A Day in My Life 7am-3 pm

Continued from 8/30....

7am  I arrive at my Professional Learning Community.  Even though I am officially a special education teacher, I attend PLC with the social studies department, mostly because that is one of my other licenses and I'm the only person from our department who teams social studies.  Today our task is to create a PLC goal to go with our building goal.  We discuss literacy, ACT scores, what seems feasible, yet challenging, and create a goal.  One of my co-workers seems a little cranky…I find out later in the day he is having “the worst day ever”—probably broke his toe before school (perhaps trying to wander his house with the lights off so he didn’t wake his family up?)  …I said, “why didn’t you just tell us what was wrong?!”  I think sometimes we all try too hard to prove nothing is wrong, when if we just “said something” (not whining or complaining, just “saying something” we could all make each other’s lives easier….

7:50  Rush down the hall to my freshman orientation class and today's lesson--"How to use your planner" and "How do you spend your time".  Great class of kids, so far I'm really enjoying this class.  They had great things to say about how they manage their time already and were pleasant and cooperative...always nice early in the morning!

8:40ish  Stop by the main office, pick up some materials for Friday's freshman lesson, re-check mail box (more recycling).  Chat with my office mate in my office, try to make lunch plans...do some paperwork, return some phone calls, talk with a couple kids....

10:30  Advisory class--we only meet with our "Advisory kids" once a week.  There were many points last year when I thought that this was my worst and most painful class...I didn't know the kids, they didn't know me, we only saw each other once a week...this year they came in and sat in their "old" assigned seats, gave me hugs, told me about their summers.  Today they set goals for the semester and the year--when I read them later in the day I was happy with how excited they are for the new school year.

11:30 My new office mate and I decide that we don't have time to go out for lunch and decide to brave the cafeteria.  Good times.  Now, I have to say that our cafeteria does have decent food..but I was spoiled as a high schooler and young teacher, as the high school I attended and then taught at for a year had a full on, restaurant style salad bar that I've never found equaled at any other school.  We ended up choosing cheese pizza (office buddy) and Philly Cheese Steak with tater tots (me...mmm, tater tots).  We also had a nice visit with some of our students that we found in the cafeteria, but decided that the cafeteria was way too overstimulating for us and retreated to our office to eat in relative peace.

12:30  Back at my desk and I keep hearing a baby cry.  Hmm.  This is an interesting development.  Upon investigation I discover one of my co-workers having a meeting with a mom who had to bring her two young kids with her.  A few minutes later I have the youngest in his stroller and I'm walking the halls--he was a very happy child, as long as we kept moving...We wave to lots of people and talk to a few.  I miss waving to my friend, JB, who recently moved to Canada and blogs about her adventures!  We had a whole waving protocol when we saw each other in the hall...After several laps, we headed to my office again, where my new little friend was temporarily pacified by me rocking the stroller with my foot while doing some paperwork at my desk.  Reminded me of when The Girl was little and went to work with me for a few weeks. Our school social worker emerges from the meeting and says, "It takes a village doesn't it?"  Yep...it does...

1:30  Last class of the day!  My high school works on a block system, meaning we have 8 classes, but only 4 meet each day.  Today's 4th hour is English 10.  My co-teacher is on an overnight field trip (to the Telluride film festival...am I jealous?  Yes. ) and the sub is one of my favorite subs ever--in fact he and I have teamed for weeks when he covered maternity and other leaves for my team teachers.  Our class is reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.  We talk about self-fulfilling prophecies and how to choose goals that allow us to have positive self-fulfilling prophecies...good talk.

2:45  Hustle back to my office, finish up a couple things and head out the door for the rest of my day...the part I only half-jokingly refer to as "my other job".

to be continued....