Slice of Life Tuesday: Time Flies

If only time were infinite.

This afternoon a friend And I were talking anout a meeting she attended for our district. At some point at her meeting "the powers that be" were talking about teacher planning time--in terms of hours. As if teachers, high school teachers like me, had hours to plan together. What are the misconceptions out
there about teachers' time?

While I did get the gift of time this morning (due to mandated testing), I didn't get as much done as I would have. Time
flies. Here's a snapshot of my day. 6:40 a.m. Arrive at school. Brew a pot of coffee. Open email. Print testing tickets for freshmen. Respond to parent emails. Put lunch in fridge. 7:05 a.m. Talk with neighbor teacher about shared prep. Make door sign. Pack bag with anecdotal notebook to organize while students do progress monitoring test in computer lab. 7:20 a.m. Stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance 7:21 a.m. take students to computer lab for benchmark reading test 7:25-11:48 a.m. periods 1-5 testing in the lab. Troubleshoot log in problems and testing software glitches. Organize survey data and initial assessments (alphabetize, assess, sort, note needs). 12:05 -12:25 p.m. Lunch back in classroom with teacher neighbors. 12:30 p.m. Greet sixth period and aprise of schedule changes. Send 10 students to new section of A.P. Language. Work on annotation A to Z and Adler's "How to Mark a Book" with remaining students. 1:18 p.m. Walk to front office (1/4 mile) to sign in, make copies and check mail box. Take advantage of the water cooler. 1:30 p.m. Photograph student work (Annotation A to Z) for Wednesday review (and future blog post). 1:45 p.m. Answer email. Answer telephone. Troubleshoot with colleague . Open lesson planning documents. 2:15 p.m. Talk with neighbor teacher who stops in to discuss particular class. 2:55 p.m. Begin typing lesson plans for the week. 3:00 p.m. Take phone call drom Reading Coach to debrief benchmark testing in computer lab. 3:20 p.m. Hang student work for Wedmesday review. Begin creating handouts for upcoming projects (Burke's Weekly Reader, Independent Study Projects). 3:45 p.m. Continue adding to lesson plans. 4:05 p.m. Realizes will arrive late to son's first soccer game. 4:07 p.m. - 4: 40 p.m. Speeds 35 miles across town to son's soccer game. Visits with parents. Cheers. Claps. 5:50 p.m. Congratulates soccer players. Installs son in car. Drives 25 miles home. 6:40 p.m. Arrives home. Prepares thick-cut pork chops and sweet potato home fries. Tosses salad. Spreads A.P. Language summer reading assignments across counter. Sits to slice next to son doing homeowrk. Sets dinner timer.