Today’s Monday Motivation hosted by Teacher by the Beach is all about Daily Schedules.
A Daily Schedule in my world is very BROAD.
Flexible, let’s say.
I have a lot of spillage.
Things and lessons and activities and groups and this-and-that just tend to spill over into the next block of time. That’s what I mean by spillage.
So just keep that in mind as I go over my “Daily Schedule”. And picture me talking to you and using air quotes when I say “Daily Schedule”.
I have been using Stephanie Stewart’s Bright Daily Schedule Cards for a few years now. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I love the font and the colors and the clip art. They are also EDITABLE which is how I love things to be so I can control it and make it mine.
Mine mine mine.
🙂
I printed them, laminated them, cut them out, and stuck magnets on the back to make it super convenient and easy for me to change out the cards when I need to.
But let’s be real here.
If I have “spillage”, I’m not rearranging the cards.
Um. No.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
I’m too busy cleaning up the spills, don’t ya know.
I keep extra cards in a basket on the whiteboard tray. There’s a really cute one that says “Special Event” that is perfect to use for when we have an assembly or something. We have a lot of assemblies and special events throughout the year and I’ve probably used that card a total of three two one time.
I mean.
Well.
I’m just being honest here.
The idea of it is adorable, and wouldn’t it be amazingof me if I remembered to have a child take care of it every day? Sometimes, if a child does ask to rearrange the cards because of our spillage, I’ll saysure, go ahead, have at it, and why don’t you email this parent back for me, too, while you’re at it?
Mainly, these cards are for my decor.
It’s true and I’m not ashamed of it.
It’s a BROAD, GENERALIZED schedule of our day which also helps substitutes because they’ve told me so. So there.
The other thing that happens ON THE DAILY is that kids who stand in the line closest to the whiteboard touch them, and move them, and try to make them straight, or scooted over, or crooked, or color coordinated, or who knows . . . I don’t know. I just saylet’s go, let’s go, let’s go, move it along, nothing to see here!
So.
My schedule:
8:45 Kids Arrive. I pick them up (not literally) at the blacktop. I greet each student with a gold tag ,a greeting of some sort (Looking good, today, So-and-So, Hello, So-and-So, How was your baseball game last night?, etc) and over the course of AN ENTIRE YEAR, we work on saying something, anything!!! back to me. It is so crazy to me how I can say good morning to nine students in a row before one of them SAYS ONE WORD BACK TO ME!! Hello? I’m a person, too, ya know?! 😉
We walk A LONG WAY to our classroom, unpack, and meet at the carpet for morning announcements.
8:50-9:00 Announcements are usually over at 9am. Our principal loves her announcements. 🙂
9:00-9:35ish Guided Reading Groups (I am planning a post on that soon)
9:35ish – 10:25 Language Arts
10:25: First Recess (DUTY FREE!!)
10:40: Pick kids up again at the blacktop
10:45-11:25: Finish up Language Arts Spillage and Begin Math
11:25-12:10: Lunch (DUTY FREE!!)
12:10 Pick kids up again at the blacktop
12:10-12:45ish Finish Math
12:45-1:30 Science/Social Studies/Art/PE/Computer Lab/Library/Catch Up/What Have You Depending on the Day of the Week
1:30-1:45 Oral Language
1:45 Last Recess (DUTY FREE!!)
2:00 Pick kids up again at the blacktop
2:05-2:15ish Read one chapter of Junie B.
2:15-2:45 Centers (I pull kids during this time who missed something, aren’t getting something, make up testing, etc. It is hard to keep up with 32 kids and this 20-30 minute block is super helpful! I guess you could call it Intervention?)
2:45 – 2:50 Students who did Reader’s Theater for centers get to come up in front of the class and “perform”
2:50-2:55 Pack Up
2:57: Dismissal
***Wednesdays are Early Dismissal and we get out at 1:57pm. We still have an afternoon recess, if you can believe it. We skip Centers on this day, obviously, but every week my kids come back from last recess, we pack up, we sit on the carpet with our backpacks to listen to Junie B. before we go home, and when I start to dismiss them, they ALWAYS saywait! No centers?! We didn’t do centers!***
Kids. 🙂
And there you have it.
It is squished, messy, and we have A LOT of breaks. Steve recently asked me how I get anything done.
I don’t know.
Because I’m awesome?
I honestly don’t know.
We have NO specials. I’ve said that before.
We have NO aides. I’ve said that before.
If I take my kids to the library, I’m staying. If I take my kids to the computer lab, I’m staying. There is no dropping them off anywhere except for recess and lunch where I get to walk away. We used to have recess duty or before and after school duty (never lunch duty) but then a few years ago, we lost our 20:1 funding AND we got a pay cut so somehow in the end, we no longer have to do duty because of it.
After reading blogs for several years, I’ve come to learn that our students get A LOT of recesses compared to other schools. I can’t imagine not having the breaks in the day for me or my students. It’s all I’ve ever known, but STILL.
They NEED to play!
So I am super thankful for that and I’ll take that over specials any day.
FOR REAL.
Granted, I’ve never had specials and don’t really know what I’m missing . . . but I’ve also heard that when you drop your kids off at specials, you have to have meetings or some such thing so I don’t know . . . our meetings tend to be once or twice a month for 45 minutes before school (whole staff) and every Wednesday after the kids go home from 2:00-3:30 (usually grade level).
So that’s pretty much it.
My broad, in quotes, “DAILY SCHEDULE”.
It kind of makes me tired just thinking about it.
So maybe I should go take a nap . . . rest up some more before school rolls back around again . . . since I can!
😉
