Thursday, September 2, 2021

Day in the Life

 

Hey, friends! Now that we're back in the swing of things I thought I'd chronicle a day in the life!  This was from this past Tuesday and I didn't realize how busy the day was until I wrote the post so buckle up :) Next time I'll pick a day where we don't have activities after school to give y'all an idea of what that looks like.

My alarm went off at 5:40 and I'd be lying if I told you that I didn't lay in bed for a solid 15 minutes pretty much just mentally prepping for my day.




Rosie comes down when she hears the alarm to get some face rubs and then she retires to her downstairs bed where she attempts to keep her eyes open while the kids get ready :)


Up and reluctantly at 'em.


Griffin took a shower and part of this new short hair situation is a blow dry/style. Thankfully it took me about 10 minutes...


... and then I washed my face, rubbed on some toner, put on my Vitamin C and Sheer Renewal cream and proceeded to get myself ready.  

 

In the meantime - Dave was getting lunches ready (sometimes the kids do this the night before, but that wasn't the case on Tuesday morning)...


... Mason was having some cereal and reviewing for his states test and Luke was getting ready upstairs.


The mornings are always kind of a hectic blur but I wore  this dress, jacket and  shoes because it's flowy, super easy and COMFY!


Loaded up and ready to go...


... but Jelly Bean was literally laying  in the driveway behind the car and was refusing to move until Dave came and chased her off.  She is the funniest cat and I swear she does stuff like this on purpose and for attention :)


We got to school around 7:15...


... and hit the ground running.  Mason and G have the choice of hanging in my room or going down to lower school to hang out with the other early birds and they pretty much always opt to be with their friends (duh!). Luke has a few friends that get there early as well and so he's always off doing his own thing as well.  I teach 6 back-to-back classes so if I'm not prepped and organized in the morning it can be hard to recover so I spent a few minutes organizing, prepping and double checking that an activity I was doing with my first two periods worked.


First period worked hard on equations and then had a little Gary Patterson photo shoot which was cracking me up!


They did good! ;)


I taught another section of Math 7 and then ...


... watered my plants...


... worked on getting notes and assignments up on Google Classroom...


... and realized that I forgot my lunch in the fridge at home so I improvised ;)


My Honors Algebra class can be a little more "intense" so I try to sneak in as much "fun" as I can - this was a cute way to review one-step inequalities before getting into two and multi-step the next day.  Some kids will tell you that coloring "isn't there thing" but I'm yet to meet a kid who doesn't enjoy coloring a squirrel while listening to some classical pop covers ;)


After Algebra I taught two Pre-Algebra classes while trying to sneak in some copies for Friday during passing period.  This is a solving multi-step inequality "scavenger hunt" where my plan is to laminate the pink pages and tack them up on a few places on campus... kids will work in pairs to solve the inequalities and then search for the solution leading them to the next clue.  


One of the hardest parts of teaching for me is keeping track of absences, missed work, etc.  Throw in extended absences for quarantine, etc. and it's pretty much my personal nightmare (especially teaching 4 preps).   While my PreAlgebra students were working on independent practice I got my emails sent out for the day detailing what absent kids could be working on while they were out.


Parent night was the night before so I wrapped up turning my google slides into a PDF handout that I could email to parents in case they weren't able to attend.


Lunch duty powered by Jimmy Johns delivery.  Also - my co-workers are some of my FAVORITE people and after spending 7:40 - 12:00 with the under 14 crowd it's nice to have some grown up conversation.


Quick pitstop before jumping right into...


... my after lunch Honors PreAlgebra class.

We were reviewing two-step equations and they worked on a Versa-Tiles self-check, a practice page and then...


... a one and two-step color by "answer".


After Pre-Algebra I had a quick meeting with my principal where I finalized some plans for the Homecoming Dance and quickly ran copies of the venue contract...


... before heading back to my classroom for a meeting with the cheer coach about HoCo halftime.  When I was walking back to my room I was treated to this yoshi on my window :) One of my 7th graders printed off 100+ of these (AT HOME!) and passed them out to a ton of kids who are now leaving them all kinds of random places like in lockers, on windows and inside chromebooks so when other kids open them they find them.  It's stuff like this that makes middle schoolers my FAVORITE ;)


After my meeting I worked on an activity for Wednesday.  I purchase a lot of things from Teachers Pay Teachers but will typically recreate them to fit my specific curricular needs. 


I ran more copies...


... answered a few emails and tried to got a bit of grading done.

School got out at 3:15 and I kept working until about 4:00.  I got everything laid out for Wednesday...


Got thing packed up...


... got the homework monsters ready...


... and emailed myself some reminders for when I got home.  Anyone else do this???


Mason and Griffin go to ESS (extended school supervision) at 3:15 when school gets out and Luke typically hangs out with friends or works on homework.  I told them all to meet in my classroom at 4:00 so we could head out...


And after getting a thorough demonstration of how wiggly G's tooth was...


... we were in the SUPER HOT car ready to head home.


  When we got home all three kids changed out of their uniforms and threw them in the washer, then Luke took Rosie on a walk, Mason gave the turtles fresh water, Griffin got ready for ballet and I prepped a snack tray.  Griffin's ballet class gets out a little on the later side and Dave doesn't get home until almost 7:00 so I like to do a bigger snack to hold them all over until later dinner. 


They dug into the snack tray while working on some homework...


... and I pulled a frozen chicken pot pie out of the freezer for dinner.   The recipe is one of my favorites because it makes two, they freeze perfectly and you don't have to thaw it before you bake. 


Homework wrapped up and Mason handled the snack and lunch box dishes...


... while I worked on spelling with G.


We got everything cleaned up and then the kids played a game while I got laundry into the dryer.


Griffin and I headed to ballet...


... and it's honestly one of my favorite times of the week because the moms and I chit chat for an hour and it's just good for the soul!


Dave got home while we were at dance and he and the boys ate (Mason had leftover spaghetti because he isn't a pot pie fan)...


.... and when we got home it was a whirlwind of stories and showers and tucking in and all the things.  

I washed my face and got ready for the night (click  HERE for my most recent post about skincare)...


... and then got my "workspace" ready :) hahaha


I worked on my blog while Mason read...


... and this was on my airpods.


Once all the kids were tucked in I really didn't feel like pot pie so Dave made me an egg mcmuffin (anyone else call them this?!?! hahaha) This is seriously my favorite food. 


I graded papers for about an hour while Dave and I watched some old school Law and Order like the geriatric millennials that we are :)...


... and then Jack Bauer joined me for my quiet time before it was lights out around 11:00.  


Whew! There you have it!  I hope you enjoyed following along and if you have any questions just leave them in the comments.  

PS - this post contained affiliate links - thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog!




13 comments :

  1. Wow! You are so busy. Impressive that you keep doing it each day-so thankful for teachers!! Random question. I have new elementary age students-how do you prepare your daughter with spelling? Do you make her write the words? Do you have any advice?

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  2. How come Gary Paterson is in your classroom now?

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  3. What a day! Do you have a link to your Bible tabs?

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  4. These are my favorite kinds of posts!!!!!! I love this one so much!

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  5. Oh my gosh I'm exhausted just reading this post!!

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  6. Do you have a teachers pay teachers site? I love your resources!

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  7. What a busy day! I love seeing the fun worksheets and things you do with the kids; that scavenger hunt sounds so FUN!

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  8. I love A Day in the Life and now I'm really wanting to order a turkey sub from Jimmie John's;).

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  9. Yes, they will always be called egg mcmuffins, even when homemade. Haha.
    I also love a homemade egg mcmuffin.
    (anything fresh & homemade is better)
    P.S. John Legend makes them also and has a recipe (yum) in Christy's cookbook. They are also her favorite.

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  10. In our house even the 20-yr-olds call them “Mommy McMuffins” - ha!
    I remember these busy, packed full-time teaching days with kids in school. Whew!! Great job capturing it all…someday you will look back and wonder how you did it all 😉

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  11. Love this post! You make me wish I was a middle school math teacher. Do you have a link for the tabs on your Bible?

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