A day in the life of a Florida Teacher

My school is one of the earlier starting middle schools but I live close. I get up at 6:30am and get breakfast before coming to my classroom. Then, I make sure all the laptops are plugged in, that there are enough pencils sharpened, and I put out the paper copies for the students who prefer to work by hand.

I write the date (twice) and then the board. The left is the useful side; supplies tell kids what to grab and out the gate is what they should begin with. The left is the government mandated side where I put up the standards we're learning, the goal of the lesson, the big question "How can I..." And then what I'll do to check for understanding.

This is my teacher station! I take attendance every class and set up slides on the board. This week, we're reading and practicing some narrative writing.

The board behind my area is where I put pictures kids draw for me. I bought headphones because some kids like to listen to music while they work and we're a non-cellphone school. Compromise! I now have my laptop card in the wall crook but it's not there yet.

This is the student center when students come in, they grab their laptop/any papers they need and sometimes noise cancelling headphones if they want them. Then, they follow the arrows to their seat.

Said arrows. I learned about not managing traffic flow last year the hard way. From this angle on the board you can see the desk where kids sign out for the bathroom. I have 6 classes a day; 2 gen ed, 1 high needs, 3 honors. My honors classes are all at the end of the day which is really nice.

A lot of teachers don't like the rolly desks. I love them. They're super comfy AND it's way easier for kids to get into groups or get away from their groups. Sometimes kids spin in place and work. I don't mind that at all. They're working! My area of Florida recently added this test we have to do in ELA every three weeks that's only supposed to take 25 minutes. That's a full lie. Every three weeks I lose a class for a reading test. Our schools has a reading class that's mandatory so the kids complain a LOT because I'm mysteriously doing a reading test for our mostly writing focused class.

The classroom before. The things on the table are mine. School ends but there isn't really time to complete grading at school. My planning is 2nd period and my lunch is 4a. I have 4 classes after that and 147 students so after students leave, I pack up and do my work at home. I am grateful that my boss lets me leave whenever so long as my work gets done. If I have tests, that's usually just an extra 2-3 hours. If it's essays, that's 10-20 minutes per student. This year, I'm focusing a lot more of teaching the kids how to edit and critique each other's essays so I only have to review essays twice (one draft, and then the final) instead of reviewing their first draft, doing their revised draft and then grading their final draft.