A is for…A Day in the Life of The Farmer's Granddaughter

One of the suggestions I read about trying to make blogging a daily habit was to start with simple things. In other words, not every single post has to rock the world. Posts about your favorite coffee, your pet, or just your daily schedule are fine when you're simply trying to make it a habit. So today, I'm going through a day in the life. It might be good for me to actually write down what exactly I'm doing with my time anyway.

• 4:30- Technically I'm already awake and not trying to go back to sleep, I'm just putting off getting up and out into the cold air. But I do, and go make my to do list for the day, which always seems to end up being long and overly ambitious. Such is my tendency and flaw. 
• 5:00- Let the dogs out, trying to stick to well lit areas of the yard and hoping that this isn't the morning I come face to face with a coyote. Consider again that I really should learn to shoot. 
• 5:20- Finish with dogs, return Sage to her crate to avoid surprises, shower, brush teeth, come up with five or six good ideas and promptly forget most of them because I'm in no position to write things down. 
• 5:40- Feed dogs, take out one last time, pack lunch and tie up any loose ends.
• 6:00- Drive to work and listen to an audiobook. 
• 6:40- Arrive at work, print materials needed for the day's lessons, work on decorating my classroom door for Christmas and sustain several hot glue burns. Best to do this when there are no students around to hear me swear. Check e-mail and hopefully remember to eat breakfast. 
• 7:35- Hear the ring of the bell signaling the arrival of students. 
• 7:45- School hasn't officially started yet, but my first student arrives for her 15 minutes of academic support. I help her finish a math test and work to help her handle frustrations without having a meltdown. She's doing a lot better, we haven't had one of these in a while. 
• 8:00- Finish prepping for the day, work on my door a little more and head down to first grade. 
• 8:15- Arrive in 1st grade. Teach two sections of Leveled Literacy Intervention reading for the five lowest students in the class. Try not to laugh at the funny but off topic comments of one student and fail spectacularly. Remind another at least 10 times, that she can't read if she's not looking at the page. Sharpen one child's pencil down to nothing to help him with his handwriting, and remind him to go slowly and think about the letters. He too, has come a long way. 
• 9:45- Go to third grade and get a student for one on one Leveled Literacy Intervention reading. She is probably my favorite to teach reading to. Even though she started lower than we'd like at the beginning of the year, her gaps are more from missing instruction due to behavior than an academic disability. She's one of the hardest working students I have, and today I'm testing her to move up a level. Sure enough, she nails it!
• 10:15- Go get my fifth grade student for Leveled Literacy Intervention reading. She struggles a lot, but always has a good attitude. I work to help her get better, but I try to be extremely positive. I'm terrified I will turn this child off to school, like happens with many kids who are learning disables. I don't want her to become a statistic and drop out because she hates school like so many students with learning disabilities do. 
• 10:45- Lunch time but I barely stop to eat. I warm up some leftover BBQ my grandparents gave us after the Sunday family dinner. In between bites, I continue to work on my classroom's door. 
• 11:10- Go back to first grade for math. I thought I would hate teaching math, but I was wrong. This is actually one of my favorite parts of the day. This week we're working on fractions and counting by 10s and ones using base 10 blocks and shapes.  In first grade it's a lot of pictures and we only do 1/2, 1/3, 1/4. It's interesting, because a lot of the more advanced students are really over thinking it and struggling. Meanwhile one of the students that struggles the most in reading and in other types of math is one of the first ones to pick it up and really understand it. I review homework with a few and go through a test with another. I make slight modifications to the papers of the SPED students in the class that need it, such as drawing boxes for their answers, or folding their paper so they don't get problems mixed up. I practically have to fight the way out the door, because it seems I never have enough time to help as much as is needed, and my time is up while my students still want my assistance. 
• 12:20- Teach VAAP 4th grade math to a group of students in the self contained SPED class. They won't be taking the SOL test at the end of the year, and our focus is to teach them math that they can apply to real life. Today is a fun lesson. We're working on patterns and making gingerbread people and candy to go on the classroom door. We talk about fabric patterns, color patterns, alternating patterns and every other pattern I can think of, while using beads, felt, fabric and other art supplies. They draw out their gingerbread and candy designs on coloring sheets. Tomorrow, we'll make them out of felt.
• 12:50- Teach VAAP 5th grade math. This student is new to me, and I'm trying to get to know her. We're also working on patterns, as well as measurement. We measure a few things, then she designs a gingerbread man too. 
• 1:20- Teach VAAP 3rd grade math. Another new student, who's working on patterns, counting, and picture graphs. She also does a design for the door, and we use the number line on my floor to practice counting and number recognition. 
• 1:50- Last class of the day. I go get my fifth grader for a different type of reading intervention and again, try not to make her hate school. She does well, and gets to retire several of the words she's been working on. I hug her, tell her I hope she has a great evening, and send her back to class. 
• 2:20- Class may be over, but the day is far from it. I work to straighten my classroom, decorate a bit more, and do some lesson planning. I also get on Pinterest for a few minutes, because my brain just plain needs a break. 
• 3:35- Leave for home. Sometimes I stay late, but it's my husband's night to work late and the animals simply don't grasp the concept of "Mommy has to work late."
• 4:10- Arrive home to two barking puppies. Take them both out and try not to let their leashed get too tangled. It's raining so I take them back in and play with them a bit. 
• 4:30- Wash the dishes that got left in the sink last night. Straighten the house a little. 
• 5:00- Realize I'm starving, because I haven't eaten since 10:45. Make dinner and eat it. Give the dogs theirs. 
• 6:00- Go up to my parent's house and feed the horses. Take photos of the Christmas trees in the house for a different blog entry. 
• 6:30- Return home and let the dogs out again. 
• 6:40- Work on my friend's wedding gift, which I'm making. We'll see how it goes. 
• 7:00- Write blog entry, mess around online a bit. 
• 8:00- Realize the server is down, and that I can't post anything. Spoil the dogs a bit more and go put on pajamas. 
• 8:30- Crawl into bed, read for three minutes and promptly fall asleep. 

Never enough hours for all I want to do, and I definitely need to work exercise in soon. How do you manage your crazy day.