A Day in the Trenches

I thought that maybe my readers might like to follow me for a typical day at school, especially those who are not educators themselves. Of course I might be just writing this for myself, but even so, it is good therapy.


I generally arrive at school between 7:00 and 7:15 in the morning. That gives me about a half hour to prepare for my first class. The kids start showing up about 7:30 and trickle in for the next ten minutes or so. Then they would “hang out” in the back of the room until the tardy bell rings. After all, they have to catch up on what happened since yesterday. These things are very important to ninth grade students. However, my expectation is that they are in their seats and ready to go when the tardy bells rings. Since these are CP Science nine students, grade threats are very effective. Now they are ready to go when I expect it.

My CP students are working on a chemistry unit right now. I do some interesting demonstrations that hold their interest. Friday I gave them an elements/symbols quiz and reminded them that they can earn extra credit points by singing the elements song in 1.5 minutes. Some kids think extra credit is S.O.P. at the high school. It must be an acquired expectation from the middle school days.

When class ends, my 30 ninth graders leave when the bell rings and 18 new ones enter the room. It is almost disconcerting to operate under an educational system where so many things are regimented and yet we want to encourage independent thinking. This class consists of students who are either turned off to school or just find learning to be an onerous chore. They are a real challenge. It is my goal to make them better all round students. We built and smashed craft stick bridges. That was moderately successful. Now we are also doing some chemistry, but in a different way from my CP class. After an hour of discussing elements and symbols and a demonstration of mixtures and compounds with sulfur and iron filings as an example, the kids leave for their next class.

Now I have my planning period. I patrol the halls to keep an eye on things and watch for problems. So far the only things I have seen involve what we call PDA (public display of affection). I usually stop it by telling the kids to stop swapping spit. Speaking of patrolling, I remember when I taught at a middle school and we had a bomb scare. We evacuated the buildings. Then the principal asked the male teachers to go back in and search for the bomb. Stupidly we did just that (I guess some principals think we are shock troops).

I visited the boys’ lavatory but didn’t find any smokers. I am not surprised since smokeless tobacco appears to be more popular in this area. In one district I was actually assigned to patrol the girls’ lavatory. The principal told me that since I was a married man, I could shout a warning and enter if I suspected anything (yeah, sure, like I would do that).

I spent the rest of my planning period grading papers and organizing some lesson plans, and ten minutes blasting some pocket tanks.

My fourth period class of ninth graders came trouping in and reluctantly took their seats. A few of these kids think they are in school for socializing and that the educational process is an intrusive act on their lives. The curse of the cell phone is very active in the class. A few of these students text at every opportunity and concentrate on ways to avoid detection by the teacher, instead of focusing on the lesson.

Parents look on the cell phone as a great way to stay in touch with their children. I consider the student cell phone an educational disaster. Any parent who allows a child to take a cell phone to school is working against the educational process and shouldn’t be surprised when grades start to “tank”.

The kids are interested in my sulfur/iron demonstration and overall the lesson is a success. I expect Monday’s quiz on the elements and their symbols to be a disaster. They are teachable students. They just won’t or can’t memorize information for a test. I tend to avoid using tests or homework with my fundamentals students since I know it will guarantee failure.

My fifth period class of juniors and seniors trouped in ready to learn some physics. We are in the middle of a triangulation lab but rain has messed up the schedule. I have two theodolites on permanent loan from a surveying company and a transit I purchased on eBay. I also have my own rods and tapes. We are determining the height of a flag pole and the distance from the campus to Mount Rainier.

Today we focused on vector solutions and looked at some youtube videos on vectors and Newton’s Laws. Then we discussed taking part in an engineering contest this coming February. The contest will involve building and destroying craft stick bridges.

My last class of the day is a CP Science nine class. The kids are bundles of energy and there are 31 of them. They are attentive and only once do I do a cell phone warning. However, they have the same problem as my first period group. Their study skills are very poor. Most of them do not take notes during class. Few of them really know how to study for a test. None of them knew how to properly outline a chapter from a text book so it could be used as a tool for test preparation. Even though I require them to follow an outline format and to outline each chapter studied, only a few have actually used it as a tool. Most consider the outline as “just another assignment”.

At the end of class, the students put their chairs on top of their tables so the custodians can easily sweep the room. After the students leave, I catch up on some work, blast a few more pocket tanks, and organize things for tomorrow’s lessons.

Then I pack up and head home with any uncompleted work in my bag. It is 3:00 and another school day has ended. As I walk to my car I think of the kids I connected with and the ones who remain elusively disconnected with school. I’ll get through to them tomorrow.