Has it been a day, or what?!
Four hours of sleep last night and the night before each (not the fault of my job but other things not to be typed of in this blog post so as to not break off the keys into tiny angry bits of molten plastic) made today particularly interesting but by no means different than any other day.
As teachers we are expected, even encouraged to be "flexible". This does not mean we have to be able to literally stand on our hands or do back bend walk overs or 3 one and a half roation pike layouts from a dead start. Instead it means we need to be able to adapt to changes quickly and keep our students engaged even as we are scrambling to re-connect our rapidly firing synapses with the latest twist that has been thrown into our laps. Normally, this is not really a problem, afterall, I teach Special Education. Every day for me is a crap shoot as to whether I'm going to be able to teach what I had planned or whether I am going to have to fly by the seat of my pants and go in a completely different direction, based on the kids, the other classes and, sometimes it seems like, the flavor of the day. Actually, I would never plan these odds becasue 9 times out of 10, I am not teaching what I had planned. Honestly, I'm not sure why I plan at all some weeks but I still do. I guess planning is pretty ingrained but just as ingrained is the flexiblity thing.
I would like to share with you the twists, turns, bends and backflips that made up my day today.
Pre - 8:00 (start of the day)
plan: eat breakfast, read email, change calendar
actual: talk to 7th grade aid about changes needed in the history test we are giving tomorrow, get called to cover ELA class as the teacher over slept
8:05
plan: co-teach ELA
actual: run classroom, make up lesson as I go, have principal come in while I am flying by the belt loop on the seat of my pants, keep going, act like I have a clue about the days plan. Stop and take 3 sec to converse with him and he asks if he can address the class. Re-direct, no more making up a lesson on the fly, now we are backing up the 25 "few" minutes chat about bullying he has with the class.
8:55
plan: review history with the 1 student I have
actual: walk him to the nurse before he passes out, grab some bubbly caffine, inform the guidance office of the nurse detour, grab my mail, head back up to my room.
plan: work on agendas for next year, calendar (which I still hadn't changed), field trip permission form (which I still have to locate on the "shared" drive)
actual: get call from the nurse, my student is headed back up to me. She can't get hold of his dad and he says he's feeling better. Now we will do about half the review for his test tomorrow. Fortunatelly, he's a pretty bright, if massively scattered, young man so he has a pretty good grasp on the history concept. Not very worried about his test tomorrow, just his health.
9:35
plan: get back to the calendar, permission form, agendas, check email, update modification and accomadation sheet, pick any of the 15 piles on my desk and find the bottom...
actual: again discuss the changes made tot he history test, print off another copy for the 7th grade aid (who is a wonderful, organized woman sho tends to worry waaaaay too much, but she balances me and my lack of worry), go over the weeks schedule, show off the agenda front cover and get (not so great) feed back.. It was deserved, it wasn't a very nice cover. Discuss the fact that new homeroom lists were in our mailboxes, meaning there would be fire drills today.
10:14
plan: math class
actual: math class (that was a relief, it went as planned. Well, except for the 5 students who were not there and we had to track down, and I brought in a snack for 1 student so she didn't have to go to the nurse, although it turns out that's where she was afterall.)
11:02
plan: go to science, hang out lang enough to see if I was necessay today, grab a couple of Ipads for students to make up missed work, go back and get busy on the ever growing list of things to do today.
actual: finally read the emails, decided it would not be a science day. Based on the email she just shot off, if I went in there, it would be a gripe fest, not a class. Worked on updating the calendar (finally!), re-read the agends ordering email, realized the deadline was...yesterday. Sent out email, furiously return to working on the agenda, call the office to get a copy of the calendar for next year for the agendas, find out, it's not done yet, fire off another email
And so my day went. Not 1 thing went as planned. I ddin't get the Ipads and had to just study history, which took the whole period anyway. Defended myself and my kids about not getting the Ipads today, as we had something other than science to do (that might have been a mistake considering her mood but really, I am responsible for more than just 1 class) The aformentioned fire drills happened, ripping into my class time with kids who cannot afford to lose time.
Yep, it was a crazy day. On very little sleep. Now I get to go home, get my hair done, and start the family conference about the rest of the reason I am so tired today.
Some days I think I need a life line, sometimes, I'd rather have cement shoes.
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