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Ahhhh.... Common Core Standards!!!!!

  AHHHH... COMMON CORE! NOOOO...      PARENTS: This post is mostly for you....please, read carefully.     If you are a teacher, there's a very high chance you've heard this from a parent before. If you are a parent of a school-aged child, you've likely thought or even said this to a teacher before.     To start a discussion about the Common Core Standards (CCS), I need to start with how and why it started because when the push comes to shove, they really aren't that scary.      IT'S THE TESTING that's scary.     Many of you remember George H. W. Bush. During his presidency, No Child Left Behind was signed. This federal act introduced the idea that every school must implement standardized tests annually in grades 3-8 to analyze the downfalls and adjust accordingly. Students had to achieve "proficient" scores or the school would suffer consequences. (Sounds dumb right?...well...it is). The Bush Administration pushed for te...
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A Day in the Life of a Teacher - PART 2!

 


Me: D - "You whisper 'WTF' to yourself," at least a hundred times a day.

Host: Final answer?

Me: ABSOLUTELY! Though all have definitely happened.

Part 2 of the Day of a Teacher

    Congratulations! You have now made it to the latter portion of the day. AFTER LUNCH! Hopefully, you've eaten your lunch (probably cold in the middle from the shitty microwave) and you've used the bathroom (to cry or legit use it). 

    Most teachers at this time of the day get the SECOND WIND. If you didn't have lunch duty, you've had a chance to be in the quiet alone. Maybe you're even the lucky one that has a special right after lunch and you've actually started on some work. 

    What kind of work you ask? Grading, copying, scrambling for the afternoon, answering emails, sneaking candy from that one co-worker, losing track of time staring at the wall, or lesson planning (←this shit deserves a whole separate post).


    Period after lunch: You better hope this isn't a core subject period because those kids WILL BE SLEEPING. As an adult, when you eat your body gets energy. Well, kids are ass-backward. When kids eat, they get sleepy. This is probably the most behaved your students will be the whole day. It's not good for participation or observations, but at least you can extend the peacefulness.

    Witching Hour: Don't worry, the quiet time doesn't last long. Once the students realize they can't actually take a nap, we all enter into the dreaded witching hour. Oh, doesn't that only happen at Halloween? NO...dummy. IT'S EVERY DAY! The students are "overtired". They are done with the day, have lost all energy that is being replaced with magic crazy dust, and no, you really aren't going to get a whole lot of teaching done. I hope you don't have 3 hours left... This is when teachers teach the easier subjects (elementary mostly), math, science, book clubs, tabletops, and whatever to keep your children entertained enough so that no one loses an eye or cuts someone else's hair off.

        PARENTS: This is why it's so important to get your children to school on time, most of the actual learning happens in the morning!

    Last Period of the Day: EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES! ONLY THE STRONG WILL SURVIVE! In elementary, we dub this "quiet reading time", because NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING gets accomplished in the last period. We take 15 goddamn minutes to get coats on for goodness sake. 


    Please, secondary teachers, what do you do with your children at the end of the day? Is it just as crazy as it is in elementary? 

    There are not enough fingers to count how many students have to use the bathroom at this time. Get the bus kids ready first, because you do not want one of those kids to miss the bus. It's also inevitable that someone has lost something, their folder, a hat, their little toy they weren't supposed to bring to school, anything to keep them from actually getting ready to go home. 

    I swear it feels like they don't want to leave....why.....go to your home!

    End of the day: Now, I was one of those teacher who couldn't leave as soon as the kids. This is another HUGE misconception. Most teachers stick around the school for another hour, prepping for the next day, because our preps were used for other shit. Why? BECAUSE WE CARE!

    Sometimes, there are more dumb meetings after school, but I always had at least 30 minutes where I would cry (again), stare into space (again), use the bathroom (hopefully, again), eat a snack, or actually prep stuff. 


    We also are usually janitors at this time, straightening the classroom so that it can be ready for everything to happen all over again tomorrow.  

    My hope for writing this post is to help parents and outsiders see ALL THE SHIT we have to deal with in just ONE DAY. We always come in the next day bright-eyed and ready to help, motivate, inspire, encourage, and well, teach your children. 

              It's like we have really, really short-term amnesia to keep doing this every day.

    Teaching your children is why we have become educators to begin with. We love seeing them grow, change, have that "aha" moment, and comprehend. But, it's important to understand that no, we do not just sit around and play all day and teachers deserve so much more recognition than just one week in May where we get free food.


Hang in there teacher friends, Winter Break is Coming!

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