A Day in the Life

This year I'm joining the "A Day in the Life" event hosted by Trish at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity. It was fun last year to see what my blogger friends had going on outside of their reading schedules. I chose a day randomly, woke up one morning and thought, okay I'll track today. I mean, there's always something going on, but I wanted to give an idea of a random/typical day of my week to give the true feel of the event.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

6:30am: Out of bed, showered, dressed, and out the door around 7:15. We are currently living in a two bedroom apartment while the house we are buying is renovated. That's two adults, three teenagers, and three dogs. So, everyone is kind of on top of each other getting ready, which means grumpiness from all sides some mornings. This morning not particularly bad though.

7:30am: At work and within ten minutes three of my students from last year come to visit. They come to my room to say hi and start the day every day. Today is Wednesday though, which are club meeting days, so they are in my room for about 25 minutes instead of ten and joined by ten more students who constitute the book club I run, Reading Warriors. I enjoy having them there to relax and talk and start the day with a laugh.

8:30am: Period 1, the day has officially begun. I have an open morning schedule (no classes until about the half point of the school day) because of my prep period and the period I'm given in exchange for running the Graduation/Senior Project (aka Sr Proj). And that's what's on the schedule today. Freshman year our students begin a Google slide project that culminates through all four years of high school and must be completed to graduate. Throughout those years they use the project to discuss items they've learned within and outside of classes, as well as job shadow, attend a board meeting, serve 25 hours of community service, and write a resume. During the week of Easter break their Senior year, each student presents to a pair of panelists (teachers and administrators) and the project is considered complete.

So the next two hours consist of tracking down Seniors who are running out of time to finish before presentations on March 21st and 22nd. There aren't too many and I'm confident we'll finish, but I make a few calls to parent just to make sure. I have not had a year yet (in eleven years) where a Senior did not finish the project.

10:30am: Period 4, Sophomore English. A class of 15 boys and five girls, so yea, you know what this is going to consist of, distractions. We are in the middle of reading A Separate Peace. They aren't particularly interested, haven't been for anything we've done really, but we're pushing through, reading together and discussing.

11:15am: Periods 5&6 are AP Literature - Juniors. I LOVE these classes. Overall, a great group of young people. We just finished reading The Scarlet Letter the week before and they hit it out of the park. The work we did and discussions we held blew me away. Today they are brainstorming for their research project/paper on The Scarlet Letter, which is to analyze the story through a specific lens of their choice (psychological, biographical, historical, etc.). They work and talk as they go, asking questions as needed and I continue to stalk those Seniors I need to give a talking to in between.

12:40pm: Lunchtime. I read while I eat my apples and peanut butter. Often times I work as I eat if I have a stack of grading to do, but just as much, I use it as relaxation time to read or go through my blog's email.

1:15pm: Last two periods of the day are Honors English 11 and studyhall. Research projects on a topic of choice and more stalking of Seniors and the school day is done.

3:30pm: My middle daughter has piano lessons for half an hour. She receives a trophy she won for three consecutive years of highest ranking in a local music festival. We are ecstatic. Both her sister and I have won this trophy in our time playing piano at the same festival.

4:20pm: Five minutes late getting my oldest daughter to her doctor's appointment. Our pediatrician retired and instead of starting my teenagers all over again with another pediatrician, I decided to just start them with the family doctor my husband and I see. It's an uneventful visit, which is all good.

5:00pm: Throw some chicken fingers and fries in the oven for everyone to gobble up.

6:30pm: Drop my kids off at our church, my husband is already there. We hold an annual Easter egg hunt and tonight is prep night instead of usual youth church services. But before I join them, I run dinner over for a good friend and her family, who added a new member a few days before. Babies! Yay!

7:15pm: Back at the church, I help sort candy and toy donations into Easter baskets. These are then wrapped in cellophane and labeled for prize drawings. There's a lot of volunteers helping set up, so by the time I am done with the baskets, there isn't much more to do.

8:10pm: With nothing else needed, I head over to another friend's house to watch Survivor. She has always been a major fan and has hooked me in the past couple years. I usually head over to her house to visit with her and her boys right after dropping my kids at the church on Wednesdays. Running a little late tonight, but in time to see most of the action. It's one of the highlights of my week because I know I'll get to spend time with her and the boys.

9:30pm: I head home. Spend the next hour trying to get my own kids in bed...teenagers! Can't get them in bed and then when you do, you can't get them back out.

11pm: I'm rarely asleep before midnight. Tonight I talk with my husband, jot some notes for this post, and read. I'm currently entangled in Voyager, the third book of the Outlander series. I'm loving it, of course.


And that's A Day in the Life of Me...wife, mother, teacher, friend, blogger. Thanks for stopping by! If you're interested in more of these posts, a link up to more of them is available here on Trish's site.