Daniela - Day 2 (3/7)

A Week in the Life of a Teacher: Day 2...

8:40-I arrived to school late today as I thankfully realized a slight wardrobe malfunction just as I was walking out the door. I quickly changed, and of course had to say goodbye to Liam all over again and walked out much later than I intended. Thankfully, no traffic today!! I had the usual 2 students waiting for me at my door. I opened up my classroom, started to settle in and realized I needed more notecards and glue sticks for the activity I had planned for today. I ran down to the front office to ask our secretary. She had an unusually large crowd in line and hovering around her desk. Last minute substitutes needed attendance rosters, room keys and directions on how to find the classroom for the teachers they were filling in for today. I waited patiently, eyeing the clock. The pretend/silent bell (yep, still testing) would soon be "ringing". The line of people soon disappeared and she grabbed her keys to open the supply closet. She handed me an opened pack of glue sticks and one pack of notecards. I knew I'd need more, but I didn't want to be stingy so I thanked her and ran back upstairs to my classroom. I stood outside my door greeting my students as they came in and also fulfilling my "duty" of monitoring the hallways. Asking students to "please take out your headphones" and then watching them either smile back and obey, or sometimes roll their eyes and then put them back in their ears as they turned the corner. 8:55 and I shut my door. My students were working quietly on their warmup and I took attendance. 10 students today! By 9:20 I had 15. 8 absences today. We reviewed the warmup and I updated the students on their updated benchmark date which had been moved up one day to Thursday. I explained that we'd also be taking a practice test tomorrow. I tried hard not to sound too sarcastic since I personally hadn't found out about this practice test until 10 minutes ago when I had checked my e-mail and saw that it was agreed upon by my department at the last minute. My students know how I feel about the excessive amount of tests they are required to take and I personally didn't see the need for another one created by my colleagues to be given the day before a required test created by the district. I'm ok with them knowing since it's really my way of showing them I sympathize with them and that we're in it all together! We work on some review notecards together and everyone is really engaged. A positive start to the day. I let them do some choice activities for the last 45 minutes of class to review the 6 weeks of information they'd be tested on. Before long, class ends.

10:30-12:00: 2nd period typically follows a similar pattern to 1st. I decide to try out a new program I had been trained on about a month prior called Edgenuity. I was really hopeful about it during training, but it didn't seem as helpful today when we actually started using it in class. My students were good sports about it. Some of them continued using the program as a review but many chose to work on the other choice activities I had laid out. A few students were called down to student services (guidance) for their registration sessions. Since we were reviewing, it was very much a student led class today with me circulating the room offering help so I didn't mind answering the phone a few times nor did I mind the students having to be taken out of class for registration. Upon return they were excited to share with me the classes they had chosen for next year. I was excited to see them excited! About halfway through class, one of the assistant principals sneakily entered my room. He quietly circulated as I did the same. I always feel awkward when an AP (assistant principal) comes in my room. Not only because they are basically my "bosses" but because I never know if they're there to see me, a student or just a random check in. As usual, I awkwardly continue what I'm doing (circulating the room helping students) and occasionally glance in his direction probably with a "hey, um, are you here for me, and are you just waiting for me to finish with this student or are you just doing your thing?" look. Obviously I doubt there's a look for that, but secretly I wish he could read my mind so I could know if I should continue on and help the next kid with his/her hand raised or walk over his way. Eventually he left, so I guess he got what he needed. The rest of class went pretty smoothly. I have one particular student in this class who refused to do absolutely anything. I spent 3 straight weeks trying everything in the book to get through to her and finally, when she yelled in my face to leave her along, I spoke to her administrator, called home and a parent teacher conference was scheduled (for today, actually!) She sat there on her phone literally the entire 90 minutes (no, phones aren't allowed, but yes, I have in a sense given up for now). Before long, this class ended, which meant the day was halfway over!

12:00-2:00: As usual, I run down the hall to do my tardy duty. No tardies today! Woohoo! Another teacher teaches in my room today but he left a note on the door for his students that class would be in the gym today. I don't mind sharing my room, but it is nice to have it vacant every once in a while so I can get some work done on things that are harder to carry to and from the work room. Plus, I can cover the glass panes in my door and pump in my room, so that's nice too! I call Elliott during this time since he is in California for work and catch him up on home life and work life. It's a short conversation since I really do have a lot I need to get done today! For lunch, I head down to the workroom and share another great 25 minutes with some great teachers! We share stories and remarks about students we have in common and laugh about a few other topics that come up. Today, I discovered that I and another teacher both eat our cereal hot. Most people think it's gross, but we think it's funny. Toward the end of lunch, I express my frustration to a few of my colleagues that I have a meeting at school scheduled for this Saturday from 8-12 to discuss data from my benchmark results. I find out that I can't technically be forced to attend this meeting on a Saturday and so I e-mail the appropriate person and let her know I won't be able to attend. A weight has been lifted off my shoulders! I finish up in the workroom and head back to my classroom to prepare for 4th period.

2:00-3:35: As students are walking in I remember that I had promised to assign new seats. I had completely forgotten to create a new seating chart but with a class of only 15 students, I quickly make one up and seat students as I greet them when they walk in the door. Some students are excited for their new seats and others immediately plead with me to assign them someplace else. Within 5 minutes, signs of a good seating chart are visible. Everyone is quiet and working on their warmup. I smile to myself. Another positive note to the day! I let one student in particular who had given me a hard time just 2 weeks ago choose his own seat. I had moved him to the desk closest to mine since he was so chatty and he responded...well, not so well. For 2 weeks he refused to say a word to me, but after I spoke with one of his teachers who knew him better, he began to once again work hard in my class, but still not speaking a word to me. I told him as he was walking in today, loud enough for everyone to hear, but not loud enough to make it too obvious, that he was allowed to choose his seat because he had been such a hard worker recently. I noticed a small smile, but it felt like a big victory. By the end of class he was mostly back to acting like his normal talkative self and even laughed at a few of my jokes again...As I walk around the room making sure everyone is on task, I just so happen to pass by a student whose friend had just handed him a stick of gum. This student doesn't speak very good english but looks up at me and motions with his hands like he is tearing his piece of gum in half and pretends to offer me half (the universal sign of, "want to split it?" I smile because I realize he is offering me half his gum and then smile again because of how sweet his gesture was. I politely tell him no thank you, but continue circulating the room thinking about this sweet interaction. I then review the activity we had started yesterday and we finish the last little bit together as a class. I'm so proud of this bunch for their active learning today and praise them for their hard work! The last 30 minutes of class, I decide to reward them with a review game. I let them get their chrome books and we play kahoot to review the different topics we had reviewed in class the last 2 days. Everyone is super engaged and competitive and I'm excited to see them so excited to learn together. With 5 minutes remaining, I ask them to put up their chrome books and remind them not to forget to put up their chairs. Every single chair gets put up today, even the ones no one was sitting at.

3:45-4:45: A parent teacher conference I had been dreading for over a week. I walk in to the conference room and literally feel sick to my stomach. For an hour, each teacher goes around the room and explains how this particular student is doing in his/her class. There was a lot of yelling by the parent, and I leave not really knowing how to feel. I walked into the meeting anxious but in some ways relieved that a student who had given me so much grief and treated me so rudely recently would finally face some sort of consequences. I was relieved to know that all her teachers were facing the same issues and not just me. I was nervous however about being yelled at by this parent. But instead, this parent yelled at her child and it didn't feel good at all. My heart hurt for her. I left the meeting not really sure what to think or what to expect from here on out. I'm still not really sure or clear on how exactly the meeting went. A sad/confusing/strange/awkward...not really finding the word I'm feeling...ending to an otherwise extremely positive day.