Teacher Week: Schedules

 I'm back linking up with Blog Hoppin' for day four of Teacher Week.  Today it's all about schedules.  After seeing Mrs. Lamb's adorable visual schedule, I know that I am going to have to make me one of those ASAP!  School doesn't start for us for another two weeks, so I do not know exactly what my schedule will look like.  I am sure that it will be pretty similar to last year's, so here we go!

And here is a break down in the day in the life of this teacher:

5:40 am

Alarm goes off.  Groan and stumble out of bed into the shower.  Stumble around to get dressed, make coffee, grab lunch out of the fridge and make coffee to drink in the car.  Spray gel in hair and cross fingers that frizz hasn't taken over.

6:20

Leave house.  Run back inside to grab whichever one of my 6 schoolbags I have forgotten.  Drive to work.

7:00

Arrive at work if there was no traffic.  Sign in, do photocopying before there is a line.  Clean classroom, take down chairs, set up centers, write morning message, set out read aloud books and do whatever other things are on top of the mountain of paperwork otherwise known as my desk.  Check school & personal emails if I have time.  At 8 I set up breakfast at the lunch table in the hallway right outside my classroom.

8:15

Little ones arrive!  We sit around and read books until most of the kids have arrived.  I LOVE this time of day... they are so sweet all in the library together reading.

8:30

Breakfast & bathrooms.  I sit and eat with the kids and make conversation with them (this is part of our NAEYC accreditation).

8:55

Morning meeting.  We have a daily greeting, then read the morning message and fill in the blanks, fix any "mistakes" or fill in a graphic organizer on the white board.  Next, the "star of the day" does our calendar.  We quickly talk about the day, week, month & year, then sing a song about the day of the week.  The star of the day picks which language we will count in before singing.  So far we can count to at least 5 in French, Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish and Cape Verdean Creole.  Love this! This is when we introduce any new centers and activities that reinforce our theme.  At the end of morning meeting I pass out each child's picture so that they can pick there center.  See {HERE} for more on our center board... my favorite classroom management tool ever!

9:15

Center time.  I LOVE this time of day.  My para and I circulate around the classroom, do activities with the kids, help with any he's hitting me!  she's not sharing! social issues, develop oral language and help set out additional materials as necessary.

10:15

Small groups.  Ms. C and I each take a group to do a guided activity that relates to our theme.  It could be anything from science to math to art, although usually it is literacy related.  

10:30

Read aloud.  My other favorite time of day.  The book is usually one that our curriculum suggests, although I will also pull in other books if they are high quality and relate to our theme.  One of the most important goals in read alouds in our classroom is to develop vocabulary since almost all of the kids are ELL.

10:45

Sing, dance, set up for nap time and get ready to go outside.

10:50

Recess.  We love to go outside to play, but if it is too snowy, rainy, cold or icy we have a variety of indoor recess activities.

11:20
Lunch!  I check my email (again!) and escape upstairs to the teacher's room for a few minutes of grown up time. 

12:00

Nap.  I am SO LUCKY to have this time to prepare activities, test kids who are awake or fill out paperwork.  I try not to move around very much so that they can rest without being distracted.  I also usually have to go yell at nicely ask the big kids to quiet down in the hallway and stop waking the little ones up.

12:30

Wake up, clean up, bathrooms

12:47

Specials!  We have art, science, computers or phys ed depending on the day.  I use this time for prep or planning, and once a week we have a team meeting.

1:33

Pick up the kids, do a quick math mini lesson and break into math centers.

2:05

Clean up, pack up and say goodbye to each other.

2:15

Dismissal.  I either bring the little kindergartners out to the busses, or dismiss the walkers (we rotate dismissal duties every month).

2:45

Clean the tables, do any prep work for tomorrow

3:30

Go home, go to the gym or on Wednesdays teach adults how to pass our state teacher test.

6:00

Make dinner, tidy up the house, pick out clothes for tomorrow

8:00

Collapse on the couch and work on school stuff on my laptop
10:00
Crawl into bed and try to read for pleasure for about 3 minutes before I pass out