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An accounting of my day, Thursday, December 5th, 2024. 

(To the best of my recollection)

Note for context: A month ago, I had sinus surgery. I’m mostly healed, but still under a light-duty order. If I find myself exerting myself too much by moving too fast, lifting too much, or talking too loud, I can still feel the pressure of not-quite-healed sinus passages. When this happens, I say, “My face hurts.”

 

6:30am: Drive to school while icing my face because my face hurts.

 

6:37am: My ice bag is leaking. I stop icing my face. 

 

7:05am: Arrive at school.

 

7:07am: Grab envelope out of my mailbox on my way to my classroom. 

 

7:10am: Make it to my new classroom, not quite unpacked after being asked to move classrooms and share with another teacher last week. Double-check that everything I need printed for the day is printed. 

 

7:12am: I made adjustments to my plans yesterday while I was at my other school, so the things I need here at this school today are not printed. Print a bunch of things I’ll pick up in a few minutes. Classroom teachers need to be in their rooms by 7:30, so I’ll wait until then so I don’t hold anyone up (foreshadowing: This would prove to be a mistake). 

 

7:20am: Check with a 2nd grade teacher that I’m scheduled to teach a lesson to her class at 8:10. 

 

7:23am: Check with a 3rd grade teacher regarding the behavior of one of my students. Last time I promised to come in and observe in the morning, I was sick and missed it. I promised I would be in today (foreshadowing: This would prove to be a mistake)

 

7:25am: Go back to my room and put all the supplies I need for 3rd grade math on my chair. Instead of bringing them back to my shared room, we’ll stay in the activity space in their hall. 

 

7:26am: Decide to ask my principal for a cart instead of piling things on my desk chair. 

 

7:30am: Monitor hall as kids start coming down to classrooms. 

 

7:32am: Secretary comes down the hall. A teacher is gone and her sub overslept. Can I sub until she gets there? Remembering my 2nd grade appointment at 8:10, I ask if we’re expecting the sub to be here by then. I am assured she will. 

 

7:33am: Run back to my room, grab my chair of 1st and 3rd grade supplies. I don’t have time to print, but should be able to print by 8:10 (Foreshadowing: This would prove to be a mistake)

 

7:34am: Push my chair of supplies to the 3rd grade activity space, where I will leave it for an hour until I need it. My face hurts. 

 

7:35am: Arrive in class to sub. Quickly read through the sub binder and put Tuesday’s lessons on the board (Note: I did not know at the time I was looking at Tuesday’s lesson). 

 

7:40am: Begin class’ morning meeting. Everyone starts yelling at me that “We’ve already done this!” This is when I realize it was Tuesday’s lesson. Where is Thursday’s lesson? Why won’t the slides advance?

 

7:42am: Start over with Thursday’s lessons. 

 

7:47am: Barrett interrupts to inform me he has too much energy. I give him a wobble stool. 

 

7:48am: Lilly interrupts to ask why she can’t have a wobble stool.

 

7:51am: William is pretending to be asleep. Gabe demonstrates to Quinn how he knows that if he picks up William’s arm and it falls, William is not asleep. 

 

8:05am: Realize I won’t be able to print anything before my 8:10 class. The sub is not yet here.

 

8:07am: Have a kid take over leading our game-playing so I can call the office. Office is going to get the instructional coach to cover this class until the sub gets here.

 

8:10am: Go to the 2nd grade class to teach without the materials I needed to print. Improvise by just showing the PDFs on the projector. 

 

8:40am: Wrap up 2nd grade and return to 3rd grade activity space. Begin laying out materials. My face hurts. 

 

8:45am: Get 3rd grade students. Listen to them complain about not going to my room. Explain that I want them to be able to move and talk louder than they can while I’m sharing a room with another teacher. 

 

8:47am: Realize it would be really great if I had a white board marker with me. Remind myself again to ask the principal for a cart. 

 

8:59am: Jacoba is mad her partner has won our binary math game twice in a row, but I think the real reason she’s mad is because her partner was a second grader three weeks ago.

 

9:07am: Jacoba is mad because her partner won three times in a row. I have Jacoba switch partners.

 

9:12am: Everyone puts supplies away. I have the group vote on whether we want to have a bracketed competition with the binary math game next week, or if we want to do something else. The vote ends in a tie. 

 

9:14am: Send the 3rd graders back to their classes.

 

9:14:17am: Charlotte asks me for homework. She loves homework. I make a mental note to find her some homework when I get to my desk and hope I don’t forget it beforehand.

 

9:14:27am: Remember that Charlotte’s teacher asked for some math homework for her three weeks ago and I did not remember that request by the time I arrived at my desk.

 

9:20am: Finally get a chance to print before I go pick up 1st grade students in ten minutes. 

 

9:25am: Print. Drop off the papers I printed with the 2nd grade teacher. Push my chair back to my room to restock it with supplies for 1st grade. Stock my chair with a bin of clipboards, pencils, paper, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Find my cue cards for SCAMPER: Substitute, Combine, and Modify. 

 

9:29am: Head down to 1st grade wing. Pick up 10 first graders (out of the 8 for which I have space). Take them to the 1st grade activity center so I can be louder without bothering my roommate. 

 

9:29:30 am: Greta wants to know if she can bring her snack with her. Yes, she can.

 

9:30am: Arrive at activity center. My roommate is there with her kids. Redirect and take my kids down to our room. 

 

9:33am: Arrive at our room. My face hurts. 

 

9:34am: Teach SCAMPER: Substitute, Combine, or Modify by showing how we can read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. and substitute either the “Grinch,” “Stole,” or “Christmas” to create a new story such as How the Cookie Monster Stole Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Halloween or How the Grinch Loved Christmas (A TAG-centered creative thinking exercise).

 

9:37am: Begin reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas while the students write down or draw their ideas on their clipboards.

 

9:39am: Greta would like to know why on Earth the Grinch would steal Halloween?

 

9:39:37am: Ben wants to tell us about his friend who didn’t eat in the cafeteria during Ramadan. 

 

9:42am: Greta interrupts to let me know she dropped her pickle slice. I teach her that she can get up and throw it away without asking. 

 

9:47am: After getting halfway through reading the book in Jim Carey’s “Grinch” voice, my face hurts. 

 

9:58am: Farrel didn’t understand what we were doing. Try to keep him from crying.

 

10:00am: Lead 1st graders back to their classrooms. Successfully kept Farrel from crying. 

 

10:01am: My phone congratulates me on the number of steps I’ve taken today. 

 

10:03am: Go to the bathroom. Check my schedule for the rest of the day. Start looking forward to the chicken wrap with hot sauce I’m going to have for lunch. 

 

10:08am: Return to my classroom. Clean up from my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade groups so far. Prep for 4th. My face hurts. I can’t take Tylenol until noon. 

 

10:09am: Do not write any notes in my to-do list about getting homework for Charlotte, as I have forgotten.

 

10:15am: Have a conversation with my roommate about our combined schedules. 

 

10:30am: Pick up 4th graders. Explain to them the new roommate situation and the new expectations for working volume while we share a room.

 

10:45am: Realize that MIT Scratch (a kids’ computer programming platform) is broken and kids can’t save their work to their accounts. 

 

11:00am: Without being loud enough that I am distracting my roommate’s reading tutoring, try to show my 4th grade group how to download their work to their computer to save for later when Scratch can save to their accounts.

 

11:05am: Send 4th graders back to their classrooms. 

 

11:15am: Begin lunch break. Open lunch box to get that tasty chicken wrap.

 

11:15:07am: There is no chicken wrap. It’s a “Just Crack an Egg” Denver omelet package that I put in my lunchbox myself at 6:20am this morning. 

 

11:17am: Sigh heavily and take the omelet to the lounge to microwave. 

 

11:18am: Spill half of the ingredients on the floor when I open the bag, but that’s okay because there are Skittles on the counter.

 

11:22am: Return to my room with Denver omelet and Skittles. Use this opportunity to chronicle my events of the day so far. Realize I have not written a reminder about getting homework for Charlotte nor emailed the principal about getting a cart. 

 

11:27am: Jeremy enters because he left his popit fidget toy on my desk. 

 

11:45am: Take Tylenol. Prep materials for the rest of the day. My room is not yet organized enough that I have good places to put things, so they are just piles on my desk. 

 

12:00pm: email a reminder to the 2nd grade teachers that math group is today at 1:45, and apologize for not reminding them earlier when my day got unexpectedly busy. 

 

12:05pm: head to cafeteria to supervise 4th and 5th grade lunch.

 

12:12pm: prevent the 4th grader who has to eat lunch in the office from tearing up the posters on the walls on his way. 

 

12:21pm: explain the genetics of balding to a group of 5th graders.

 

12:27pm: politely refuse to do a backflip at the behest of a group of 5th graders. 

 

12:35pm: return to my room. My roommate has left to go to her other building. 

 

12:40pm: Pick up 4th grade reading/writing group. We’re doing a self-paced playwriting unit, and everyone is in a different place. It goes rather smoothly because they’re rather engaged. I pat myself on the back for how good of a teacher I am. The tylenol has kicked in and my face doesn’t hurt anymore. 

 

1:15pm: Wrap up 4th graders so I can pick up the 1st grade math group at 1:20.

 

1:16pm: Half of the 4th graders refuse to leave.

 

1:17pm: a handful of the 4th graders still refuse to leave.

 

1:18pm: I am herding the 4th graders out the door like a farm dog while I push my desk chair full of supplies for 1st grade math. Remind myself to ask the principal for a cart. 

 

1:20pm: Pick up 1st grade math group. Teach them the “Cannibal Fish” game that requires them to be able to add two-digit numbers within 100.  

 

1:35pm: Release 1st graders to recess. Pack up my chair and push it back down to the 2nd grade hall.

 

1:40pm: Pick up 2nd grade math group. Barrett still has too much energy. By the time I picked up kids from all three classes and got to where the line was waiting, he had them laughing like the headliner at a comedy club. 

 

1:42pm: Arrive in my room. Demonstrate how to make an encryption/decryption key for our coded messages activity the next few weeks. 

 

1:46pm: Teach Barrett how to direct his energy into a wobble stool instead of jumping off tables. 

 

1:50pm: Notice Barrett is doing this rather successfully. 

 

2:12pm: Direct everyone to throw away paper scraps, put their name on their codex, put their name on any papers, and bring them to me to keep for next week (never trust 2nd graders not to lose something in their desk for a week).

 

2:14pm: Take 2nd graders back for their 2:15 recess. 

 

2:17pm: Practice walking down the hall with Barrett and practice using strategies for when we have too much energy. 

 

2:20pm: Return to my room. Pick up all of the random piles of work stacked on my front table for the day. 

 

2:25pm: Answer emails.

 

2:40pm: Monitor hallway during dismissal.

 

2:45pm: Go to the bathroom. 

 

2:50pm: Return to my room. Put up chairs, pick up floor.

 

2:55pm: See my note to get homework for 3rd graders. The books where this would be are still packed in boxes. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

3:01pm: Finally get around to opening the envelope from my mailbox this morning. It contained everything that I ordered from the print shop earlier this week that I needed to print at 7:30. Put it in a folder for whoever has this job next year.

 

3:05pm: Email principal to ask for a cart.

 

3:10pm: Go home. My face hurts. 

 

3:11pm: Another teacher stops in to ask about some student data. 

 

3:22pm: Go home, attempt number two. 

 

__________________________

 

David Dubczak is an educator and writer documenting his final year in the classroom before transitioning into school administration. Follow David Dubczak - Writer on Facebook to keep up with semi-weekly posts. 

 

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Read David's books and plays right here at www.DavidDWriter.com. Since I'm a nerd, I've written a lot (but not exclusively) about ships. 

 

If you know me and want to be a part of the beta reading group, send me a message. You get to help me make sure I'm not violating FERPA or the confidentiality of identities and stories that shouldn't be repeated. Besides, I've made enough goofs, I don't need to borrow anyone else's.