I figure it would be a good idea to give a little snapshot of our life as of now.
Every morning I roll out of bed at the last possible second. Most of the time laying in bed is spent pushing the snooze button and trying to figure out how to do my hair in the fastest way possible so I can get some more minutes of mattress time. Really I should just get up. I realize this.
When I finally do get outta bed I get ready for school and then as I'm rushing out the door late as usual, Kolton hands me my breakfast (usually a breakfast sandwich or smoothie) and my peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch and I head off to school and he heads off to work.
Once I get to school I have a half hour ish of prep time before the kids come in. I always brush my teeth once I get to school on account of eating breakfast on the way to school and then just take a few deep breaths to prepare for the chaos of the day.
When the bell rings I stand at the door and say hi to my power class as they come in. In half an hour my morning class will come in and I'll spend about five minutes trying to get them calmed down and working. Yes, I realize I should have nipped this in the bud in like, the first week of school. But we are working on it!
Then we do spelling, English, and Literature Circles. All of this is punctuated by a lot of me saying, "Shhh..." "Listen" etc. Actually I don't say a lot of that. Well, I guess I do but most of what I do now is hold up a timer and the kids can shush themselves. We add up all the time we have earned the subtract the time we lost when we're talking etc. and then on Fridays we'll play games or have recess or just do whatever the heck we want. It's pretty fun and works like a charm for these kids. Like, seriously. Every day I am so grateful that I ended up keeping a random textbook and rereading it this summer to find this idea. Pure genius, and I can't even take the credit for thinking it up. But it has sure saved me.
Then we have lunch. Depending on the day I either grade papers and plan lessons or just sit quietly in my chair enjoying the silence and calm. Usually the latter. That morning class sure gives me a run for my money. I feel like I am barely one step ahead of them most of the time. They just really love life! :)
After lunch I take either the morning or afternoon class depending on the day to the computer lab for keyboarding. Because I am the meanest teacher in the world I give them the little cardboard covers that go over the keys and they work on their typing lessons.
Then the kids leave for P.E. for half an hour before the afternoon class comes in and I start the day over from the top. Except there is a lot less shushing for this class. They can get kind of wild, but for the most part are much calmer than the morning. I'm so glad I have them in the afternoon because I can leave school feeling like a decent teacher.
After school I stay until about 4 doing the lesson planning and grading that didn't happen during lunch and then I head home.
Once I get home I plant myself on the couch and don't move for two hours. Seriously. It's kinda bad. If I have a lot of ambition I will cook dinner. I've actually gotten a lot better at that since the new year. I cook dinner most nights now.
Then Kolton comes home and if he doesn't have a church or EMT meeting we eat dinner together and then usually end up watching a few episodes of King of Queens. Usually much of that time is spent telling Kolton about every tiny aspect of my day and if it's a particularly good day he will tell me more about his day than "I don't know. " And then we go to bed! (After I've talked Kolton's ear off and he's half asleep of course.) And that's that!
