Vickie - Day 2 (3/21)

A week in the life of a teacher, day 2.

Tuesday:
I arrive in my room at 8:12 and enjoy my latte and bagel while checking my email, reading the Daily Demon, and checking my e-mail at the community college I teach at, which for some reason isn’t working. I try calling another teacher who was having an issue with his gradebook that I promised to help but there’s no answer- I am one of several gradebook “gurus” at my school so people come to me for help. I use the time to go through my students’ work from Friday when I had a sub and the subjunctive packets my students have been working on. I make it through the pile pretty quickly because I am grading for completion and not accuracy (we’ll be going over the subjunctive work tomorrow so I will have students self-correct then). When I look up it’s 8:51. I realize that there will be no bells today because of the makeup ACT and I head to my tardy duty. I only have a couple of students who come for late passes. When I’m done, I head down to the first floor to see if I can catch the teacher with the gradebook issues. It takes a few minutes, but I get everything back to the way it should be and have no explanation for the problem. I turn in my tardy sheet and head to the required professional development that begins at 9:15. I am 2 minutes late and the session already seems to have started. I am not going to go in to specifics but I will say that this mandatory session during my planning period was not helpful. I leave and decide to stop by another teacher’s room who had asked me some questions about the ASW process (analysis of student work) that we are required to submit to show that our students are learning. We go over the activities she has planned, and I offer some suggestions that I hope are helpful. Before I know it, it’s 10:22 so I head to the workroom to quickly use the restroom and get some big paper for an activity. By the time I head to my classroom, there’s 5 students waiting outside my door.

2nd period: (10:25-12:00) This is my smallest French 2 class and it also has many of strongest students. Today though, they are very talkative and it takes them several minutes to settle down and work on their journal- comparing and contrasting French and American high schools. We have a good discussion and create the Venn diagram. I’m pleased with how much they remember. We go over the first reading and complete the activities together. 1 student asks to go to the office because she isn’t feeling well and returns a few minutes later because she couldn’t get an answer at home. She isn’t in class long before she motions towards the door and runs out. When she returns, she tells me that she was sick. I ask her if she’d like to go to the office and offer to have someone walk her down. We go over a second reading passage and students then answer questions on their own. Most are on task as I walk around the room. I remember that I forgot to order lunch so the last few minutes of class, I put attendance in the computer and order Jimmy John’s.

Lunch (12-12:25) My third period class today is my combined AP and French 4. Several students come in to work and eat in my room. One student is very concerned because she took her French placement exam for college and it put her in the lowest level. I’m as surprised as she is. She asks if I’ll look at the test since it was online. I agree and while she boots up a Chromebook and logs in, I run to the workroom to make a few copies for her class. I end up talking to another teacher for a few minutes about a parent issue she is having and run downstairs to get my sandwich. The student from last period is sitting in the office looking miserable. I ask her if she had been able to contact someone and if she needs anything. When I get back to the room, we look at her placement test, and I try not to show my frustration. The test is horrible- lots of reading passages, but the questions are in English. The questions also focus on a students’ understanding of a single word in the text.

3rd period: (12:30-2:00) As class starts, I am finishing looking at the test with my student who realizes that the computer system will allow her to retake it. Another student asks if I can complete some scholarship recommendations for her and it takes a few minutes to go over the information. Only 2 of my 3 level 4 students areh a study period who are also in my room and I have to remind one of them to find something to work on quietly. I have 7 students who are enrolled in AP, and we spend the period walking through the writing and speaking portions of the exam. Students write an email response which we then discuss, we then go through the steps for the long essay and how to approach the sources. I jokingly tell them not to be too traumatized when they he present today, and I instruct them to read 2 more chapters of The Little Prince. They just started the novel so that I can focus on my AP students as the exam grows near. I have 2 other students witar the audio source. As it starts to play, several of them groan- not only is the person being interviewed speaking incredibly fast, there is a ton of static because it’s a radio interview. Luckily this is the only sample where the audio is this bad, but I like to start with it because everything else will seem simpler. With about 30 minutes left in class, a student delivers the school paper. We take a 5 minute newspaper break because I know they won’t be able to focus until they’ve looked through it. After the break, we get back to work on the speaking section and my students are focused and working for the rest of the period.

4th period: (2:05-3:40) This is my third French 2 class. It is also my largest and has my most challenging students. One of the most challenging, the one who had walked out on the sub, moves himself to the front of the room as we begin and actively participates in the discussion. This is very out of character for him so I make sure to encourage him and praise him when he answers correctly. I wonder what has caused this change (I’ve tried talking to him many times). With him focused and working, the entire class goes much more smoothly. The only interruptions in our discussion come when two students are playing with slime- it gets put away when I offer to take it. The second time is when another student starts to toss a basketball that another student normally brings to school with him. I offer to lock it in my cabinet for him so his friends aren’t distracted and he agrees. Most of the students finish their work with several minutes to spare so I allow them to read their newspapers and relax. We chat for a minute about basketball and life until the bell rings.

After the bell rings, several students wander in to my room, and I remember that I had promised a teacher she could use it for a club meeting. I grade a few papers and organize a bit. One of my French 1 students who often stays after wanders in around 4:15. I tell him that I need to leave in a few and jokingly remind him that he wouldn’t need to stay after school if he would do his work in class. He laughs and says he’s too distracted so I offer to move him away from the girls he normally sits by. He doesn’t want his seat moved and promises to do better. I eventually pack up all the things I took home yesterday but didn’t grade last night and head home around 4:30.