do it all again.
Total time spent working: 13 hours.  To my friends: this is why I often disappear during the school year.

Other considerations: 6 times a year I am at the building until 10:00pm for press nights, weekends are often spent planning and grading.

And yet, despite all this craziness, I love my job and (most) of the kids I teach.  Each day is different and forces me to be creative and think on my feet.  It may make me completely exhausted but I wouldn't trade it for a more conventional office job that probably offers higher pay... Maybe I'm a little crazy but you kinda have to be to do this job.

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