That's not something that happens very often...hardly at all, actually.
Which is a great start for Day Eight's blog topic: Explain a typical day.
Pretty much every weekday morning that I'm at work, my alarm goes off at 4:30. Once I get up, I use the bathroom and take a shower. After my shower, I put on a robe, feed the cats, clean out the litter trays, and grab a cup of coffee. That usually puts me in my office no later than 5am.
For one hour I sit at my computer, drink coffee, and write my blog. Peanut has now insisted on being woken up at 5am so that she can get ready for school because she thinks it takes an hour to get ready. Whaev's - she stays in her room for that hour so it doesn't mess with my peace and quiet time.
At 6am I wake up Jelly and Butter and then I go and get dressed. That takes me all of 15 minutes - and that includes getting dressed, fixing my hair, and putting on the sparse amount of make-up that I wear. Take that Peanut!
Then, it's back to my computer for one last cup of coffee and a couple of quick games of Candy Crush before it's time to head to work.
We leave at 6:30 and head to Jelly's daycare to drop her off. That's usually around 7am...and I'm pulling in to the driveway at work around 7:05.
Most mornings, I potter around my classroom turning on computers, writing objectives on the board, getting the lunch count ready...all things I swore I'd start doing before I left for work each day (minus the computers) but still haven't got in to the habit of doing. I make any copies that I need and then do some grading or organizing or something. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have newspaper committee in my classroom...but with as hectic as the past several weeks have been, those meetings have become less frequent.
At 8:05, my lovelies start heading in to the classroom. They hang up their backpacks, pick their lunch choice, and then get out a book, or finish up some homework, or sit and talk quietly with their friends. I'm OK with any of those choices because I'm a stickler for not liking "morning work" just to keep them busy. I've trained my class pretty well to know that those first twenty-five minutes of the day is a time to get their visiting out of their system before the busy of the day gets started.
While they are all chatting or working on stuff, I'm doing attendance and lunch count. Then, we'll have our school wide moment of silence, Pledge of Allegiance, and announcements.
At 8:30, the fourth grade breaks up in to math groups. The kids rotate to their math teachers... I get a group, and the other two teachers get a group. We then teach math for an hour. At 9:30 we rotate in to reading groups. I then teach reading, grammar, and spelling in a 90 minute block. At 11am, I get my homeroom class back and we start getting ready for lunch.
At 11:11, I take my kids to the lunch room, grab my lunch, and then sit at the teacher's table with the other 4th grade teachers to eat. We get about 15 minutes to scarf down our foods, after making sure the kids all have trays and sitting down. Then, the kids are dismissed at 11:35 for recess. I then have recess duty until 12:05.
Once we come in from recess duty, I read to my kids. I spend about 20 minutes reading a chapter book to them while they relax and calm down from recess. It's such a great transition time, because they always come in hot and sweaty and hyper. Reading to them for that small amount of time really puts them back in to learning mode. I will probably always do my read aloud time right after recess.
Then, at 12:25 the kids go off to their specials class and I get my planning time until 1:15. There's no "typical" routine for my planning time. Some days I plan. Some days I grade. Some days I meet with my team to discuss stuff. Some days I just sit with my head on the desk and listen to the peaceful sounds of Pandora. The latter being very rare.. but it's happened.
Once the kids come back from specials we spend the rest of the afternoon doing science, social studies, silent reading, a little homework help - and anything else I need to fit in. Then, at 3:15 dismissal starts. Buses are called as they arrive, and the whole dismissal process takes around 15-20 minutes.
Because Peanut is currently in track, I have to stay at the school until 5:30 until she gets back from her practice. I try and spend that time working on stuff in my classroom, but it's not uncommon for me to use that time to sit and discuss stuff with my team mates - who usually end up staying to around 5pm themselves. Then I run and pick up Jelly and get back to the school just in time for Peanut's bus to drop her off from practice.
We get home around 6pm, eat dinner around 6:30 and then I spend the rest of the evening on the couch watching TV and relaxing. Around 10pm, I head to bed.
Rinse. And repeat.
I'm sure it doesn't sound all that exciting... but it really is a lot more fun than I make it sound. I have a pretty routine life - but I love the routine. I'm used to it. My days seem to go by so fast they all just blur together. Having the routine helps me stay grounded and not get overwhelmed by how much needs to be fit in to one day.
And, I only have 28 typical days left of this school year before my days will become much different....cause that's when summer break begins!! Not that I'm counting or anything... HA!
When I was subbing at the elementary school here in Lincoln, the days would just fly by! That sounds like a nice routine...
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