A Day in the Life of a Teacher

I always find it interesting to read about a day in the life of other people. Maybe I'm weird. But one of the most interesting parts of using the Occupational Outlook Handbook I posted yesterday is, for me, to read about what goes on in the daily lives of different professions. I feel like I have this preconceived notion of what each job entails, when in actuality I may be way off.

So I thought I would post about a sample (work)day in my life. In case anyone cares, ha! So here's what I did/am doing today:

5:30-Alarm goes off. Roxie jumps in bed and vigorously licks our faces

5:40--Actually roll out of bed

5:45-6:45--Get ready for work, eat breakfast, pack lunch, catch up on e-mail or poke around online a bit

6:45-7:35--50 min. commute to work. Today my soundtrack was Babel by Mumford & Sons

7:35-8:00--Check mailbox at work, get settled in for the day.
During this time I check work e-mail, change the due dates for each class on the board, make sure I have all the copies I need for that day in order, and look at my lesson plan book for the day.

Each week, I put a post-it note on my lesson plan book with all handouts/tests/quizzes I need to type or make copies of. I actually got a ton done on Friday and don't have a whole lot of extra prep work this week.

And just for fun, I wanted to post a picture of my window ledge (pardon the bad lighting). I got all the flowers and vases from Hobby Lobby, as well as the magazine holders. I let my study hall kids read magazines if they choose to.

8:00-8:20--First bell rings, so the kids can come up in the hallways. I usually stand outside with another English teacher and a math teacher to supervise.

First hour is English IV. Today we finished peer editing our summaries from last week, and they filled out their revision plan for the final draft.

Second period is prep. On my prep, I do a bunch of different things. Today I hopped on our newspaper website to add some calendar events, check comments, etc. I respond to emails or phone calls I receive. I will bring copies down to be run, fill out forms or complete other tasks I need to do, like deposit money into our newspaper account, book labs through the librarians, etc. I also try to do some lesson planning/grading if I can, but it's hard to get much of that accomplished in under 50 min. I also always have Pandora going during prep!

Third hour is study hall. I monitor the kids who stay in my room, send kids with passes to work in the library via Google Doc and try to get some of my own work done.

Fourth hour is English IV again.

I have lunch from 11:56-12:26. I typically have 20 min. to eat because I wait to leave until the halls clear and want to be back in my room 5 min. before 5th period. I eat with about 5-6 other teachers in someone else's classroom.

Fifth hour is English II. Today they took a vocab. quiz and began working in small groups of answering questions for Act IV of Caesar. I gave them a certain number as a minimum to complete for their "pass" out of the room. Since they all did finish those and more, we went over the answers too. My principal stopped in this hour for an impromptu observation for a few minutes (all the administrators are visiting classrooms a ton this school year).

Sixth hour is College English. Today I checked their theses for the upcoming explanation synthesis essay. I discussed it with them, gave suggestions and looked at their organizational plan. While I conferenced with each student, the others were working on summarizing each section and pinpointing topic sentences, so they can start drafting tomorrow.

Seventh hour is newspaper. I helped the editor upload articles that were ready to be published today, helped some students brainstorm ideas for this week's issue, edited a couple articles that will be ready for publishing tomorrow, and looked over interview notes for articles in their very early stages. During this period, I also have an independent study student taking ENG IV who checks in with me. I went over his assignment from last week and discussed his upcoming work with him.

3:08-3:30--If I have no meetings (I will have a department meeting, curriculum meeting, or some random other meeting about once a week; I also meet weekly to mentor a new teacher in the department), I will help kids who stop by for extra help or administer make-up tests. If I have NONE of that to do, I try to get a little bit of easy grading done, like today I was able to quickly grade my 12 vocab. quizzes after school and get those recorded. I also make sure to get any un-edited newspaper articles edited and placed back in their mailboxes before I leave for the day.

3:30-4:30--Commute home. There is always more traffic coming home.

4:30-5:30--Take Roxie out and play with her while I wait for my husband to get home from work. I'll also hop online and check Facebook, the blogs I read, etc.

5:30-7:00--Eat dinner and do random things, like do any grading I took home, do any lesson planning I have to do, etc.

7:00-8:00--Do something to work out; I will either ride my spin bike in the basement or do a workout DVD. When it's nice out, my husband and I may bike or run outdoors or take the dog for a walk.

8:00--Shower--I am totally a night shower-er. I hate showering in the morning.

8:30-11:00--Try to relax a little. We will watch some shows, catch up on DVR, or Netflix a movie. I usually call my mom and chat for a bit too.

11:00--Go to bed to rest for another day of teaching!

What is a day in your life like?