Teacher Talk Tuesday

Hello and happy Tuesday!

As the school year is under way and a little different for me this year, I’m sharing my schedule for the year.

Amy shared her schedule last week, and I always enjoy seeing other teachers’ schedules, routines, and lessons.

My school’s hours are 8:25-3:15. We are to be in our classroom by 7:55, and we can leave by 3:25.

I’ve been in this district for eight years, and this time frame works for me. I don’t have to start my day too early, but I can also get to a 3:45 or 4:00 appointment if I have one. At my previous school, I had to be there by 8:25 (but I lived 30 minutes away), and school was out at 3:50 (and we had to stay until 4:05). It was usually 5:00 before I got home after staying for a bit after school, driving the 30 minutes and then picking up my kids).

Anyway, I appreciate the 8:00-3:30 schedule.

My Schedule:

Here is my schedule for the year:

• 1st hour – co-teach – English 1. This means I have a smaller class of around twenty and half of them have IEPs (individual education plans). My co-teacher is a special education teacher who helps me provide those students their accommodations. Ironically, this is my first time in 23 years having a co-teach class. So far, I’m really enjoying it!
• 2nd hour – MTSS (multi-tiered system of support). The past few years, my whole day was MTSS. This is where I help in other English teachers’ classrooms, work with small group or individual students. Tier 1 instruction is what happens in the classroom. Tiers 2 and 3 are the help that I provide re-teaching and providing more direct instruction with smaller groups.
• Hall duty – After second hour, I head to my designated spot in the building and then have “tardy cart” duty. After the bell rings, I scan student IDs and print out a tardy slip to class.
• 3rd hour – Planning (The past few years, with the MTSS hours, I didn’t have a designated planning period. I’m happy to have a scheduled time to plan, prep, and grade)
• Advisory – Advisory is 30 minutes long, and I share an Advisory with another teacher. He’s the math version of me with co-teach Algebra 1 classes and then a couple of MTSS hours. In Advisory, we cover financial literacy, social emotional learning and other odds and ends.
• 4th -This is my other MTSS hour. This is also a common hour I have with other MTSS teachers, so we can meet, look at data, plan small groups and more. We also have lunch during 4th hour.
• 5th – Advanced English 1. I teach the same curriculum as with my co-teach classes, but in a more rigorous way and we usually move at a quicker pace. This is my biggest class with 30 students. (This is the class I have quite a few of my kids’ friends in it…so far, that’s only a little bit weird! haha)
• 6th- co-teach – English 1 – same as my 1st hour and with the same co-teacher.

The Kids:

The kids have had a great first few days of school. They’ve navigated their schedule, the lunchroom and the halls with 2,000 students with great success.

Our school has six classes, plus Advisory. So, freshmen take four core classes and then have two electives.

This year:

• They are both taking Advanced English 1 (they are in the same class again this year), Advanced Biology and Government.
• Hadley is taking Spanish 1 and Life Essentials as her electives.
• Hayden is taking Spanish 2 and Weight Management as his electives.
• For math, Hayden is in Algebra 1 and Hadley is taking Advanced Geometry.

I’ve seen them a couple of times in the hall and love hearing, “Hi, Hadley’s (or Hayden’s) mom!” when I see their friends out and about too.

I’m grateful we’ve all had a great start to the school year.

What was your favorite class in high school?