Random Day In Teacherland

I realized today, thanks to Twitter, that most people have no idea what goes on in any given classroom in a day. Or in my case, what exactly do you teach, again? Business, right?

So what on earth do I teach? Let me give you a brief peek at my classroom today. (And just to note, this is NOT what a typical day is like, it just happens to reflect today's experience from behind the desk).

Class starts at 8am. It snowed 2 inches overnight and it took longer than usual to scrape off the car. Normally I'm in my office on the 3rd floor by 7:30 and then by 7:40 I've gathered what I need for the day and head to the 2nd floor to my classroom.

I have a grand total of 5 students for my 1st period. Most teachers think this would be a dream. I disagree. I am all for smaller class sizes but in the realm of 15-20 students. Five is really tough in a 50 minute period. Especially today. At the bell at 8am, I had 1 student. The same thing happened yesterday and I made the decision to go ahead with my lesson plans no matter what. This student just gets private class, is all. Eventually, through the 50 minutes all 5 kids showed up but here's the kicker. Today's lesson was on Parliamentary Procedure. How do you teach how to run a meeting (including a cool simulation) with just 1 person? Who would 2nd the motions we make? Nonetheless, we had a good simulation with 4 of the 5 students and I think they understood how it works and why it is used. Quiz on Monday.

2nd hour I had 1/2 my students. There are a lot of kids out sick so I'm sure that accounted for a few of them. Today was a college-like discussion on the roles of women in the workplace since 1910. I had them read an article the last 2 days and respond to some prompts. I even added pictures to the article to match the various time periods. With my 4 gentleman and 3 women it was like pulling teeth. I don't know if everyone read the whole article (only 4 people submitted the homework) and the guys were pretty shy about talking about the subject. 50 minutes of torture which would have been much better should the other 8 kids been there to give input. Moving on...(downing my slim fast low-carb drink snack first).

3rd hour is my Law class. I finally had all but 1 student in this class. Students were asked to find cases and identify which court they would have taken place in. 3 students of 20 did the assignment. Ugh! Part of this was even Extra Credit! Really, nothing? So I moved from the levels of the courts to the 2 key types of trials - Civil & Criminal. Kids were silent as lambs the entire period. No questions. No curiosity. No tie-ins despite my hints and prompting questions. Wow.

I round out my morning with study hall. It's my least favorite class of the day. It's babysitting. Sit down. Stay quite. Do homework. The computer lab is closed today. No food in this room. Put the food away. You, move your seat since you can't stop distracting others. No you can't go see another teacher unless they've given you a pass. 50 minutes. Babysitting. Hey, at least these students had personality and energy! I just wish they'd follow the rules. Most of them are seniors and have never had to follow the rules in study hall. It makes it tough. Here's the clue. Hall=large room and Study=reading, doing homework or learning in some format. Put them together and you've got 4th hour. Just do it!

I spent the rest of my day working on finding places that are hiring for 2 students who need work hours. Calling different professions that may want to come speak to my class. Writing a quiz and review sheet. Working on a "chart" that shows what classes in my department are appropriate for which grade level (long overdue).

It is no wonder I am tired when I get home! Now you know what a teacher does all day. Granted, today was completely a-typical. Normally I have tons of conversation, questions and "a-ha!" moments. Today was just an off day. We'll see what tomorrow brings. That is if we have school. The current temperature with windchill is -6. (-21C which looks much more dramatic and the measurement my foreign blog readers use). All in all, I'm excited to rest this weekend. I feel sickness coming and I'm doing all I can to stave it off. Please stay away little sickness!

G'nite folks. More pleasant thoughts and perhaps another peek into my Italia vaca on the next edition.

Stay warm & dry! KB