One of the most difficult things about teaching is finding balance, not just between work and home life, but across the work day among the various demands on a teacher's time. Here's a week in my life at school.

My school is on a block schedule, so students have four 90-minutes classes a day, alternating between "A" and "B" days.

Monday (A Day):

7:30 - arrive at school, punch in, check my mailbox, say good morning to people, grab some breakfast and head to my classroom

7:50 - clear my desk and file papers from yesterday

8:00 - class hasn't started yet, but students are allowed to move to their classrooms, so although I technically have 15 minutes until I'm "responsible" for these students, they're in my room and that means I have to keep an eye on them while I put together all the materials I need for the day

8:10 - the teacher with whom I share my classroom comes in to set up for Block 1

8:15 - block 1 begins, I head to the hallway to log into a computer to do my Start on Time duty, ensuring that tardy students are moving their their classrooms and have been given passes, which logs their tardy status

8:25 - back in my classroom, I have about an hour to grade papers and enter data. I can read through about 60 small assignments in this time. Today I'm grading reflective journals my Drama I students wrote about the performances they are creating. I'm scoring these assignments out of ten points; most students are earning a 7 or an 8. I'm giving feedback in the form of questions, but if I take the time to write one every single paper I'll only get finished with about half the stack, so only students who really need feedback are getting anything more than a quick "Why?" or "Explain this" in the margin.

9:25 - my shoulders are sore from being bent over a desk for an hour and my eyes are getting dry. I eat a couple bites of breakfast and stretch.

9:30 - I open the slide show I'll be using today in class and re-read it to make sure it makes sense and isn't missing anything. I make some adjustments to the directions because I've thought of a better way to phrase them.

9:40 - I re-read my lesson plans for the upcoming class. I remind myself to tell students about an upcoming field trip.

Did I say I was going to take you through an entire week? This is just day one, and I only get 500 words. We haven't even gotten to the teaching part yet. Tune back in next week and find out what happens in a 90-minute Drama class (complete with amusing and amazing student quotes).