Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Why do we like these posts so much? Are we a bunch of voyeurs? I think so, yes! It is surprisingly hard to remember to take photos about every hour and I failed at a few points during the day.

I chose to do a Monday and it was Monday, January 11 if anyone wants to know.

This post may be as exciting as watching paint dry. I am warning you!

Some of my readers requested this during my survey; some also requested some teacher stuff. So, this post will give you a bit of both.

In case you are new around here, I am a high school Spanish teacher and I teach levels 3 and AP (5). I am a new empty nester with twin boys who are living on campus about 30 minutes away from home.

I do not set an alarm anymore. My bladder wakes me up. Thanks, bladder. I sometimes go lay down again but I like to be up by 6:00.

6:00 – make coffee with my new contraption. The boiling of the water and waiting a bit for it to come off the boil, then slowly pouring into the filter takes a bit but I like it. I feel better about no K cup waste. I have figured out my amounts – 12 oz. water in my Starbucks mug and 3 T. of coffee grounds.

Then, I sit in everyone’s favorite chair – including Ernie. I sometimes have to tell him to go find Daddy, which always gets him out of the chair. I enjoy my lights and sometimes light a candle. I still love my slippers!

6:30

I go make another cup of coffee. I talk to Tom who goes to the gym at 5:00, walks Ernie, and then one of us feeds the beast. During the pandemic we started giving him a cup of his Costco grain free dog food (he has always have a sensitive tummy) and a cup of my boiled chicken, canned green beans and canned carrots that I started making for him. He loves it and is so happy to eat his food now. Before he would sometimes not eat any or all of his food and his schedule would be off.

Tom goes and takes a shower and listens to really loud talk radio. No, it doesn’t bother me at all.

Meanwhile as I am finishing my quiet time and blog reading, my alarm goes off to remind me of my wardrobe challenge for the week. Today is blouse and long necklace day.

7:10

I go get ready. I showered the night before so I have a pretty quick 20 minute routine. I sometimes jump in the shower again with my shower cap and I wash my face, brush my teeth, do minimal makeup, and style my hair. Tip: leave your curls alone for a bit and they will hold better.

I prepare my plate to take down to my “office” in the basement.

I talked about this is my Friday Favorites but I love having my meals prepped even when I am at home. I have mentioned this before, but my district gives us the option of working from home or in the building. I feel like our days for this are numbered so I am continuing to enjoy this.

7:30

Tom leaves

Before I go downstairs, I like to set the house by opening blinds, picking up Ernie’s toys, giving my plant some light.

Then, I go in my closet and reluctantly take off my Target Stars Above robe.

This day was the blouse and long necklace. I wore leggings and my New Balance on the bottom half. My blouse is TJ Maxx and my necklace is Kendra Scott.

Now, I go finger comb or use my pick to style and spray with my hairspray.

Start a load. I like to do my clothes on Mondays lately.

Start checking emails and eating my breakfast.

I have to do my attendance in 2 places – a school spreadsheet, a district telecommuting form, and I also have to do a health screening online, then I have to take attendance for the 3 classes I don’t see on Mondays. Their attendance is based on work turned in so it can be kind of a burden to figure out.

Then, I make sure my Google Slides are ready for my 3 live classes. I add in funny memes and I practice going through them and make sure I have other tabs open that I will need. I have to have Google Docs open for vocabulary and the commands note taking sheet.

Monday and Thursday I have planning from 8:30-9:30 and I teach from 10-11, 12;30-1:30, and 2:00-3:00.

I check assignments on Google Classroom and then transfer them to our grading platform called Infinite Campus. I answer emails. I schedule new assignments to post.

I had to watch a boy band from Spain and make sure I had all of the lyrics. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.

Filling in the lyrics:

The kids had to do the same for homework.

I am naturally a morning person and I get stuff done from 7:30-9:00. I really don’t want to stop and get up to do anything else. But, after lunch, I start fading and I am not nearly as productive.

9:00

Ready to fill my water cup for the second time. I get up and stretch every hour at least and fun upstairs to do tasks so I don’t get too stiff. I also put the washer clothes into the dryer.

I prepped my cd. I have a cd that I recorded in my friend’s basement studio. Most of the songs/chants are originals that I made up to teach different verb tenses or grammatical things. I had it loaded on my old laptop but just haven’t done it on my new one yet.

I also had to prep a listening activity on a flashdrive.

I go into my Google Classroom and make sure everything is ready. Look at all the tabs. Being a virtual teacher is kind of like being a DJ, but way less cool.

I open up my Google Meets 10 minutes early so kids can start joining and we can start on time. I taught from 10-10:40 and then I hung out on Google Meet for 20 more minutes to do one on one help.

11:00

Lunch break! I went up to fold clothes.

I let my Amazon leopard air dry.

My lunch was some macaroni noodles and tomato sauce.

I took Ernie out but we didn’t go on a full walk.

I taught two more classes 12:30-1:30 and 2:00-3:00 and then I sat down for a bit and played on my phone and watched some shows.

5:30

Tom gets home and Ernie is sooo happy to see his best friend. Tom and Ernie do a quick walk.

6:00

Ernie eats his dinner.

The human dinner was leftover chicken from Saturday night on a salad and a tiny baked potato.

After dinner I got a cool friend request and message on Facebook. The little girl who lived in our house before us found me on Facebook. We had last visited her family in their new house maybe 19 years ago! Backstory: Tom used to live next door as a renter and when this house came on the market he knew he loved the neighborhood and watned to buy. The little girl loved Tom. She drew a picture for us of us getting married. I can imagine that it was so exciting for an 8 year old girl!

I did not remember that I put it in a frame. I have the picture in our wedding scrapbook. This memory stuck with the little girl for 20 years. I guess the lesson from this is to never underestimate the power you have. And, to let someone know that they made you feel special is priceless, too. It made my whole day!

We watched some t.v.

7:00

I took my shower. I scared myself in the mirror. If you aren’t taking night showers I need you to tell me why.

Then, I went down and watched some trash t.v. of my own until it was time for bed.

9:30

I brushed my teeth and got in bed.

That is a pretty typical day for me right now. Some days I will go out and do a library or a grocery pick up around 3:00. Some days I meet a friend around 3:00. I kind of like Mondays being my stay at home day.

Have you ever documented a day? It is kind of interesting. I have heard of people doing a time audit. I think that sounds interesting, too.

Thanks for reading!

Amy