Teachers Are Done at 3:00

My day:

5:30... Woke up to work on a slideshow presentation for the Outdoor Education Parent Information Night.

7:45... Finished burning the slideshow onto CD at 7:45. Walked down the driveway and slid into my super hot silver Mazda RX-8 and cruised in style to school.

7:55... Tracked down the missing CST (California Standards Test) binder at school so I could make copies of all the 4th and 5th grade data to choose students for the supplemental math class I'll be teaching on Saturday mornings for $25 an hour (at least they're paying me to do it this year!).

8:25... The school day begins. Community circle, computer lab (reviewed place value from thousandths to billions, rounding, and adding and subtracting decimals).

10:00... "Recess" begins, which is never recess for me because I'm always stuck in the classroom with kids who didn't do their homework and, thus, have no recess. I scarf down the chicken tamal N.'s mom made me (yum!) and eat one of the cookies that D. brought for me (ok, ok, so there ARE perks!).

10:25... Writers Workshop (taught the difference between editing and revising, revised our immigrant-themed expository paragraphs).

11:15... Lunch. Walked very quickly across the street to get an absolutely horrible pastrami sandwich for $3.99 and a very tasty green tea Sobe for $1.39. Very quickly back to Garfield. Called Mark Nolan, director of Outdoor Ed, to discuss our dire financial situation and got some very good news from him. Scarfed down the horrible sandwich just as the bell rings.

12:00... ELD class (English Language Development)

12:50... POTD (for math, the "Problem of the Day") and computer lab with my other class (we switch before lunch every day)

2:00... Decimal Olympics (very fun and, I think, rather innovative on my part) to review for tomorrow's decimals test

3:00... The official school day is over. Mar and I talked to M. and A. because M. wrote a note to A. for A. because A. likes A. and wanted to know if he'd be sad if she moved.

3:15... Street hockey practice begins.

5:15... Street hockey practice ends.

5:20... Rushed back to my classroom to get my laptop, the slideshow, and assorted a/v equipment for the Outdoor Ed Parent Information Night in the library.

5:30... Arrived at the library to find that the 90 chairs, LCD projector, and extension cord we were assured would be there for our meeting were NOT THERE.

5:30-5:50... Ran around the school with a master key looking for the projector while the other fifth grade teachers scavenged for chairs.

5:50-6:05... Found our OLD projector, plugged it in, and it wouldn't turn on. Found a TV on a cart to connect my laptop to as the next best alternative and frantically set it all up with sweat running down my face as 70 parents looked on, probably thinking to themselves that our 5th grade team is pretty disorganized (totally not true; we followed all the proper procedures for reserving the library and for getting the equipment and chairs we needed - somebody dropped the ball).

6:05-7:30... Facilitated the meeting completely in Spanish along with Mar, my fabulous new teaching partner.

8:00-8:30... Drove to Discovery Channel Store to pick up prizes for students who made thoughtful scientific discoveries during our pendulum experiments these last two weeks.

And what I still need to do before I go to bed: make the class lists for the supplemental math class, print out special Friday certificates for students who did something outstanding this week, and make the math test.

Or I could wake up at 5:30 in the morning again to do it.

And I've been sick for a week.

Thus, I reach one, inescapable conclusion: I am, quite clearly, super man.