I do believe that teachers hope for snow days much more than students do. Here I am sitting watching the news praying that I can get another day to get caught up on my grading. A day in the life of a public school teacher.
My Monday was supposed to start by moving my tables to get ready for a seating change and to suit my purposes better for the next few days. Then I needed to prep the material for today. We were going to attempt a dialectal journal with my students for the first time. I always like to review the content and check to see where my students might encounter issues. the majority of my classes are composed of second language learners, so much of my instruction needs to be gone over and over again. I was then going to grade my homework that I am way behind on during my plan time. After school was out I needed to go to the hospital to see a little girl who just had a baby at 16.
The trouble with the best laid plans is that, when teaching, they all go to shit. What is now becoming more and more common my entire day turned into a chaotic mess. It began by getting a call from my partner saying he was really sick and would not be going in. He would come in if needed but believed he had walking pneumonia. Obviously, I am not going to make him come in but this led to my morning being taken getting ready for someone else’s sub. Now, our start time is 8:30 and teachers have to be there at 8:15. This is obviously never happening. I am always at school around 7-7:30. This time I used to go over my daily plans, revise as needed and occasionally grade.Due to making sub plans for someone else I did not get any of that time. This throws my entire routine off and I start my first class off kilter. It is always hard to gain my footing after starting a day with a meeting or miscellaneous things that get thrown my way.
Now I can usually pull myself out of this by using my plan time to re-group. Today like many others I was not able to due to the need to sub in another classroom during my plan time. Now this class was not hard to do but it takes a lot of energy to make students do worksheet after worksheet in math while also maintaining order in a room full of 7th graders you don’t know. Now, there should be a choice when you are asked to sub but in my low-income building it is just not an option. So now being at school for 3 hours and I have yet to sit for more than it takes me to take attendance in my first hour. As I continue to teach during my day my kids are struggling nicely with the journal and growing well. I find it my job to get my students to be less dependent learners and more independent so something that they struggle with but are able to reason out is key for me. This does take a lot out of me during the day to support but not hinder.
I guess my whole point is after today I could really use a snow day tomorrow.
The Inside Truth of Public Schools 