1.19.2021 was the second first day of school. We started this school year online due to the surge of COVID related deaths, hospital visitors, and illnesses...yet it's ironic that we have more deaths and transmissions NOW and yet we are opening up schools NOW. I'm seriously baffled. They say they don't know enough about children to know if they spread COVID-19, but a study done in September of 2020 in Europe (I'll find it later) shows otherwise.
So today starts the beginning of a new crazy year. We have ZERO prep time and enrichment time for students, and we are so grossly underfunded that me and my friends personally fund projects happening in my classroom. It hurts my heart to believe that this is the point at which many educators find themselves in.
I became a teacher because I wanted to make a positive impact in the lives of the most vulnerable. As a youngster I had a challenging upbringing, I was a struggling reader and a second language learner. It wasn't until 6th grade that I had a teacher that got me excited about school and made me feel safe. Mr. Gage Smith--He was the coolest teacher.
I remember wishing so hard my fifth grade year sitting in Mr. Sellars room hoping that the next year I'd get Mr. Smith. I'd heard he was funny, fair, nice, and had class money. Let's be honest, I just had heard he was so cool, that I should want either Him or Mr. Hansford. There was something about Mr. Smith that made me feel safe, so I just wished on a lucky star that I'd get him because Mr. Hansford was really tall and kinda scared me. Back then I was this super quiet, shy, thing with a horrible hair cut, I don't think I really "blossomed" until....wait...maybe I'm blossoming now? LOL. Anyways, that SHY kid.
Lo and behold, when summer was over and we went to check the class rosters, I had been granted the holy grail of wishes! I remember being so excited. At the beginning of the year we had a design competition for the money, and my friend Morgan's dad made a wooden treasury box for the money to be stored in with a little lock. It was a 6th graders dream. I was even voted the treasurer a few times. This meant you got to keep the box under your desk, pay people for their work, collect fines, and look important. It was AH-MAY-ZING.... 6th grade was the year I discovered boys liked me, that I was super athletic, and even popped a ball during the annual 6th grade kickball tournament.
Everyday we would walk the Mountain View Soccer Fields and do a few laps. Mr. Smith was currently trying to undergo weight loss. He'd joke, "Do you want me to be lean and mean, or fat and jolly?!" I wanted him to be fat and jolly! Eat whatever you want! But somehow his wife always won the battle and didn't hear our 6th grader cries. He wasn't ever really that mean--Teaching is a HARD JOB. I always knew that, but did really KNOW that until I became a teacher. Anyways, I digress....I became a teacher because I wanted to make a different in the lives of the most vulnerable in the most vulnerable situations and life circumstance. I wanted to be able to do for others, what noone was able to do for me, or at least until I became a 6th grader.
It's interesting to me that He's one of the reasons I felt so inspired to become a teacher, and that he's also one of the Helpers in my life. So many times I've reached out on social media asking for donations and help, and so many times he has offered his help. Last week he send funds so that we can have water dispensers in the classroom because we don't have a drinking fountain fill station. There are simple little things that add up to a lot that makes the life of a teacher so much easier and I'm so grateful for the people in my life that constantly show up and support this career that I've chosen.
People often tell me I didn't choose this career, but that teaching is a calling, and that it's called me. I don't know what I believe or know. What I do know is that I could do this job, career, calling, or whatever you want to call it without my tribe. Thank you to the tribe of people who always have my back, to the strangers, loved ones, friends, and beautiful humans who see the value of children and help me enrich their lives. Today was a hard day. The days to follow will be hard. But I know I can get through it because of amazing people like YOU. Thank you for your smiles, your positive thoughts and kind words, thank you for supporting your own children so that their teachers' job load can be lightened. We all must be the change we wish to see in the world.
So here's a day in the life of a teacher:
8:00-8:30 Login to Zoom for online students, monitor students arriving to school, get them breakfast, get them cleaned up
8:30-8:45 Crew: Have them greet each other and share information about the day. MAKE SURE TO TAKE ATTENDANCE or your day will be interrupted with emails, texts, and/or phone calls/intercom to your room to do it! Then even when you take it by 9, the time they ask, they send an interrupting intercom to the entire school.
8:45-11:00 Teacher ELA.
11:00-11:25 Transition kids to recess, monitor them outside for recess.
11:25-11:55 Transition them in from recess, help with recess issues, have them wash their hands, monitor lunch in the classroom.
11:55 Cleanup lunch
12:00-1:20 Teach math.
1:20- First wave of dismissals, have class start cleaning up
1:25- Second wave of dismissals, make sure space is clean and materials put away
1:30- Final wave of dismissals, reading intervention students stay
1:30-2:00 Have the reading intervention kids help you wipe down the classroom, because custodial duties continue to be a part of your job description, have them vacuum and make sure the space is organized. Take them out for a mini recess. Sneak in a pee break if you can, if you've even had a chance to hydrate and need to pee at this point.
2:00-3:20 Teach reading intervention groups
3:20 Dismiss students and clean the room again.
3:30-4:00 PLAN AND PREP AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN, but usually it goes after hours.
Repeat Monday through Thursday.
I mean, don't ask my opinion, but this seems pretty sustainable, right?
Good night for now. Just needed to share a few of these thoughts/ramblings because I rededicated myself to documenting the life of a teacher, especially now in this crazy pandemic.
