A Day in the Life

Reality shows are fascinating things, but I'm not in one, nor would I want to be. Who would truly want to be at the mercy of a TV production team? You would have no control over how you appear or which version of you might appear on the screen thanks to the wonder of sound bites and clips without context. 

How about a picture of a day in the life of a teacher instead? I'm not sure I'm a typical teacher. What does the word typical mean anyway? 

• 5:30 am Our cat Kiwi scratches at our bedroom door. I get up to feed her and enjoy the quiet of my first cup of coffee.
• 6:00 am I read a bit of Bible and add to my journal.
• 6:30 am Hair, clothes, makeup
• 7:00 am Breakfast of kefir, fruit, granola. Second cup of coffee. Check on my two high school sons. “Yes, the two soccer uniforms are in the dryer. Please clean the litter box. Who’s garbage boy today? See you at school.” I miss the days when they rode with me and we could chat and pray for the day together.
• 7:25 am Driving
• 7:40 am Morning devotions as a faculty
• 7:55 am Carpool duty on a gusty day. I’m guessing I will soon modify to a ponytail day. I greet students, open car doors, and direct a little traffic with a fellow teacher.
• 8:12 am Head inside. Check in with son number 1 via text. He's interning in California.
• 8:15 am Attendance, lunch orders, announcements. Greet my seniors, “Good morning, Class.” “Good morning, Mrs. Norvell.” Discuss the end of A River Runs through It with a student leading. We trail through a bit of natural philosophy, extended metaphor, fishing is life, life is fishing, and wonder if Paul could have changed. Was he fated to die early? Could anyone have helped him anyway?
• 9:10 am Run to the bathroom. C’mon. Two cups of coffee.
• 9:15 am No class at the moment. Rather than catch up on grading, I edit an email interview with a school alum and cast it into 250 words for the quarterly school newsletter I’m managing. Then two phone calls about more sports updates for same newsletter and an email about final numbers at the printers. Reread one chapter of Frankenstein.
• 10:05-10:15 Snack break. No really. Our school does this for all 7th through 12th grade every morning. I eat a banana and warm up old coffee.
• 10:15 am Greet my juniors and jump into Frankenstein. A student leads from their peers’ questions on the board from last night’s reading. Why does everyone assume an 8 foot giant is evil? Even his creator does. What does this say about mankind and our nature to assume and judge? Good stuff.
• 11:05 am No class but it’s House Field Day soon and I need to spray paint a wood shield a school dad cut out for us. Yep. spray painting on a gusty day in a dress. And nope, we didn’t have a lot of lead time to hand off to a student when so many sports have regionals this week. Read “pockets of students absent every day.”​
• ​12:00 pm Lunch duty outside. Grab a sandwich in the cafeteria and head to the playground to watch 7th and 8th grade play soccer, sort of. Ponytail day is real. Hollar at kids that try to launch themselves over the fence to retrieve ball. Head off any little kids enjoying lunch outside from running into the field of play. Chat with a few moms. Hollar at kids again for fouling. Yes, even with playground rules you can foul.
• 12:50 pm Study Hall with 8 tired freshmen and sophomores. I let two “rest their heads” while others work. Now I grade the storyboards the seniors made last week for a creative project. In the last quarter they had a month to read a short novel or play of their choice with my approval. Instead of a book review or report of some type, they included parts of their stories on a fold-out. Did they copy from a website or include genuine reflection? Is that rhetorical?
• 1:40 Study Hall 2. Check on my Twitter feed. Post a poem. Respond to FB message about a book review I wrote. Begin grading junior essays from a week ago.
• 2:30 pm Frankenstein with second junior class. Reality check. Monsters can’t just start talking, can they? And who taught him to walk anyway? Victor is a louse.
• 3:15 pm School itself is technically done. I go make copies of AP material for the weekend study session I’m prepping for juniors before heading to a 3:30 meeting where we finishing planning for the House Field Day the next week.
• 4:30 pm Head home by way of an iced coffee at Starbucks. Thankful I am for anastrophe.
• 5:30 pm Greet family members who are home, including the cat. She counts. Change clothes and head to church. Thankful dinner is provided. Whew. Thankful for worship time.
• 9:00 pm Home again. Check emails and respond to one parent and two students. Finish this blog.
• 10:30 pm Bedtime. Then son number 2 comes in and sits on the bed to talk. Always happy for these moments.
• 11:10 pm My day is at its end.

---

I should get a prize for this. Wind, heels, dress are bonus.