Things taken for granted

A lot of you probably wonder how a "normal" day runs for me, so let me break it down for you:

7:00 am--wake up to the same alarm clock I've had for 10 years. It's a good alarm clock! Recently, the sun has been rising after 7:30, so I get to see a nice sunrise with breakfast.

8:00 am--Head to school. The 30 second commute is brutal.

9:00 am--School starts, my Success For All reading class is first for 1.5 hours. The curriculum is insanely scripted, so there is very little preparation on my part. I have 4 students, ages 10-13, who are all 5th grade level readers.

10:35 am--Levels 5/6 math. 9 students ages 10-15. This is my biggest class, so I have a paraeducator. Weird, huh?

11:25 am--Lunch! Choice of food A or food B that I prepared on Sunday. I try to avoid working during lunch via the advice of the one and only Ms. Plantz.

11:55 am--Levels 7/8 math. 4 students ages 12-15. Trying to instruct them all at once but I will have to start doing more individual tutoring soon.

12:45 pm--Levels 9/10 math. 4 students ages 15-18. Similar to the previous hour.

1:40 pm--Prep time, will someday be tutoring time, but I really need the extra preparation time and the other teachers are generous because this my first year.

2: 40 pm--Middle Level Project Period. 8 students ages 11-15. I supposedly teach technology, career skills, life skills, and cultural awareness. My hardest class to plan for, because the students need to be individually working on projects and there are 8 different students at different levels. I probably need to model what individual project work looks like.

3:30 pm--School is out! Spend the next half hour cleaning up and in meetings.

4:00 pm--Cross country practice. Go out and run/discuss running with the team.

5:00 pm--Come home, across from the school and unwind. Eat cookies =), read a book, draw something. My Grandma sends me the Christian Science Monitor news, which I actually enjoy reading with a cold glass of Ovaltine/powdered milk and a snack.

6:00 pm--Back to the school, more planning, grading, etc.

8:00 pm--ish. Email friends and family. Post to blog. Rely on the internet for crucial life functions. Etc.

9:00 pm--Prepare for the next school day. That reminds me, I need to go into the basement and look for some dowels for the tetrahedral kites we are building.

10:00 pm--ish, get back home. Get ready for sleep.

That's not how every day has been going, but a majority of them run like this. I like my sleep, so I have been getting 8+ hours a night! It's FANTASTIC. My next plan is to post some pictures of my classroom. I am currently laminating a bunch of stuff...