This is what my daily life was like BEFORE the pandemic. Currently, our days look VERY VERY different and continually change as per direction from the government and the board. I really miss the “old days”…
6:20am: Your extremely obnoxious alarm jars you from your slumber. The first thought as you cross the room to shut that racket off is: “How many days until the weekend?” Sometimes a tear is shed at this time as you realize it’s only Monday.
6:25-7:00am: Daily ablutions; while in the shower the butterflies start as you hope that the lessons you have planned for the day will dazzle your students and impress your administration when he comes in for an impromptu observation. It is also at this time that you struggle to make sure your hair, make-up and outfit are on point; if not the kids will let you know…and they don’t pull any punches!
7:10am: You check your email quickly. There are 12 from Pinterest; as a result you remember all the projects you told yourself you would complete this term (but you know you won’t get around to it; you only have 4 days left of your allotted marking period to provide thorough feedback on 40 essays therefore that colourful bulletin board about literacy will have to wait). There are several announcements from head office. Four from parents and two from students asking about assignments that are way overdue, the test that is happening today and requesting homework for a two week vacation that is needed by 3pm. One from your boss outlining the happenings for the week which reminds you that you quadruple booked yourself pretty much all week, but no sweat you can have that parent meeting, tutor a student, have a student club meeting and do lunchtime supervision all at the same time.
7:15am: Frustrated by the last look in the mirror you quickly change at least one article of your clothing while trying hard not to mess up your hair and make-up. Then you quickly scarf down your oatmeal and hop in the car.
7:25-7:45am: You drive to work, mind whirring; trying to formulate the perfect responses to all of the emails or rehearsing the phone calls you will be making once you get to school.
7:50am: GET COFFEE FROM THE STAFFROOM. You slurp it back as fast as you can; on the way to your room while burning your mouth, but you know if you don’t drink it now it will be cold the next time you get a chance to take a swig; which will probably be around 2pm.
7:55am: Agenda written on the board; yet each student will still ask you, “Teach, what are we doing today?”
7:57am: You hustle back down to the staffroom to put your last minute copying in the machine.
7:59am: You curse the blasted machine as it has jammed again…in about 20 places. Following the instructions to clear the jam you break into a sweat, knowing that you are running out of time and the buses will be arriving soon and you haven’t done any of your correspondence.
8:00am: Finally the photocopier is clear and placated…BEEP…out of paper…of course; you fill both trays and hit COPY once again.
8:03-8:15am: You sit down in front of the phone, take a breath and dial; the rehearsed conversations take place and go well. Just when you think you can begin to breathe, you realize it’s your day to unload the staffroom dishwasher. You somewhat resemble the Tasmanian Devil as you put the cutlery in the drawer, plates in the cupboard and mugs on the shelf.
8:17-8:35am: The buses arrive and you put a wide smile on your face and greet your students. You are genuinely happy to see them of course. You chat with them about anything and everything as they get their food from the breakfast room and put their things away.
8:40am: Bell goes; time for class. You rush to the staffroom and grab your photocopying, and book it to your room; knowing that you still have a couple emails to write.
8:45am: Anthem and announcements.
8:50-10:47am: Teaching and learning; the part that you actually live for. This indescribable time when the magic happens, albeit occasionally interrupted by a late student or a minor power struggle over a phone. While you challenge, inform and grow the horizons of your young charges a massive amount of emails flood into your inbox once again from various educational stakeholders.
10:47-11:30am: Prep time. Every day you are grateful that you have this time to regroup and get things done! Emails are responded to, reflections about the morning’s lessons occur, tweaks are made to the plan book, you set-up some assignments with their weightings and outcomes in the (live) electronic gradebook, on more essay gets marked, you check on the progress of your online students then send them reminders about due date and lastly you set up for the class after lunch.
**[As an English teacher, I know that was a run-on sentence. It was done for effect, hopefully you ran out of air as you tried frantically to finish the sentence…just like I frantically try to get everything done during the day!]
11:30am-12:15pm: You inhale a granola bar and an apple on the way to the gym for supervision and after opening the equipment room you pop into the conference room to provide add your two sense to the meeting going on there. After popping into the gym to make sure that everyone is in one piece you rush back to your room to let the Students’ Union kids in so they can run their club and finally you hurry down to the library to work through a few questions with one of your students.
12:18-3:00pm: Teaching and learning once again; you are in your element!
3:05pm: Classroom clean up
3:08-3:15pm: Hallway supervision to make sure all the kids get out of the building in time to catch their buses. It is at this time when a ton of kids can’t get their lockers open and you rush to help them with their combinations.
3:17-3:30pm: With the students gone (and the hallways looking like a tornado ripped down it, scattering papers, books, pencil cases and often at least one shoe and a mitten); you tackle the correspondence
3:35-4:00pm: You drag your tired bones down to the staffroom and flop on the couch and catch up with your coworkers who you haven’t seen all day despite teaching in the same hallway because you all have been going full tilt.
4:05pm: Bathroom break…finally…
4:10pm: As you are on your way out with your tote bag full of marking you hear your name called out over the P.A…you have a call on line number one. You think about making a break for it, but you turn around and head back.
4:45pm: Now you are off the phone and feeling tense so you head home, knowing that you still have to stop for gas and make dinner before hunkering down for the evening with those essays.
5:30pm: You are home. Teacher clothes are shed in favour of some comfortable fuzzy pajama pants. Feeling drained you put a frozen pizza in the oven and set up what your husband calls your “marking nest” … piles of papers, rubrics, textbooks, a chromebook, a package of funky coloured pens that litter the coffee table or kitchen table.
6:00pm: Carefully eating dinner so that you don’t slop on the homework you mark for a few hours until your husband tells you; “It is bedtime, you need your rest!”
9:30-9:45pm: You pack up your “marking nest,” pick out your outfit for the next morning and set that obnoxious alarm. Then you climb into bed for a fitful night of sleep as you stress about the days to come while also looking forward to the assembly, the project presentations, finding out if Bobby passed his driver’s test, the spirit contest at lunch, the band concert and volleyball game after school tomorrow. At some point in the night you wake up to make note on your phone of something you have to do tomorrow.
