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A Day in the Life of a Teacher
In case you wondered. (MEGA-RANT)
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A Day in the Life of a Teacher

 

10-05-12 07:08 PM
Singelli is Offline
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Singelli
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Okay, so I'm going to go on a bit of a rant here.  This is for all those students who might have wondered why their teachers was grumpy, or why sometimes teachers simply 'snap' on their students for apparently no reason.

This year is the busiest I have ever had.  Four of the five weekdays, I arrive to school an hour early and leave an hour late.  On Monday mornings I manage the chess club with a co-sponsor who never shows up on time, and in the afternoon I offer tutoring for the few students who care enough to show up.  On Tuesday mornings I run the math team which consists of five different subjects that five different teachers are supposed to help me with....and yet they have not shown up even once since the school year began.  So I must try (for a full hour) to balance my attention between five very different topics while keeping the kids attentive when I'm not focusing on their area.  I'm supposed to be getting them ready for a competition that is two weeks away, and for another competition which is three weeks away.  On Tuesday afternoons, I teach ACT Academy to a bunch of kids who are being forced to come by their parents, and this lovely session lasts two full hours, so by the time all is said and done, I've had a 13 hour work day.

Wednesday mornings I manage Mu Alpha Theta, the math honors society, for kids who never show up and expect nothing to be done thanks to the sponsor who retired next year.  I don't even know a -thing- about the organization and I'm supposed to do activities with them and yet I can never get them to show up because they already have placed in their minds that Mu Alpha Theta holds no importance.  On Wednesday afternoons, it's tutoring in the afternoon again for whatever kids come thanks to me calling their parents.

Thursday mornings is math team again, and Thursday afternoons is yet another bout of ACT Academy. Yes, Thursday is another 1 hour workday.

Saturday is yet another session of ACT Academy, except that this one lasts four hours, and the students complain if no one provides them with snacks, and they take a 30 or 40 minute lunch break when they are only allowed 20 minutes and then us teachers must go hunt them down.  The three teachers that are there with me don't show up regularly, don't help gather up the students, and stand around like lost sheep if the assistant principal is in the hospital..... meaning -I- have to take charge, improvising a rotating schedule. Assigning kids to various sessions, making sure all the appropriate paperwork is filled out, and then telling the other teachers when we will start.

So yes....Friday is my ONLY non-crazy day.

THIS FRIDAY

So when I got to work, I was ready to relax.  I went to work and since I have prep period first, I pulled out my papers and began to grade.  Another teacher uses my room during that time period though, and she was out for the day.  She had asked me early in the week if I would mind watching her class since they would just be completing a homework assignment and it wouldn't require me to lose my focus on my work.  However, I was also supposed to attend a very important meeting with my principal and the rest of the math teachers about 30 minutes before that period ended.  I had forewarned several people that this other teacher's class would not have a substitute when I left, and I had been assured someone would come watch the room while I went to the meeting.

Around 8:45, I had an office aide go remind someone that I needed someone in the room at 9:15, and once again I was assured someone would come.  I was told to stay in the room until 9:15, at which time another teacher would be sent to be in the room with the students.  9:15 came around and nobody bothered to show up.  9:30, and I was still sitting in the room, wondering where my replacement was, and fretting over the fact that this meeting was quite possibly the most important meeting my boss would have all year.  My boss had been talking about it for WEEKS, prepping us for the interview that the big shots would be giving.

To add insult to injury, my fellow teacher had instructed her students to -leave me alone-.  She told them that under no circumstances were they to bother me so that I could get my work done.  At first, I was able to dispel their inquiries for help by stating that I had a meeting to go to.  Of course, my relief never came and the kids caught onto the fact that it wouldn't.  And since all of these seniors had been taught by me the previous two years, they of course felt perfectly fine nagging me to death, making it very difficult for me to concentrate.  On top of this, they kept begging to leave and get the -other- calculus teacher.  Knowing how bothered I was to have my free period full of distractions, I didn't want another teacher to have to go through the same thing.  I maintained that the kids could NOT go bother the other calculus teacher since it was her off period as well.

So already irritated by getting nothing done during my free period and worried about missing the crucial meeting my boss wanted me to attend, the rest of the day could only get better.  (Of course.)

I proceeded to teach.  First, I gave my students a vocabulary and formula quiz.  This is the eighth week of school for us, and we have such a quiz every Thursday and Friday.  And as usual, my students gave me dumbfounded looks like "O-M-G, we have a vocabulary quiz today?!"  As I walked around and gave the quiz, it was quite easy to tell none of them had studied.  Blank, blank, and blank was all I saw.  

Here's the thing:  A) As I've said, this quiz is given WEEKLY, and it's the eighth week of school.  B) The words are ones that we learned very recently.  C) The kids who came to tutoring were given the words and definitions so that they could prepare!  D)  EVERY week, I list the words that will be on the quiz three or four days in advance so the students know which ones to study.  E)  Every day I see them, I start the class with a reminder that the formula and vocabulary quiz will be at the end of the week.

Some of the kids had the audacity to shout out during the quiz, telling me I had never went over a certain word.  And you know kids....instead of thinking, they'd rather pipe in with their peers.  I assured them that I had gone over the word, and they all started -shouting- at me at once, saying I had not.  It irritated me a bit and I told them that I had, and that they needed to guess or leave it blank.  I got several eye rolls and sneers, and when the quiz was complete and collected, I pulled a random child's notebook and showed them exactly where it was in the notes.....not just once, but in three different lessons from across two different chapters.

So recently, I gave them a factoring packet.  I wanted them to be very good at factoring, so the packet is 140 questions, and they have two weeks to complete it.  I told them that I as going to give them some strategies to ease the process of factoring and I proceeded to work through the most complicated problems.  Instead of -thanking- me for walking them through the most difficult and longest problems, they only wanted to whine and whine about how long the problems were and how ridiculous factoring was.  I nipped that in the bud, but when I went around to assess their understanding with a few in-class problems, I couldn't help but notice that all the kids' notes lacked very important information that I had instructed them to write down.

Therefore, I paused the class and gave them a small lecture.  It wasn't one done in mean spirit or necessarily even in a chiding tone. Instead, I advised them about taking better notes.  Instead of taking the advise from a professional dedicated to their success, they started complaining.  "But we're writing down exactly what you write on the board!"  No matter how I tried to tell them THAT was the problem, they kept insisting I was wrong and basically ignoring my advice.

Not one to waste time on moot points, I decided to move forward.  The rest of the class went fairly smoothly, and I was hopeful about finally getting a break during lunch.  Instead, a few students decided they wanted to stay and keep asking questions about the worksheet.  I don't often turn down students when they ask for help, simply because such an occasional is rare and I want students to know I'm available.  Besides, my job is not about me getting relief on a bad day; it's always first and foremost about helping students succeed.

The worst part of the day, however, was my last period.  Last week, two of my students got into a shouting match and I sent them out after they continued to shout at one another and ignore my attempts to quiet them.  Unfortunately, the two students who wouldn't stop yelling are also two of the kids that struggle the most.  I -hated- sending them out but I didn't have an option.  So today when I started class, they of course held a grudge against me.  I had expected it, and I was a little on the edge, expecting a slew of disrespectful comments and eye rolling.

As I gathered their progress reports, I noticed that one of them had a very long paragraph on the bottom in a spot I designate for parent comments.  It was the progress report of on of the students I had sent out the week before, and skimming through it just made my day so much .....better.  (<-sarcasm).  The student had written a long note, stating that she felt like I had a bad attitude and that I never tried to help any of my students, only getting sarcastic with them.  I don't like putting myself on a pedestal or bragging, but -nothing- could be further from the truth.

I told myself that these kids are teenagers and that she was just trying to get to me, so I just set the paper down and started teaching.  However, when I started, the student started interrupting me every other word.  "Um, excuse me!  I don't understand what you're doing because I wasn't here."  The other child didn't have any such complaints because she had done the responsible thing and gotten the notes from someone and read them.  After about the third interruption, I'm ashamed to admit that I lost it.  I snapped back t her and told her I would not be re-teaching a lesson from last week just for her because she had been disrespectful and I had kicked her out.  I couldn't believe what she said next....She made a 'duh' expression and said "Um, I only got disrespectful because -someone- got disrespectful with me first!"

I was flabbergasted. What is wrong with these kids?!?!  And so I -immediately- paused and asked her who in the world she thought she was to speak to me like that.

I had to check myself.  I had the option to ignore her and allow her to catch the lesson, or send her out and allow her to fall even further behind.  Knowing that she shouldn't have passed her last four math classes, I chose to let her stay, and other than dirty looks, she was mainly quiet during the rest of the class.  -However-, the rest of the class was not, and I found myself time and time again raising my voice to tell the students to stop talking so that I could teach.

My flustered state also caused me to jump someone else that I shouldn't have.  She was drawing on the desk, but because her notebook hid her hands, I assumed she was texting on her cell phone based off the little movements of her hands.  I chided her and told her to put her phone away, asking why she would take it out when my policy is no cell phones, and if I see a cell phone I take it up.  She insisted that she didn't have her cell phone out, and since I was so certain I had seen it, I got even angrier.  I brought it to her attention that I was showing her grace by not taking up her phone per my policy, and I asked her why she would lie to me like that when I was showing her that mercy.  I was a little snippy about it because I was so certain I had seen a cell phone.

Later on though, I saw her rubbing at her desk, and it dawned on me that she had been drawing.  I -did- swallow my pride and apologize to both students at the end of the day.  The student who had been drawing on my desk was very kind and understanding about it.  On the other hand, when I told the first one that I was wrong for bringing last weeks' incident up, she started snickering and crossing her arms at me, saying that she was not at fault last week.  I gently corrected her, saying that she -was- at fault for last week because she CHOSE to react to another student in the way she had.  She started interrupting me and arguing, and I didn't want more ridiculousness to take place.  I dismissed her comments and said it wasn't important, and that I just wanted to apologize for bringing the topic up.  She interrupted me once more and just waved a hand rudely at me, saying "Whatever, I accept your apology," as though it meant nothing to her because I wasn't willing to say she had no fault in last week's happening.

The bell rang thank heavens, and I was ready to go home.  However, I got interrupted by a few people, a student stayed to ask me questions, and I didn't get out of the building for 30 minutes.  I just wanted to kick my feet back and relax.

Instead...my poor darling husband....*sighs*
He had gone to the store and bought two pieces of furniture and a large flat screen TV.....

We already have furniture. We have a 4 foot tall TV that operates perfectly.  And yet he thought we needed a brand new 32" flatscreen TV.
Furthermore, he can't put together furniture and never has been able to  I sat down and tried to vent here, and every few sentences he was calling me over to put a piece in place, tighten a screw, take something apart, help him understand the instructions...

I feel horrible that he was there at the brunt end of my day.  He was hoping to surprise me with the gifts, but I only wanted to sit here and relax after my rough day, so it was hard for me to muster a smile.

(On a side note, the whole day I was also struggling with 'that time of the month', making the day even more miserable than it had to be.)

So do us teachers sometimes snap unnecessarily so? Yes, but please realize they're human and they only stretch so far.  I love my students and I'll be just fine on Monday, eager to see them again with a happy and eager face.

Please forgive your teachers when they have these kinds of days.  Just be willing to recognize that they have bad days, and that on those days they need you to be kind and forgiving.
Okay, so I'm going to go on a bit of a rant here.  This is for all those students who might have wondered why their teachers was grumpy, or why sometimes teachers simply 'snap' on their students for apparently no reason.

This year is the busiest I have ever had.  Four of the five weekdays, I arrive to school an hour early and leave an hour late.  On Monday mornings I manage the chess club with a co-sponsor who never shows up on time, and in the afternoon I offer tutoring for the few students who care enough to show up.  On Tuesday mornings I run the math team which consists of five different subjects that five different teachers are supposed to help me with....and yet they have not shown up even once since the school year began.  So I must try (for a full hour) to balance my attention between five very different topics while keeping the kids attentive when I'm not focusing on their area.  I'm supposed to be getting them ready for a competition that is two weeks away, and for another competition which is three weeks away.  On Tuesday afternoons, I teach ACT Academy to a bunch of kids who are being forced to come by their parents, and this lovely session lasts two full hours, so by the time all is said and done, I've had a 13 hour work day.

Wednesday mornings I manage Mu Alpha Theta, the math honors society, for kids who never show up and expect nothing to be done thanks to the sponsor who retired next year.  I don't even know a -thing- about the organization and I'm supposed to do activities with them and yet I can never get them to show up because they already have placed in their minds that Mu Alpha Theta holds no importance.  On Wednesday afternoons, it's tutoring in the afternoon again for whatever kids come thanks to me calling their parents.

Thursday mornings is math team again, and Thursday afternoons is yet another bout of ACT Academy. Yes, Thursday is another 1 hour workday.

Saturday is yet another session of ACT Academy, except that this one lasts four hours, and the students complain if no one provides them with snacks, and they take a 30 or 40 minute lunch break when they are only allowed 20 minutes and then us teachers must go hunt them down.  The three teachers that are there with me don't show up regularly, don't help gather up the students, and stand around like lost sheep if the assistant principal is in the hospital..... meaning -I- have to take charge, improvising a rotating schedule. Assigning kids to various sessions, making sure all the appropriate paperwork is filled out, and then telling the other teachers when we will start.

So yes....Friday is my ONLY non-crazy day.

THIS FRIDAY

So when I got to work, I was ready to relax.  I went to work and since I have prep period first, I pulled out my papers and began to grade.  Another teacher uses my room during that time period though, and she was out for the day.  She had asked me early in the week if I would mind watching her class since they would just be completing a homework assignment and it wouldn't require me to lose my focus on my work.  However, I was also supposed to attend a very important meeting with my principal and the rest of the math teachers about 30 minutes before that period ended.  I had forewarned several people that this other teacher's class would not have a substitute when I left, and I had been assured someone would come watch the room while I went to the meeting.

Around 8:45, I had an office aide go remind someone that I needed someone in the room at 9:15, and once again I was assured someone would come.  I was told to stay in the room until 9:15, at which time another teacher would be sent to be in the room with the students.  9:15 came around and nobody bothered to show up.  9:30, and I was still sitting in the room, wondering where my replacement was, and fretting over the fact that this meeting was quite possibly the most important meeting my boss would have all year.  My boss had been talking about it for WEEKS, prepping us for the interview that the big shots would be giving.

To add insult to injury, my fellow teacher had instructed her students to -leave me alone-.  She told them that under no circumstances were they to bother me so that I could get my work done.  At first, I was able to dispel their inquiries for help by stating that I had a meeting to go to.  Of course, my relief never came and the kids caught onto the fact that it wouldn't.  And since all of these seniors had been taught by me the previous two years, they of course felt perfectly fine nagging me to death, making it very difficult for me to concentrate.  On top of this, they kept begging to leave and get the -other- calculus teacher.  Knowing how bothered I was to have my free period full of distractions, I didn't want another teacher to have to go through the same thing.  I maintained that the kids could NOT go bother the other calculus teacher since it was her off period as well.

So already irritated by getting nothing done during my free period and worried about missing the crucial meeting my boss wanted me to attend, the rest of the day could only get better.  (Of course.)

I proceeded to teach.  First, I gave my students a vocabulary and formula quiz.  This is the eighth week of school for us, and we have such a quiz every Thursday and Friday.  And as usual, my students gave me dumbfounded looks like "O-M-G, we have a vocabulary quiz today?!"  As I walked around and gave the quiz, it was quite easy to tell none of them had studied.  Blank, blank, and blank was all I saw.  

Here's the thing:  A) As I've said, this quiz is given WEEKLY, and it's the eighth week of school.  B) The words are ones that we learned very recently.  C) The kids who came to tutoring were given the words and definitions so that they could prepare!  D)  EVERY week, I list the words that will be on the quiz three or four days in advance so the students know which ones to study.  E)  Every day I see them, I start the class with a reminder that the formula and vocabulary quiz will be at the end of the week.

Some of the kids had the audacity to shout out during the quiz, telling me I had never went over a certain word.  And you know kids....instead of thinking, they'd rather pipe in with their peers.  I assured them that I had gone over the word, and they all started -shouting- at me at once, saying I had not.  It irritated me a bit and I told them that I had, and that they needed to guess or leave it blank.  I got several eye rolls and sneers, and when the quiz was complete and collected, I pulled a random child's notebook and showed them exactly where it was in the notes.....not just once, but in three different lessons from across two different chapters.

So recently, I gave them a factoring packet.  I wanted them to be very good at factoring, so the packet is 140 questions, and they have two weeks to complete it.  I told them that I as going to give them some strategies to ease the process of factoring and I proceeded to work through the most complicated problems.  Instead of -thanking- me for walking them through the most difficult and longest problems, they only wanted to whine and whine about how long the problems were and how ridiculous factoring was.  I nipped that in the bud, but when I went around to assess their understanding with a few in-class problems, I couldn't help but notice that all the kids' notes lacked very important information that I had instructed them to write down.

Therefore, I paused the class and gave them a small lecture.  It wasn't one done in mean spirit or necessarily even in a chiding tone. Instead, I advised them about taking better notes.  Instead of taking the advise from a professional dedicated to their success, they started complaining.  "But we're writing down exactly what you write on the board!"  No matter how I tried to tell them THAT was the problem, they kept insisting I was wrong and basically ignoring my advice.

Not one to waste time on moot points, I decided to move forward.  The rest of the class went fairly smoothly, and I was hopeful about finally getting a break during lunch.  Instead, a few students decided they wanted to stay and keep asking questions about the worksheet.  I don't often turn down students when they ask for help, simply because such an occasional is rare and I want students to know I'm available.  Besides, my job is not about me getting relief on a bad day; it's always first and foremost about helping students succeed.

The worst part of the day, however, was my last period.  Last week, two of my students got into a shouting match and I sent them out after they continued to shout at one another and ignore my attempts to quiet them.  Unfortunately, the two students who wouldn't stop yelling are also two of the kids that struggle the most.  I -hated- sending them out but I didn't have an option.  So today when I started class, they of course held a grudge against me.  I had expected it, and I was a little on the edge, expecting a slew of disrespectful comments and eye rolling.

As I gathered their progress reports, I noticed that one of them had a very long paragraph on the bottom in a spot I designate for parent comments.  It was the progress report of on of the students I had sent out the week before, and skimming through it just made my day so much .....better.  (<-sarcasm).  The student had written a long note, stating that she felt like I had a bad attitude and that I never tried to help any of my students, only getting sarcastic with them.  I don't like putting myself on a pedestal or bragging, but -nothing- could be further from the truth.

I told myself that these kids are teenagers and that she was just trying to get to me, so I just set the paper down and started teaching.  However, when I started, the student started interrupting me every other word.  "Um, excuse me!  I don't understand what you're doing because I wasn't here."  The other child didn't have any such complaints because she had done the responsible thing and gotten the notes from someone and read them.  After about the third interruption, I'm ashamed to admit that I lost it.  I snapped back t her and told her I would not be re-teaching a lesson from last week just for her because she had been disrespectful and I had kicked her out.  I couldn't believe what she said next....She made a 'duh' expression and said "Um, I only got disrespectful because -someone- got disrespectful with me first!"

I was flabbergasted. What is wrong with these kids?!?!  And so I -immediately- paused and asked her who in the world she thought she was to speak to me like that.

I had to check myself.  I had the option to ignore her and allow her to catch the lesson, or send her out and allow her to fall even further behind.  Knowing that she shouldn't have passed her last four math classes, I chose to let her stay, and other than dirty looks, she was mainly quiet during the rest of the class.  -However-, the rest of the class was not, and I found myself time and time again raising my voice to tell the students to stop talking so that I could teach.

My flustered state also caused me to jump someone else that I shouldn't have.  She was drawing on the desk, but because her notebook hid her hands, I assumed she was texting on her cell phone based off the little movements of her hands.  I chided her and told her to put her phone away, asking why she would take it out when my policy is no cell phones, and if I see a cell phone I take it up.  She insisted that she didn't have her cell phone out, and since I was so certain I had seen it, I got even angrier.  I brought it to her attention that I was showing her grace by not taking up her phone per my policy, and I asked her why she would lie to me like that when I was showing her that mercy.  I was a little snippy about it because I was so certain I had seen a cell phone.

Later on though, I saw her rubbing at her desk, and it dawned on me that she had been drawing.  I -did- swallow my pride and apologize to both students at the end of the day.  The student who had been drawing on my desk was very kind and understanding about it.  On the other hand, when I told the first one that I was wrong for bringing last weeks' incident up, she started snickering and crossing her arms at me, saying that she was not at fault last week.  I gently corrected her, saying that she -was- at fault for last week because she CHOSE to react to another student in the way she had.  She started interrupting me and arguing, and I didn't want more ridiculousness to take place.  I dismissed her comments and said it wasn't important, and that I just wanted to apologize for bringing the topic up.  She interrupted me once more and just waved a hand rudely at me, saying "Whatever, I accept your apology," as though it meant nothing to her because I wasn't willing to say she had no fault in last week's happening.

The bell rang thank heavens, and I was ready to go home.  However, I got interrupted by a few people, a student stayed to ask me questions, and I didn't get out of the building for 30 minutes.  I just wanted to kick my feet back and relax.

Instead...my poor darling husband....*sighs*
He had gone to the store and bought two pieces of furniture and a large flat screen TV.....

We already have furniture. We have a 4 foot tall TV that operates perfectly.  And yet he thought we needed a brand new 32" flatscreen TV.
Furthermore, he can't put together furniture and never has been able to  I sat down and tried to vent here, and every few sentences he was calling me over to put a piece in place, tighten a screw, take something apart, help him understand the instructions...

I feel horrible that he was there at the brunt end of my day.  He was hoping to surprise me with the gifts, but I only wanted to sit here and relax after my rough day, so it was hard for me to muster a smile.

(On a side note, the whole day I was also struggling with 'that time of the month', making the day even more miserable than it had to be.)

So do us teachers sometimes snap unnecessarily so? Yes, but please realize they're human and they only stretch so far.  I love my students and I'll be just fine on Monday, eager to see them again with a happy and eager face.

Please forgive your teachers when they have these kinds of days.  Just be willing to recognize that they have bad days, and that on those days they need you to be kind and forgiving.
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Singelli


Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'

Registered: 08-09-12
Location: Alabama
Last Post: 2499 days
Last Active: 2475 days

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