I'm a Kindergarten teacher in a major school district in Maryland, right outside of DC. We have all day Kindergarten; I absolutely love my school, my teammates, and the rest of the staff! I've been teaching for 8 years. I taught 1st grade for 6 years and this is my second year teaching Kindergarten. I've been at my school for all 8 years; I know how lucky I am!
5:40- Alarm goes off, hit snooze and roll back over to go back to sleep (I just do not understand people who do not use the snooze button! But, I digress...)
(side note, does anyone have an alarm clock like this anymore?)
5:55- Shower, dress, blow dry hair, feed Sophie, make lunch, etc.
7:30ish- I arrive to school, mentally prepare myself for the day, get materials together for math in the afternoon or the upcoming days, catch up on blogs. Unless I was out the day before, I try to make sure I have everything ready for the morning if not the whole day before I leave the building the day before. There's nothing worse than running around in the morning when you have stuff that has to get done!
8:45- Students arrive, unpack, start their morning journals
9:15- Morning meeting. We read the plans for the day, do calendar, weather, etc and have a movement break
9:40- Whole group lesson/modeling
9:55- Book clubs (reading groups) start and students work on follow-up work or go straight to their literacy centers
This is my most challenging part of the day... keeping students from interrupting me while I'm teaching small groups and trying to keep them relatively quiet! If someone walked by my room, they would probably see a group of 4-5 students with me at our reading table and another student standing up showing me some sort of work and me holding up the number 3 with my fingers. ASK 3 BEFORE ME! Come on people, it's been 113 days of school already!
10:45- Writer's Workshop is supposed to happen here. If I'm being really honest, I generally don't get to writer's workshop. I'm usually wrapping up my 3rd reading group instead of my 4th and decide to meet with my last group instead of doing writer's workshop.
11:20-12:20- Lunch and Recess- I'm lucky here compared to many teachers, we don't have to cover lunch or recess duty!
12:30-1:05- Specials- PE, music, art and media every day except for Tuesday
1:05-1:20- Rest/Read/Drinks/Finish center work
1:20-2:10- Math. Most of the time, I teach math in a format much like reading groups. I work with 3 small groups of students. Students are either working at their seats on independent work or working at math zones (otherwise known as math centers).
2:10-2:45- Science/Social Studies/Free Choices- Three days a week I pull an intervention group of three students who are working on reading skills. We're working on identifying word families, blending sounds and breaking words apart.
This is our housekeeping area- one of the favorites!
2:45-2:55- Pack up!
3:05- Dismissal- I take the Kindergarten walkers out so I'm done either by 3:07 or sometimes 3:20, if parents are running late.
3:50- Our duty day is done. I've gotten much better at leaving around 4 this year. During my first few years, I stayed much later but I've gotten better at working smarter and really try to leave by 4 or 4:30. It helps that I have to get home to make sure to let Sophie out!
lol I have never used the snooze button
ReplyDeleteI am not a snooze button person at all! Partly because I wake up 5-15mins before my alarm every day and partly because I seem to lack the ability to fall asleep once the alarm has gone off. But more power to you!
ReplyDeleteI dont snooze but I usually wish I could
ReplyDeleteYour room is so cute!
ReplyDeleteYour room is adorable! I am in a similar situation to you - been teaching 9 years (high school) at the same place in a major district. I love it.
ReplyDelete