A day in my shoes...

Well this could be interesting. I am going to pick Wednesdays. (Because my schedule is different each day of the week. It is sort of a nightmare to keep track of.)

A Wednesday in my shoes.

4:58: Alarm goes off and I proceed to hit the snooze button twice then the off button.

5:25: I get out of bed and decide what to wear then hop in the shower.

5:45ish: Out of shower and dressed get hair and makeup done in bedroom so as not to wake anyone else up with noisy hairdryer and its quieter when I drop things on the carpet than the bathroom floor.

6:05 ish: Pack lunch-usually a hot pocket (5 cheese) or some other frozen meal (lean cuisine have been the meal of choice lately.) And I always include a rice krispie treat and some other things. (I am a vegetarian so honestly my lunch is mostly carbs.

6:25: At least no later than this. I am out the door and into my new car :)

7:20ish: I arrive at school and walk into the building with a quick hello to our wonderful Secretary as I walk by.

7:23: I get my computer out of my bag and set it up. Put my purse and lunch box in their respective places (ok just on the floor under my desk) and find the papers I need to copy for the morning.

7:28: Head for the work room to make my copies. Nearly get hit by door to work room (almost every morning). Say hello to the Preschool teachers-they will make another appearance later. Then make copies.

7:35: Return to room and put papers somewhere that I will remember where they are usually directly on my teacher chair in the circle area.

7:36: Begin morning clean up. Get distracted by something or someone. Begin cleaning again. (repeat about 6 times)

8:00: Wait for the announcement that this will be an indoor recess due to either rain or ice. Groan and unlock my door while kids say each time they walk into my room, "It's indoor recess."

8:02-8:25: Try to get odd jobs done in the room while kiddos tell me all sorts of things that I am bound to forget.

8:25: I am officially on kid duty. I say put all the toys away put your lunch sticks away and come sit on the rug. (no there is no punctuation because I have said it so many times it all comes out in one breath)

8:30: The ""you better be in class" bell rings. Then 5 more kids walk in.

8:33: We start our calendar/circle time. There are always some completely random stories about Ellie (one little guys stuffed elephant), Swiper (sniff sniff, no more of these stories about the little girls cat because she moved. sniff sniff), a bad dream, I need to go potty, etc.

8:45: We finish our calendar and I have to have the kids talk to eachother for a minute so that I can put the attendance in the computer before the secretary comes over the intercom and says, "Miss Bruncke could you please enter your attendance." (it is so embarrassing.)

8:46: I get them quiet again and explain their morning work.

8:50: Begin morning work. With me circulating and making sure that one little one isn't hiding under a table or doing somersaults in the hallway (yes this is seriously what she was doing the other day. scared me to death when I couldn't find her!)

9:11: Reading teachers come into room (yes they should have been there 1 minute before that).

9:30: Students continue work on their morning task. (usually some form of writing practice)

9:38: Pull kids to rug to get ready for music so that they are already quiet when music man arrives.(this is a new time or us. We used to have music on Monday afternoons...but it wasn't working for the kids and it was just one big disaster. So before break music man and I had a talk and decided that a morning music time would be MUCH better. HALLELUJAH! It certainly is!)

9:40: Music man arrives just as kids are finally all quiet and sitting still.

10:00:RECESS. Let me tell you I am just as excited for it by this time as the kids are. I make sure all coats are on and shoes are tied on the way out the door as music man chats with me before he leaves.

10:17: Kids return from recess. (This time is not exact because it depends on how long it takes them to line up. ) Then we either continue their morning job or do another literacy based lesson.

11:10: Get ready for lunch. Highlight hot/cold lunch list. Make sure cold lunch has their lunches.

11:15:Walk down the hall in our version of ABC order. With several stops to remind them that the hallway is a NO TALKING zone!

11:17: Walk into staff room to sit with my Preschool teacher friends. Let me tell you these ladies are HILARIOUS! We talk about kids-they have had most of mine. They try to get me to take a few of theirs off of their hands, etc.

11:50: I slowly make my way back to the classroom and turn off all but my reading light and wait in my chair for my silent kids noisy elephants to come down the hall. They slowly trickle in after using the bathroom.

12:00: I finally get to start my read aloud. My kids LOVE Ramona! We read Ramona the Pest first  and we just finished Ramona Quimby Age 8 on Friday. They are begging for another Ramona book. I just need to figure out where I put them.

12:25: They go out to recess. I get ready for math lesson. Run copies. Talk to teaching partner. Check email if time.

12:45: Kids come back in and we either have snack or start math lesson.

1:15 ish: Math stations usually.

1:45: Either a read aloud or some playtime. Depending on if I am prepared for more noise and if they cleaned up all of the math stations.

2:15 Recess. I fill out sorry got distracted, mom called me to say drive safe to my friends house because it's snowing. Well there is no snow at my house yet. DANG! behavior contracts for 5 of my kiddos. These are my way of communicating with these parents. Works great in some cases-completely pointless in others.

2:30 Kids come back from recess to stack chairs/complete their jobs (clean up the room!)/get their mail and pack up. 

2:45 Kids meet me on the rug for our end of the day wrap up. Usually me talking about the next day trying to remind them to come to school "Ready to Learn" the next day. Giving out prizes and certificates to the kiddos who made it to purple. Then I tend to try to do a read aloud.

3:00 Head to the bus! We leave before the end of the day so as to not get trampled by the big kids on the way. It is a VERY small district so kids ages 3-seniors ride the buses together. I walk kids to buses and on the last bus in the row I have to carry my last kiddo on because he HATES riding the bus. Then I have to sit there and wait on the bus with him until it is time for the bus to drive away. Goodness sakes- I could NEVER be a bus driver!

3:15 get back to classroom unless I stop in the office and get chatting.

3:30 (usually more like 3:45) I am out the door. With a whole pile of stuff to get done at home. got up to check again and now it is actually snowing here! not really sticking but it's still snow :)

4:45 usually: Arrive home and plop on the couch. Or head to the high school to help run the concession stand for the basketball game (but this usually happens on Tuesdays). And sometimes I even get the stuff done that I brought home. But more likely I spend too much time on pinterest, facebook, blogger, and watching tv. Oh and I usually make and eat dinner in there somewhere too.

10:00 go to bed! 


So that is my day in a nutshell. Super exciting huh. (did anyone notice in my school day that there is no bathroom break. ugh. People warned me about not getting one but seriously I don't usually have a chance. )


Hope you enjoy your 3 day weekend! Time for me to head to a friends house to watch Grimm! Does anyone else watch that show? If you don't I definitely suggest you do. It is awesome!