Here was my day today.
5:31-alarm
6:00-breakfast.
6:45-arrive at school.
1st Period. 10 minutes, then a fire. Go outside. Wait fifteen minutes. Class gone. Lesson plan destroyed. Tell a joke in Spanish to students. Build a tenuous connection.
Bell. Passing period. Out in halls. Attendance. Pray. Deep breath. Bell.
2nd period. Actually get through lesson plan, but unrehearsed due to messed-up first period. Feeling very dizzy all period (stress). Speak with student (again) about not dropping the f bomb in class. Build another connection with a few students. Stress internally about how evaluation will go tomorrow.
Bell. Passing period. Out in the hall. Attendance. Pray. Deep breath. Bell.
3rd period. Prep. Grade 20 makeup papers. Fix computer grades. Go down to drop off confiscated (from texting during class) phones. Official confiscated phone count so far: 5. Go to mailbox. PAYCHECK!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait, it's a real check. Must go cash it this afternoon. Quickly make Spanish 1 homework. Oh no, time's up and there's still so much I have to do!!!! Write quizzes, grade more papers, make plans, be creative, finish pre-observation sheet, answer more emails, write antes for tomorrow, send out work for students in ISS tomorrow, ay!!
Bell. Out in the hall. Pray. Deep breath. Remind student of detention today. Remind another student of detention today. Remind another student of detention today. Fight with students who don't want to serve detentions they earned (for being tardy). Bell.
4th period. Exchange 4 books for student ID's (so I get books back). Start class. Pass out papers. (very dizzy). Go through warmup. Quickly explain the hows and whys of accent marks to heritage (native) speaker in class. She doesn't really get it. Don't have time to pursue, must start stemchanging verbs...
Bell. Lunch. Swallow sandwich while trying to catch up on emails at desk. Eat apple while going down to make own copies. Parent phone calls. Breathe. (forget to pray again).
Bell. Break up what looks like is starting to be a fight. Get students into classroom. Bell.
6th period. Attempt to get students' attention back to class after lunch. Fail. Stemchanging verbs. Break up verbal fight between black girl and white boy over whether white people can or cannot dance. Fail again to adequately get students' attention.
Bell. Out in hallway. Pray desperately, this next class is hard. Breathe, feel faint. Bell.
7th/8th period. Go through lesson plan, but not feeling very well. Hot, dizzy, faint. Drink some water. 20% of students didn't do the homework, don't care. Don't have time for final activity. Student texting, refuses to give up phone, now I have to do a dean's referral and call home. New seating chart making certain discipline issues easier, as is having followed through with dean's referral on one problematic student having skipped class last week. Other problematic student under control, actually doing some work today. Attitude 90% positive today (a first).
Bell. Collapse at computer in exhaustion to change over to Spanish 1 warmup on screen.
Here's where my payday came for real right then, a student had lingered and asked me, Are you a Christian? Yes, I told her. Can you pray for my dad? He just had triple bypass surgery. Yes, I told her. Payday.
Out in hallway. Pray for student and dad. Pray for all students. Bell.
Fight inertia and drowsiness produced by overheated classroom. Teach months, how to say days of week. Fight cheating, texting, sleeping, and insolence. Making progress in this class.
Bell. Out in hall. Ask colleagues what observer wants by standards. Find out answer. Forget to pray. Bell.
10th period. Try to work one-on-one with struggling student(s). Worst behavior problem has dropped Spanish. (Inward rejoicing). Other behavior problems remain. Half of them are bored. Half are lost and making minimal effort to recover. Trying to balance over-eager students and apathy. Fail. Fail to get their attention. Fail to get through whole lesson plan. Voice hoarse.
Bell. Call home about dean's referral from refusal to give over cell phone. Mom is kind (yay). Student comes in for detention. Copy off makeup work from today for folders. Copier jams. Fix copier. Wish that education classes included a technical class on how to fix copiers. Really useful stuff you're never taught. Answer emails. Fix grades. Work one-on-one with student after his detention for half an hour. Answer more emails after he leaves. Email more ISS work out. Finish pre-evaluation form. Haven't written quizzes yet. Feeling behind. Another student comes in. Help him. Realize dice for verb activity tomorrow (during observation) have been stolen off my cart. Get angry. Fume. Try to still interact with student without anger.
4:45 Get in car to go home. Realize I haven't turned in daily attendance. Uturn. Go back. Go in. Computer still on. Turn in attendance, turn off computer.
4:55 Go back to car. Go to bank, deposit paycheck. Not nearly enough for how much work I've done this last month, but still a lot of money!!
5:10 Go to Target, buy dice to replace stolen ones. Not enough in store. Give up in exhaustion.
5:30 Arrive home. Write this blog. Make dinner. Collapse.
And this was a good, fairly stress-free day, with huge rewards. I've left out a lot. You get the point.
