Day in my Shoes Linky

Katie over at Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher is hosting a very cool linky party - tell your blog readers about a Day in YOUR Shoes in your classroom.  Great idea!

1. Right Click and Save the above pic to add to your linky post.  Katie also recommends making the picture a link, so people can use the picture to easily link back.
2. Tell everyone about your typical day in your classroom.  You can include as much/as little as you'd like.
3. Come back and Link Up!
4. Visit all the other Teachers that have linked up!

A Typical Day for Me:

5:30am - My alarm goes off.  I will hit snooze once (okay... twice!) and then drag myself out of bed at 5:55am.  My wonderful husband has already been up for a while, since he's a morning person.  I help get my son dressed and ready to go to his Grandparents for the day.

6:30am - I am dressed and ready to be picked up by my wonderful carpool group.  This is our 4th year carpooling to work and it saves us SO much money!  It has also become our therapy/discussion/school spirit discussion times.  I would be LOST without my carpool friends.

7:05am - We arrive to work, cruise through the front office and check our boxes.  I always peek into the staff lounge to see if there's "anything interesting" going on today.  My friends tease me when I am disappointed daily.  My SH (severely handicapped) teacher friend and I chat while we walk up to our rooms, then separate for the day.

7:10am - I arrive in my classroom.  I have first period prep, so that means I have until 8:25am to get my day prepared.  This includes - running copies and prepping future copies, setting up my board with the date, lessons, homework, grading papers, straightening the room for my 7th graders.

7:25 - 8:25am - (Period 1)  My prep time.

8:25am - 10:15am - (Period 2 and 3) 7th Grade Math & Science with SEI, Sheltered Language Students and Regular Ed students.  This is a tough crowd of 32 students.  I remind them as they walk in that it's not time to chat, but they need to sit down, open their planners, copy their homework and start their warm ups.  We'll review the warm up, check in homework and then get started.  Some days, we'll do whole class lessons or others we'll break into rotations.  I'll do full class Science about 2-3 days a week.  I also receive 2 RSP kids for science.

10:20am - (Period 4) 8th Grade Science  Ahhhh, the "Class from Hell."  Some of the rowdiest kids on campus, I have to meet these guys at the door and wait patiently for them to be quiet and walk into the classroom.  Sometimes, we have to practice this skill several times.  (Sigh)  Once they are in and quiet, we start 15 minutes of absolute SILENT reading.  Then we'll break into some Science (chemistry - gasp) and then I have to encourage them to follow along, take notes...  These guys, disliking school, is a complete understatement.  It doesn't help that 5-7 of them are also RSP kids that I've taught before.

11:10am (or 11:15am... 11:20am) Lunch  Depending if my 8th graders "owe" me academic time, or if some of them decided not to work... finish their work during lunch...  I'll start my lunch.  Some days I'll get something from the Teacher Cart in the lounge, other days my SH teacher friend has her aide pick up McDonald's and most days, it might be a yogurt or crackers and gatorade.  Either way, I tend to enjoy my 10 - 20 minutes of quiet time.  If I'm feeling chatty, I'll bring my lunch to my friend's class.

11:40am - (Period 5 and 6) 7th Grade Math & Science  Repeat my morning lesson with my afternoon class.  This class is a delight - everyone works, it's smaller too!  28 kids!  Be still my heart!  I'll get 3 more RSP kids for Science at 12:45pm.

1:30pm - Dismissal  The bell rings and my school day is over.  I think our day is short...  but my it's my school district.  (It sounds like something my union would fight over.)  Sometimes, I have meetings (Wednesdays) detentions (Tuesday/Thursdays) or tutoring.  I'm usually packed up and out the door by 1:50pm because carpool has to leave to pick up kids, take them to dance, etc.

2:20pm - I'm home... quickly run in to my house, change, get the mail, etc.  Then I'm back in the car to go off to pick up my son from the grandparents.

3pm - Finally home to spend the rest of the evening with my family!  I'm usually in bed by 9:45pm to get some rest for the next day.

So that's my day!  I hope you enjoyed reading about it!

EDIT:  A lot of people are amazed about my short day.  Here is a link to our School Bell Schedule.  Also, my Math and Science classes are 54 minutes each, so it's technically periods 2 and 3, periods 5 and 6.