A Day in the Life

...of a middle school teacher.

Note: I thought it would be fun to "live blog" my day at school. It was somewhat typical. But I don't have access to my blog during school hours (and even if I did, I wouldn't have the time required to actually write something), so I stole some time while my kids were working on a worksheet to update my notebook--as in the spiral-bound kind with real, honest-to-God paper--with the intention of blogging it all later in the day. The following is the result.

7:15 Arrive at school, unload rolling cart from Rosie's back seat, and roll on towards my classroom.

7:18 Unlock classroom door. Woohoo! They finally put my new rug in here!



7:20 Walking to office, I see a young girl (maybe 4th grade?) wearing a shirt with a lemon on it and the words "Squeeze Me." Does anyone else think that's just a little bit too pedophile-friendly?

7:45 Five minutes into 1st period, which is my prep. One of our kids (everyone knows Odie--not his real name, by the way) just ran by my room. His aide (he's autistic) is yelling at him to stop, but can't run after him. So I do.

I chase this kid all the way to the cafeteria, wishing that spanking was allowed in public schools. Dammit, running in ballet flats is hard!

8:10 Twenty minutes until my first class arrives, and then it's zoom-zoom-zoom from then until 12:03.

8:45 Our most disruptive 8th grader, Garfield, wanted to go to the office because he says he has a sore throat. Uh-huh. Riiiight. "Mr. H. wouldn't let me go!"

"Neither will I."

Garfield threw a fit, so I wrote his name on the board as a warning. The third time he asked me to go to the office, I said, "If your throat hurts, stop talking. That will help."

It went downhill from there, so I called the office. Mrs. Principal came and took Garfield away, after hearing that he had been throwing his music on the floor, lifting his desk off the floor, and, in general, being disruptive.

His throat wasn't so sore that he couldn't talk back to both me and Mrs. Principal.

He'll be back to school on Monday. :)

10:12 Break time! Only 10 minutes, but still. Oh, and third period was a dream, as usual.

12:03 5th period is leaving my room, and I'm glad to see the back of them. Whiniest group of 8th graders I've ever met.

12:30 Talk to Mrs. Awesome Counselor (my hero) about Garfield. She's always been tremendously supportive when it comes to this kid.

Anyway, turns out that the supposed "urban legend" about a pair of twins named Orangejello and Lemonjello is NOT an urban legend. She actually KNEW two kids by these names when working in Modesto.

(Pronounced Or-RAHN-jel-LO and Le-MON-jel-LO, by the way.)

1:05 Scarf down salad and applesauce and now am working on grading while waiting for my kinders.

1:40 Kinders were a no-show. That's okay, I got some grading done, and set up my new carpet. It's gorgeous. Time for bus duty.



1:55 Watch the buses pull away and start walking back to the office. I'm officially off contract hours and done for the day.

2:10 Load my cart into Rosie Pro and get in. Turn the A/C on full-blast and make my way to the highway. In fifteen minutes, I'll be home.