It's 1:55. The bell rings. Fifth hour has just finished, and there's only 1 more class period left before the school day is over. The students have 5 minutes to get from their 5th to their 6th hour class. At 1:59, the minute bell rings, warning the students that they need to hurry in order to arrive on time. I look out my door and see that the hallway in front of my classroom is still very clogged. Students are getting where they need to be, but they're getting there slowly.
2:00. The bell rings, and there are still about 40 students outside my door. I make a last call to the 3 of my students that are outside my door but still aren't in the classroom. I have been working on these students for a long time now. I've made phone calls home, I've taken away bathroom passes, and I've kept them after school, but still they have not learned to respect the start of class time.
Class starts. I begin the routine that I've been doing since day 1, asking students about the day, time, weather, how they are, etc. I call to Jordan, a boy in the front.
Me: "Jordan, ¿Qué día es hoy?" (What day is today?)
J: "Huh? I don't know what you're saying."
Me: "I've asked this question every day for 5 months." I point to the calendar and ask again.
J: "Dude, I don't understand Spanish. What are you saying?"
(in my mind: Jordan knows how to answer this question, but wants to look "cool" in front of his friends. He also likes to decide when he's going to pay attention and when he's not. His ability is very low because of this.)
The door opens. Everyone looks. The 3 students who were outside when the bell rang, decide to come in, and they're still in the middle of their conversation. The attention of everyone in the class is now on these students and not on the lesson. I'm slightly annoyed.
Me: "Isabel, Tanya, and Destiny, please take your seats."
The girls' interruption has caused other students to start talking. Have to get the class quiet...
I help Jordan through the answer and move on to the next activity, the warm-up. In the corner of my eye I see Char texting under the desk. I walk over and put my hand out for her to give me her phone. She should know by now; I've taken many many phones since the beginning of the year. While I am doing this, I continue to teach, so that no instructional time is lost. Char refuses to give me her phone. Now I have to stop and deal with her, taking my attention away from the other 30 students in the class.
Me: "Your phone, or the dean."
Char: "You're not taking my phone. It's MY phone."
Me: "Ok you can talk with the dean about this."
I stop everything I'm doing and go to my desk to pull out a referral form. As I am filling it out, the rest of the class has finished their warm-up and are now talking. I call for a hallway escort, and Char leaves the classroom.
Now to get the class back on track. Number 1 is easy, so I decide to give this one to a student who struggles, and save the harder ones for students who pick things up fast.
Me: "Avi, número 1."
Another student walks in late. Everyone looks. The student has their earbuds in and is listening to music that is way too loud. Students start laughing. Everyone is distracted. Get the class back on track.
Back to Avi.
Me: "Avi, número 1."
A: "I didn't do it."
Me: "Why not?"
A: "I don't know."
(in my mind: She had extra time to do this one since I had to stop and write the referral for Char. Why did she not do her warmup?)
Me: "Answer it anyway."
Avi struggles through #1. We are now 8 minutes into class, doing something that should only take 3 minutes. The half of the class that moves quickly is now bored. Courtney and Ray, two of my quick students who are now bored, start to talk. I can't hear Avi. Think fast, Katie. Call them out or don't call them out? I decide not to call them out because I know that will stop the class again. I walk towards them. They quiet down (this is a proximity trick that works great that a lot of new teachers don't know about unless someone actually teaches them about it).
The warmup is over. Class moves on. We're halfway through class, in the middle of a listening activity. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Karl throw a pencil at Justin. Justin decides to react, interrupting me in mid-sentence.
J: "OOOOOWWW! Ms. K, Karl threw a pencil at me!"
Karl: "He started it!"
(in my mind: it's so surprising what kinds of behaviors kids don't grow out of in elementary school.)
Me: "Both of you, out. Come back when you are ready to learn."
J: "But I didn't do anything!"
The class is distracted again.
Both of the students leave. We move on. Until the end of the hour, I have to deal with 2 more cell phones, 5 more side conversations, another late student, and 3 students who have decided to put their heads down and check out. In 55 minutes of class, I've probably gotten in about 25 minutes of real, actual learning. The rest of the time has been spent on classroom management, the single thing that new teachers aren't taught how to do in college.
3:00. The bell rings. I sit down. Phew, what a day. Five classes of waking kids up, getting them on task, diffusing arguments, stopping conversations, and confiscating cell phones. And tomorrow I get to do it all over again. I decide to call the parents of some of the students. Many times, a call home fixes the issue (for a while), but oftentimes, the parents are just as overwhelmed as I am that they do not know how to deal with their child's behavior in the classroom.
Every management issue I have to deal with takes away from the students who are ready and willing to learn, but the hard, cold fact is that when there are 30+ students in a classroom, it is very difficult for 1 person to control everything and make sure things are running smoothly. On some level, students know that they can get away with some things because we teachers many times don't adequately deal with each issue. We don't adequately deal with each issue because there are so many thing going on at once that we just can't address everything. This is another argument for smaller classes. In a class of 15-20, students toe the line less, because I am more able to connect with each student individually in class.
Again, if we only had to teach, it would be simple. But being a teacher entails far more than just teaching. At the end of the day, even though we have only spent 5 hours actually in front of students, we are EXHAUSTED.
My hours for week 23:
| Day | Date | Start | End | Total Hours |
| Sun | 1/27/2013 | 8:15 PM | 10:00 PM | 1.75 |
| M | 1/28/2013 | 7:45 AM | 4:30 PM | 8.75 |
| T | 1/29/2013 | 8:00 AM | 5:00 PM | 9 |
| W | 1/30/2013 | 7:45 AM | 5:00 PM | 9.25 |
| 8:30 PM | 10:00 PM | 1.5 | ||
| Th | 1/31/2013 | 7:45 AM | 4:00 PM | 8.25 |
| F | 2/1/2013 | 7:45 AM | 5:00 PM | 9.25 |
| Sat | 2/2/2013 | 0 | ||
| Total | 47.75 |
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