Daniela - Day 1 (3/6)

Thanks to my good friend and fellow teacher Heather for inspiring me to document my life as a teacher for 1 week. As many of you know, I teach Biology at an urban high school here in NC. This is my last semester (for now at least) as I am going to stay home with Liam. Growing up a good student, I'd like to think I was at least somewhat mindful and respectful of my teachers and all they did for me, but in reality I had no idea until I actually became one myself. I definitely don't blame anyone for not knowing/understanding this profession I am in but I definitely do want to do my part in sharing this experience to let everyone get a glimpse of what all that we actually do. In fact, my own mom just mentioned to me the other day that she herself never truly understood what life was like for me as a teacher until she recently came to stay with us more frequently to help out with Liam. She told me she was shocked to hear what a typical day is like for me. So..here goes

A Week in the Life of a Teacher: Day 1
8:00-8:50: I'd say my day really starts when I leave the house. I usually spend my 20 minute drive doing just about anything to wake myself up and mentally prepare myself for the day ahead. Liam wakes up between 4 and 5 to eat so it's that awkward time where I've slept "enough" by then, but knowing my alarm won't ring until 6:30, I foolishly toss and turn, sleep maybe 45 more minutes and then wake up way more groggy than if I would have just stayed awake the first time...anyway...Usually if you pass me on 40 in the mornings, I'm completely invested into something I've found on the radio. Today, I rode in silence. Yesterday I received an e-mail that a former student of mine had committed suicide over the weekend. In more than one way I was in complete shock. Teaching in a high school, unfortunately this wasn't the first time I'd received such news, but it was the first time I'd read the e-mail and recognized the name as one I'd seen and said so very many times. 90 days of taking attendance, on dozens of papers graded and passed back, countless quizzes, tests, projects. A name I had called on, hand raised or not. A name following a "hey!" during class changes as I stood in the hallway. This was my "first" and it was not easy. I rode in silence, fighting back tears every time I let myself realize it all over again. I debated about crying it out on the way to work in hopes of keeping it together once I got there, but 20 minutes passed by quicker than usual as I put my car in park and walked towards my classroom determined to make it through the day. I dropped a few things off in my classroom and headed for the workroom to put my food in the fridge. Here I ran into another teacher who also taught this student and as she hugged me, I let the tears finally fall. I felt at ease knowing I was surrounded by the only people that could truly understand the thoughts and feelings I was experiencing. But we had class to get to, so I wiped my tears, noticed some papers of mine laying on the table that I thought never copied due to a continuously malfunctioning printer. I grabbed these papers and headed to class. It was 8:50, no bells again today due to more testing, but as teachers, we're always somehow aware of the time.

8:55-10:25: First period (standard Biology) started out with 7 students. As usual, students work on a warmup of about 5 questions to prepare them for the day's lesson, although these 10 minutes of quiet work really give me time to take attendance, and wait for the 3 or 4 tardy students and 4 or 5 late bus students arrive to class. 9:15 and we're up to 13 today. 5 absences. Pretty typical. We review the answers to the warmup questions together and begin our lesson. We take about 20 minutes of notes with some built in review and discussion and then I pass out their assignment. Today they are reading an article about the structure of DNA and answering questions/coloring the different parts of DNA and RNA. Immediately, I have 2 or 3 students shut down when they realize there is reading to be done today. My first year teaching I didn't understand. Thought this behavior was defiance and disrespect. I've since learned that this attitude stems from discouragement. Often times, these are the students who read on a 3rd grade level, 5th at best. I know I'd probably put my head down too. I go over to these students and offer them a highlighter, read the first few sentences with them and point out the key words. We underline, we circle and together we find the answer to #1. I encourage and move on to the next student who has since put his/her head down. We work on this assignment for about 25 minutes. I take questions from the class as a whole and we finish by defining the words we've learned today on our vocab list. I look at the time and notice we still have 10 minutes left. My students are used to me teaching bell to bell and I plan accordingly. They stared at me and I felt like they knew I must be off my A -game. I wanted to and I didn't, but finally I brought up the tragedy that had occurred over the weekend. I started off strong, no tears, not wanting to cry in front of my students, but talking about it, it became inevitable. No one said a word. Many knew, some didn't, but all stared at me with wide eyes. We had a good discussion, but spent the last minute or two in silence. The last minute of class is NEVER silent.

10:25-12:00: 2nd period (standard Biology) I run out of my room and down the stairs to the 1st floor workroom. I try to beat the crowd of students in the stairwell going up and down between floors since I only have 5 minutes and today I not only really needed to refill my water but really needed to use the bathroom. I guess I had nervously drank an entire 30 oz during class. I'm supposed to be standing in the hallway monitoring students during class change, but I had to go now since I can't leave my students unattended during class and my next chance wouldn't be until 12:00. I make it back to class with 10 seconds to spare and joke with my students how they should have no excuse making it to the bathroom between classes if an old person like me can do it. A few of them laugh. A pity laugh probably. 6 absences today. This class proceeds much the same way as 1st period. Warmup, notes, activity, vocab summarizer. But this time for some reason I chose to start class by discussing what had happened over the weekend instead of waiting until the end. I guess I didn't want them to feel rushed at the end of class and to truly talk to me if they needed and/or wanted to. We also had a good discussion, but mostly they responded with the same wide, silent eyes I had seen in the last class. We awkwardly transitioned to the lesson and finished out the class almost silently except for a few phone calls calling students down to the office for their "disciplinary referral (D1) meetings". The silence was completely unusual for this specific bunch. While they worked, I wrote out the names and dates on all the papers I had handed out today for all the absent students in my 1st and 2nd period and placed them in my makeshift absent folder by the front door. I was surprised at how quickly the time passed today and how hard at work my students had been today. At the end of class, a student handed me a folded piece of lined notebook paper and rushed out of class. She wrote about her older brother, who had committed suicide not too long ago and offered a hug if I ever needed one. Again, the tears. In 2 paragraphs she spoke to me more than she'll probably ever know or understand.

12:00-12:45: I tidy up the papers that always seem to accumulate when I teach and search for my clipboard and tardy slips. I realize I had left them in the workroom and run down the hallway to retrieve them. I run back through the hallway and find my place at the "tardy duty" desk. I wait out my 5 minutes, but only have 1 tardy student to write a note for today. Progress from the sometimes 15 I'd have to write last semester. I need to take the tardy list to the attendance person but to make use of my time, I decide to wait and take it when I need to refill my water again since both are on the 1st floor. I run back to my classroom and quietly enter as there is another class going on taught by a different teacher who uses my room since I have planning during this time. I grab my pump and bottles and head to the storage closet next door where I catch up on emails and social media while I pump. My mom calls during this time because she knows I like hearing about Liam's day and how he's been eating, napping and any new developments he's working on perfecting. It's a rushed conversation. Still a lot to get done.

12:50-1:15: I head back to the 2nd floor workroom and crowd around the table with a lot of the English teachers who teach on the 2nd floor. Everyone rushes to use one of the 3 microwaves and eventually we all sit and spend the next 15/20 minutes talking about everything and nothing all at the same time. These 25 minutes are some of the best minutes I've had today, but always the shortest.

1:20-2:00: I finally decide to take my tardy log sheet down to the 1st floor and refill my water. I stop by the office as well to check my box. I find a D1 for a student who wasn't in class today so I begin to wonder if maybe she skipped. I look for an administrator but couldn't find one. I finally head back up to my room. I have 30 minutes of "planning" left. I read and send a few e-mails and realize that the district test my students will be taking on Thursday has been changed since I've taught Biology last spring. I need to completely revamp my lesson for the next class and the rest of the week to make sure my students are prepared for an entire unit that will be covered on the test that we haven't learned yet since the usual sequence in curriculum is different. I quickly find an activity I'd done last year and run back to the workroom to make copies.

2:05-2:35: (Sheltered Biology for ESL students) I make it back to class with a minute or so to spare. There's no warmup on the board since I had decided to change things at the last second. I try to offer as much consistency to these students as possible. Most of them speak very little or very broken English and I know their brains must be fried by the time they come to Biology 4th period. Not seeing a warmup on the board completely throws them for a loop and class starts off a little more hectic than usual. I explain to them that they will be taking a district benchmark on Thursday and that we will spend the next few days reviewing. The inconsistency of the day has completely thrown them off and finally I make a deal with them that if they work quietly on a previous assignment for 30 minutes, we'd spend the rest of class doing an activity together. This finally settles them and within a minute, everyone is hard at work. I am able to gather everything we need for their activity while they work and after 20 minutes I praise them for working so hard. Many of them ask if they can continue working as they are so close to finishing. Of course, I allow them. We spend the rest of the class cutting, gluing, coloring and writing about cellular adaptations to prepare for the benchmark test on Thursday. Everyone worked so hard, that none of us noticed what time it was. By 3:40, all my students had left in a rush. Usually, 4th period puts up all the chairs on top of the desks so that the floors can be cleaned, but everyone was in such a rush to leave when they realized the time, I worked out my biceps and put up all the chairs myself. Besides, I had a faculty meeting to go to and couldn't rush home myself like I usually do.

4:00-5:00: A typical faculty meeting. By this time I'm pretty braindead. I had forgotten to bring a pen to doodle with so I watched my colleagues around me doodle instead.