If I hear one person tell me that teaching is a great profession because you get the summer's off, I think I may scream. So, I thought I would let you all in on a secret. This is what my year typically looks like.
August through May- The first two weeks are spent frantically buying items for my classroom, decorating, and arranging furniture. Beginning the 2nd week, we have professional development days. We spend them in meetings from 8-4 typically. The time after the meetings are spent lesson planning and doing any last minute things that need to be done. Once school starts, the cycle of lesson plans and grading papers begins.
My typical day begins at 5:30 am. I leave the house at 6:30 and arrive at school by 6:40 to begin Morning tutoring at 7:10. The extra 30 minutes allows me to get everything ready for the day. Tutoring happens 5 days a week. School dismisses at 2:30. Most days, I typically stay until 5:00 gathering items for the next day and looking at what needs to be done for tutoring or graduate classes that I am taking. On Monday's I did have a graduate class that met from 5:00-9:00, but now that I am finished, I go to the Furman library to work on National Board items that are due in March. Once home, from a typical day, Cheney and I eat and then I begin working on plans for the next units that I will be teaching. This could be reading or searching on the internet for resources for students to use for upcoming projects. Bedtime is typically 10:00. Then I start things all over.
June - I spend the entire month of June in professional development. I am involved with the Upstate Writing Project and our Summer Institute takes place the entire month of June. In the midst of this, I travel to Denver, CO to help the National Writing Project score student writing for a week. When I return, I finish the institute and I'm left with a few weeks in July.
July -This past summer, I spent those weeks teaching other teachers in the area to use technology in their classrooms and planning inservices for the upcoming year of school. I also watched videos of teachers teaching writing and evaluated them for a grant.
Then, August rolls around and I start again. So, for all of those that think that teachers have the summer off, think again.
August through May- The first two weeks are spent frantically buying items for my classroom, decorating, and arranging furniture. Beginning the 2nd week, we have professional development days. We spend them in meetings from 8-4 typically. The time after the meetings are spent lesson planning and doing any last minute things that need to be done. Once school starts, the cycle of lesson plans and grading papers begins.
My typical day begins at 5:30 am. I leave the house at 6:30 and arrive at school by 6:40 to begin Morning tutoring at 7:10. The extra 30 minutes allows me to get everything ready for the day. Tutoring happens 5 days a week. School dismisses at 2:30. Most days, I typically stay until 5:00 gathering items for the next day and looking at what needs to be done for tutoring or graduate classes that I am taking. On Monday's I did have a graduate class that met from 5:00-9:00, but now that I am finished, I go to the Furman library to work on National Board items that are due in March. Once home, from a typical day, Cheney and I eat and then I begin working on plans for the next units that I will be teaching. This could be reading or searching on the internet for resources for students to use for upcoming projects. Bedtime is typically 10:00. Then I start things all over.
June - I spend the entire month of June in professional development. I am involved with the Upstate Writing Project and our Summer Institute takes place the entire month of June. In the midst of this, I travel to Denver, CO to help the National Writing Project score student writing for a week. When I return, I finish the institute and I'm left with a few weeks in July.
July -This past summer, I spent those weeks teaching other teachers in the area to use technology in their classrooms and planning inservices for the upcoming year of school. I also watched videos of teachers teaching writing and evaluated them for a grant.
Then, August rolls around and I start again. So, for all of those that think that teachers have the summer off, think again.
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