March 7, 2017 - Monthly Post #DITL

The following post is a contribution to the Day in the Life Book Project initiated by Tina Cardone:

Today I woke up to good news.  We had a two hour delay for ice.  This week is spirit week, and as senior class advisor, I end up staying at school late every day.  Yesterday I left school after 6 pm, and came home to do more work and cook and clean, so I was very excited to get some extra sleep.

This morning, however, I just couldn't go back to sleep.  Neither could my husband.  We decided to use our extra time to watch last night's episode of Bates Motel since I can no longer stay up past 10 pm and function the next day.  The time we had to just relax and watch tv was just what I needed.

Today was "Woke Up Like This Day," which meant dressing up glamorously.  It sounds like the opposite of "woke up like this", but I don't get to make up the spirit days.  Today I dressed how I used to dress for work before I began prioritizing comfort over style.  It was nice to see some of my students dressed up in their best outfits and looking spiffy.

The two hour delay caused my classes to only be 28 minutes long.  In each of my classes, I was only able to get through the basic instruction and guided practice.  We'll have to do the independent practice tomorrow.  In my General Geometry classes (1st and 4th periods), we learned about reflections.  Students seemed to grasp it quickly, but we'll see tomorrow when they have a practice worksheet.  In my Geometry classes (2nd and 5th periods), we learned about using trig to find missing sides of right triangles.  Thankfully I had already planned a second day of practice for this topic tomorrow.

During my lunch, my seniors held an impromptu meeting to prepare for our after school tasks.  We were able to better organize and prepare for later.  After this, I taught my 6th period SAT Prep class.  This was the only class not effected by the delay.  I started structuring this class differently for this semester.  I begin class by giving students a practice worksheet.  Then we go over the worksheet together, and conclude class by going over the content that students need to review.  Today's topic was solving linear-quadratic systems.  Students remembered this topic well, and were able to complete the worksheet without much trouble.

Today I used my 7th period prep to catch up on the grading that I had from students making up work that they owed.  Tomorrow my third marking period progress reports are due, and I finally completed my grading.  I recently acquired an 8th period study hall, and used my time during this period to catch up on my daily teacher tasks.  Study hall on the delay schedule was not enough time, and I had to continue some of my tasks after school.

Our school turns Spirit Week into an all out class war.  Classes compete against each other in Jeopardy, a scavenger hunt, a talent show, a recyclable fashion show, and in the main event, the Battle of the Classes.  Battle of the Classes happens on the Friday of spirit week.  Classes compete against each other in physical challenges such as tug-o-war, volley ball, an obstacle course, and dodge ball.  The biggest competition is the banner and bleachers.  Each class chooses a theme that is part of a larger theme, and decorates a banner and a set of bleachers in the gym based on that theme.  This year our SGA's theme was "Classic" Disney movies.  (With classic defined as movies from before 2005.)  The senior class's theme is The Little Mermaid.  Starting last week, I began staying after school with some of the seniors to prepare for decorating the bleachers.  We go all out, and the whole process ends up being very time consuming.  Today we stayed until after 8 pm painting, cutting, gluing, planning, discussing, sometimes arguing, and creating.

I feel pressured to get these posts up on the day that I am writing about, and since I didn't get home until 9 pm, I am going to edit this post later this weekend to add my reflection questions.