Today was the first day back form April vacation and my day started at 5:30 am when my alarm summoned me out of sleep for the first time in over a week. I now ...Wah wah wah. Showered and then rousted the rest of the family to start their day at school. ( My husband teaches special education and my boys are in High School.)Next, I made lunches for the four of us. I should make them the night before, but I don't. By 7:00 am everyone has left for school. I quickly gulped down something that resembled breakfast, grabbed my computer and printed a graphic organizer and an article for my first academic class, packed my school bag (including the donut holes that I bought for my homeroom advisory period. The ones my sons wanted but didn't get.) and headed out early. I wanted to get to the copy machine before there is too big of a line, the paper runs out or the machine jams and needs to be repaired. I was at school by 7:30 am.
At school, I unpacked my bag in my class, grabbed my lunch and the printed papers and went to sign in and make copies. I only had to wait a few minutes for the copier. I copied what I was going to use with my 8th grade classes. After making copies, I went in search of the two class sets of books I was planning to use for my seventh graders. I found one set, but only one copy of the other set. Another teacher has already checked out that set. (We are doing a common assignment that we planned together before vacation. I was just hoping that I would get to the books first.) So now I proceeded to go back to the copy room and copy the chapter from book that my seventh graders would need for class. I had another short wait for the copier. Once it was my turn the copier jammed. Grrrr. The second copier became available and I jumped in to make my copies there and proceeded to unjam the other machine. Black toner smudged my hands. Luckily no one else was waiting to copy.
The warning bell rang at 7:58 am. I ran back to my room with the stack of the copied chapter and quickly put my objectives up for my classes. 8:00 am and the bell rings for the students to enter the building. Now the fun begins.
8:00 am- I am standing in the hallway next to my door greeting my 8th graders as they enter the room. I reminded them to turn in their cell phones, sign in on the smart board and sit down. Someone asks to use the bathroom already.
8:15 am- Morning announcements begin. National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance and announcements.
8:20ish I review the classroom rules and expectations for homeroom as some seem to have forgotten over vacation.
8:25 am - I ask students to share out what they did over vacation. Most said video games. I notice an 8th grader sticking stickers of cent signs all over his face. Really...this is 8th grade. So I asked what he was doing. I should know better. His response, "This just makes "cents" to me." Ha, Ha, Ha. Ok, moving on. It is advisory period. For the months of April and May we are supposed to be doing some kind of community service. Before vacation my class wanted to plan to sell popsicles next week to raise and donate the money to the cancer walk that student council is participating in on May 18. I thought that was a great idea, so we pitched it to the principal to get approval. Today we were supposed to begin organizing and planning. Schedule who is selling when and at which lunch, make posters to advertise our event, and work on securing donations from a local grocery store. That was the plan. We did not get approval to do this activity. So now I have nothing. The kids sat and talked the rest of the advisory period. A few girls help me change a bulletin board. We rearranged the desks into a u-shape configuration.
9:07 - I line the kids up for their allied arts classes, music, gym, art. They all go to different ones. Now is my prep period. I post my attendance. I only have one absent. Twenty-eight out of twenty-nine are present. Amazingly the girl who usually misses Mondays is in! I check and respond to emails. A few of my seventh graders walk in with the Grecian Urns I assigned for extra credit. Four out of fifty-five students took the time to do it. I made sure everything was set for my classes. Objectives...check. Materials...check. Warm-up activity...check. Up to the library to sign out the computer cart for next week. I return to my room and go to my desk to finish the plans for this week. I started them last night, but did not finish. After finishing my plans, I made sure the materials for tomorrow were all set, then I reread the chapter from the book my teacher leadership group is reading. We are meeting this afternoon. A quick glance at the clock tells me I have time for a quick trip to the bathroom before the students return.
At school, I unpacked my bag in my class, grabbed my lunch and the printed papers and went to sign in and make copies. I only had to wait a few minutes for the copier. I copied what I was going to use with my 8th grade classes. After making copies, I went in search of the two class sets of books I was planning to use for my seventh graders. I found one set, but only one copy of the other set. Another teacher has already checked out that set. (We are doing a common assignment that we planned together before vacation. I was just hoping that I would get to the books first.) So now I proceeded to go back to the copy room and copy the chapter from book that my seventh graders would need for class. I had another short wait for the copier. Once it was my turn the copier jammed. Grrrr. The second copier became available and I jumped in to make my copies there and proceeded to unjam the other machine. Black toner smudged my hands. Luckily no one else was waiting to copy.
The warning bell rang at 7:58 am. I ran back to my room with the stack of the copied chapter and quickly put my objectives up for my classes. 8:00 am and the bell rings for the students to enter the building. Now the fun begins.
8:00 am- I am standing in the hallway next to my door greeting my 8th graders as they enter the room. I reminded them to turn in their cell phones, sign in on the smart board and sit down. Someone asks to use the bathroom already.
8:15 am- Morning announcements begin. National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance and announcements.
8:20ish I review the classroom rules and expectations for homeroom as some seem to have forgotten over vacation.
8:25 am - I ask students to share out what they did over vacation. Most said video games. I notice an 8th grader sticking stickers of cent signs all over his face. Really...this is 8th grade. So I asked what he was doing. I should know better. His response, "This just makes "cents" to me." Ha, Ha, Ha. Ok, moving on. It is advisory period. For the months of April and May we are supposed to be doing some kind of community service. Before vacation my class wanted to plan to sell popsicles next week to raise and donate the money to the cancer walk that student council is participating in on May 18. I thought that was a great idea, so we pitched it to the principal to get approval. Today we were supposed to begin organizing and planning. Schedule who is selling when and at which lunch, make posters to advertise our event, and work on securing donations from a local grocery store. That was the plan. We did not get approval to do this activity. So now I have nothing. The kids sat and talked the rest of the advisory period. A few girls help me change a bulletin board. We rearranged the desks into a u-shape configuration.
9:07 - I line the kids up for their allied arts classes, music, gym, art. They all go to different ones. Now is my prep period. I post my attendance. I only have one absent. Twenty-eight out of twenty-nine are present. Amazingly the girl who usually misses Mondays is in! I check and respond to emails. A few of my seventh graders walk in with the Grecian Urns I assigned for extra credit. Four out of fifty-five students took the time to do it. I made sure everything was set for my classes. Objectives...check. Materials...check. Warm-up activity...check. Up to the library to sign out the computer cart for next week. I return to my room and go to my desk to finish the plans for this week. I started them last night, but did not finish. After finishing my plans, I made sure the materials for tomorrow were all set, then I reread the chapter from the book my teacher leadership group is reading. We are meeting this afternoon. A quick glance at the clock tells me I have time for a quick trip to the bathroom before the students return.
10:04 am- My homeroom starts drifting back to class from Allied Arts. Back at the door to greet the students again. The Music students arrive first, they are the closest. I quick head count tells me all are back and ready to go. I review the objectives and instruct the students to create a KWL chart in their binders. We are beginning the causes of the Civil War today. I am looking to see if anyone knows anything before we delve into the lesson. I stress that we are talking about what caused the Civil War, not the war itself. First the students had to list what they know about the causes. Most of the students knew that slavery was a cause, but that was about it. After a quick share out, we went to the next column- What do I want to know? Once again, I stressed that we were talking about the causes not the war. I even had a few kids repeat what I said. The kids asked questions about how long the war lasted, and when the war was and who won. Seriously guys??? Some of you even repeated back to me what I was looking for? I even gave an example," Was there a lot of violence around the issue of slavery? Was slavery the only cause of the Civil War?" This class at least, raised hands and participated in a discussion. After the K and W of the KWL chart I asked the students to put the chart to the side and we read an article about the causes of the Civil War. We began with an independent read. They were asked to read the article to themselves and circle anything that might need clarification and underline anything that was important to them and write their thinking in the margins. After a brief discussion to clear things up and share their thoughts, we read the article together. This time, I shared my thinking about the article. As it was projected up on the board we made annotations in the margin together. Class ended with us returning to the KWL chart and filling out the last column, What did I learn. There was good participation from this class.
11:15 am- Time to switch classes. The students exit and line up across the hall for their science class. I wait for the science students to come to me. I ask the students to line up, because we are getting new seats. This is the same lesson as the previous class. They are quiet and do their work, but if I ask a question all I get are crickets, blank stares and puzzled looks. No one raises a hand, no one asks questions, no one responds to prompts from me. Time to light a fire under them.
12:15 pm- Class is over. I escort the students to their lockers to switch out their books for their afternoon classes. Now they talk. We return to my room, put the books down, rather throw the books onto the desk and hope they don't land all over the floor. We line up for lunch.
12:25 pm- Walk students to cafeteria. Get my lunch from fridge and meet a few teachers in the teachers room. Half way through the school day and 20 minutes to eat. Pick the kids up, and switch classes. The last class grabs their books from my room while the 7th graders line up outside my door.
12:50 pm- With my lunch still in my hand, I chat with my seventh graders and say bye to the 8th. I quickly assign the new seats and we start over again. Review objectives, warm-up activity. Explain what we are working on. We have been studying Ancient Greece. This week we will be completing a W.A.R. ( Writing about Reading). I hand out the article I copied. We read and annotate, then write down the information we will need to complete the W.A.R. on a t-chart. Next we read the article in the book and take notes on a t-chart. We are explaining the origins of democracy in Ancient Athens and then comparing the democracy from Ancient Athens to the United States democracy. We cannot annotate the article in the book, but we will make do. The two different texts are meant to be used to aide with research. They students are engaged and working on the task.
1:45 pm- Classes switch. Same lesson again on democracy. Worked out a few glitches from the first class and things went smoother.
2:40 pm- Class is over. I send my last class to their lockers and back to their homeroom. I stand at the door waiting for my homeroom to return. As I welcome them back, I remind them to pick up their cell phones ( as if they would forget those) and ask them to sit down and wait for dismissal. After a few minutes, I have to ask someone to remove their baseball cap, helped another pick up the contents of his backpack that was dumped all over the floor because he forgot to zip it up and remind three students to sit down until they are dismissed. By 2:50 all students are dismissed.
Time to check and respond to emails again and head to my teacher leadership meeting after school until 4:00pm. I am taking notes. We discussed scheduling for next year(Yikes-already?)and the remaining two half days to plan the professional development for the staff.
4:00 pm- The meeting is over. On my way back to get my stuff from my class, I stop and chat with a team member for a few minutes before heading home. He was working on his school "stuff".
At home, I hang out with my husband for a few minutes. He has a Special Education report to write. I head to the gym. Treadmill, elliptical, home to feed my brood.
7:00pm- Check and respond to school emails again. Read an article online about teaching that caught my eye on Facebook. Correct papers. I forgot to bring home the rubric before vacation. I could not correct the summaries that the 8th graders completed on the historical book, Lyddie, during vacation as I planned. It's ok, because I did correct another set of essays during vacation as well . Reading and correcting 55 book summaries will take me to about 10:00 pm. Thankfully work for tomorrows classes is all set.
Tomorrow it starts all over again.
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