A Day in the Life of a Teacher Essay

I hear the sound of my alarm clock at 6:30am. Time to get up! I wish it was Saturday, no school! No, I’m not a child, nor a student, but a teacher! You don’t think we enjoy everyday at work, do you? No. That’s rubbish. Let me continue with my story of a day in the life of a teacher.  As I force myself out of bed, a chilling thought comes over me. It’s Wednesday. This means I still have three whole days to get through until the weekend. Better get a move on if I want to make it on time. First, I take a shower. I do this every morning to liven myself up and to prepare for the day ahead of me. Today first up we have a whole school assembly. That’s one reason why I don’t like Wednesdays. The other few reasons I particularly don’t like the day Wednesday is that I have recess yard duty and in the afternoon is the paper parade. I step out of the shower, thinking such thoughts of what has been happening in the last few days and what I have to do today. I get dressed and go out to have breakfast. Mmm, I like breakfast, my last chance in the morning to relax and not think about work, but it eventually creeps into my head anyway. Once I am finished I remember and organize, well I try to remember and organize everything that I will need. Which is a lot. When I arrive at school, about 10 to 8 I park, load up my stuff and walk to the front office. In the staff room I have a social chat to the other teachers, we talk about assembly, make our coffee or tea and get ready to leave. With a mug in one hand, handbag and everything else in the other, we back onto the staff door and out the front office. You can always tell a new teacher, they haven’t got the art of getting out the staff door in the morning perfected yet. I make my way to class avoiding the students and setup and wait in the class until the bell goes at half past 8. Outside the kids are eagerly waiting to be let inside, like a pack of puppies waiting for you to open the door just so they can jump all over you with their muddy paws. What do they eat, must be something like froot-loops. Which would explain not just the sugar rush but a for a few others something else too. As soon as we are all in class, which doesn’t take long, I give announcements and ask the class to take their chairs to assembly. When we arrive I round up my class, and once everyone is seated its time to go home. I wish! Though it is about 20minutes later. At the beginning of every assembly we stand and sing the national anthem. Which doesn’t sound like an anthem at all. Instead of sounding like we are proud and free, it’s sung in a droning tone. When we sit down I shush all the chatters and the assembly begins. As a teacher it’s our duty to listen to what is happening around the school while also keeping a small eye, quite like a hawks, on the class. We all usually sit back, act interested and see all the small things that go on. Like the two kids who like each other keep pretending to ‘look around the room’ but are really trying to catch a smile. Then there are the bad kids, who are trying to make peashooters and all the usual blabbermouths who can’t even wait until recess to talk. Since this assembly is so boring and I am bored I will go over, grab the troublemakers and sit them next to me. The rest of assembly goes on like this and is pretty much a huge waste of time and effort. At the end we ask our class to move off. We head off and back to class, when we are all finally in class I give out a quick spelling test. It’s really a time waster and a fill in until recess. When the bell goes I think of how nice it will be to relax in the staff room. Then a student comes up and mentions something about handing a form in today, Wednesday. It hits me then that I have to do.. yard duty. Out I go, trying to avoid the smaller kids who seem to want to follow me around, some even cling my leg . At the end of recess I have a 5minute break in the staff room. Some break! I quickly get a drink and then hear the bell, time to go to class. Back in class its maths time. Everyone lines up, and then I tell him or her to go inside. I ask my class to sit on the mat after about 10minutes and 2 disagreements everyone is seated. I have release time so I wait for the principal to come, because he is taking over my class. Release time, although it is called ‘release’ is a time where we just do things that aren’t done yet. Like marking work, writing a program, or putting together all the things we need to. I have reports to write, since it is the end of the term. There are a few simple things to do when writing reports to make the process as simple, easy and stress free as possible. First sort out the kids. There’s the good, the bad and the in between. The in between are really good kids, which you personally don’t like and torture for the fun of it. Then write a set paragraph for each of the groups, with 3-5 different wordings, which really mean the same thing. Once children are categorized the fun begins. Comment after comment is inserted into the report, but when I feel that a student stands out, I add my own personal touch. Two words -Be creative. After report writing I have to mark work, this is a very slow and boring process. After a few minutes a fellow teacher of mine comes into the computer room to tell me that the Principal has left for a meeting and I will have to go back and take my class, even though there is only 10minutes until the lunch bell rings.