Tired

Our school day is arranged in such a way that I have two 40 minute work periods per day without my students. For one 40 minute work period, I am free to grade papers, make photocopies and do whatever else needs doing. For the other 40 minute work period I am required to attend a professional development class.

The classes focus on our currirulum and programs. The classes are designed to make us better at our jobs. These classes rotate in 10 day cycles. Every ten days I spend 40 minutes with my team going over the math curriculum. Every ten days I spend 40 minutes with my team going over the science (social studies, reading, etc.) curriculum. Every ten days I facilitate the Writing Curriculum meetings.

This means I plan the lesson, prepare the materials and present them to three individual groups of teachers. My day looks like this:

7:00 a.m. arrive in the classroom and make certain all is ready for the day
8:00 a.m. whole school assembly on the playground
8:15 a.m. in classroom, morning “warm up” on the board, TV on to the school news, students eating breakfast (whole school 100% free breakfast in the classroom every morning)
8:30 a.m. pass the sub at the door and head for Kindergarten Writing Class — teach teachers
9:10 a.m. return to class, pass the sub at the door and pick up threads of the reading lesson — teach students
10:05 a.m. reading students leave, math students arrive — at same time pass sub at the door and head for the Second Grade Writing Class — teach teachers
10:45 a.m. return to class, pass the sub at the door and pick up threads of the math lesson — teach students
11:20 a.m. — meet with the Principal about Writing Professional Development Classes
11:40 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. student free work period and lunch
12:30 p.m. — pass the sub at the door and head for First Grade Writing Class — teach teachers
1:10 p.m. return to class, pass the sub at the door and pick up threads of the science lesson — teach students (then transition to writing & afterward Social Studies)
2:40 p.m. — take students to P.E., attend 5th grade writing team meeting
3:25 p.m. pick students up from P.E., return students to classroom to gather all personal possessions
3:30 p.m. walk students to the gate and wave good-bye

Normally, that should be it, but on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I tutor after school. So yesterday:

3:30 pm. prepare tutoring lessons
3:45 p.m. pick up students in gym — teach (Math: mean, median, mode, minimum, maximum & range)
5:15 p.m. return students to gym — hand them over to parents, wave good-bye
5:25 p.m. off the clock — finally

Tired — not so much from the time spent, or the activities, but all the gear switching. What time is it? Where am I? And where should I really be?