Day in the Life of a First Year Teacher! | HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER

good morning you guys today is friday it is the last day of the school week i figured i'd take you along with me for a day on the job a day as a first year high school teacher all that fun stuff so i just got to school and i just parked i think it's about like 7 50 ish school starts at 8 20. i usually get to school any time between like 7 40 and like eight it just depends on what i'm doing that morning and you know if traffic is bad i live kind of a bit away from the school which you know it's definitely worth it for me um even though it is a far drive it's like i love this school so much so it's it's worth it but so today what i'm thinking is i'll take you along with me for a day in my life as a first year english teacher probably give you guys some planning tips i'm gonna head in and we'll get this show on the road [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right you guys welcome to my classroom i hope that you like it i i really really love it there's tons of natural light it almost looks like a stage so if it were a normal year you bet we would be doing some kind of like romeo and juliet theater type situation but you know with social distancing and everything like that we can't can't really do that but that's okay speaking of social distancing there's nobody in my room so i have my mask right here if i see anybody at the door i can quickly pop it on and i am always wearing my mask when anybody is in the room when i'm outside of the room um anything like that but once i first get in and i sanitize everything i just kind of like have some me time which is really nice only on odd days where we're block scheduled today is a white day it's friday so i have my second period for planning and ct meetings i am going to hop onto my cte meeting in about 10 minutes it varies sometimes it's it's 8 20 sometimes it's 8 30. it just depends on the group and what we have to discuss or get done that day so it's always a little bit different but i'm going to head over to that head over i'm just going to log on to google me but yeah so that'll be good oh my god they updated the bell and it is something else it's like next level but it's all good what are you gonna do so that's kind of what our day is gonna look like today i'm gonna take you along with me as much as i can i don't know if i said this at the beginning but i'm a first year english teacher um and i teach 9th and 11th grade i graduated from jmu with my undergrad and then i stayed for my master's so i think that covers everything i'm going to take you guys along with me as much as i can but just being a first year teacher there's you know some stuff that it's just i gotta focus but i'm gonna try to kind of show you guys what it's like to kind of experience a day as a first year teacher as a high school teacher and if you like my content and if you are interested in sticking around and seeing more from me make sure you subscribe and i hope you enjoy [Music] okay so i just finished my meeting with the 11th grade team they're fantastic i just oh they're the best it's hard to be a new teacher and it's hard to be the only new teacher in your department just because you don't really have that same kind of hey i have no idea what i'm doing me too so i think it's it could be a little bit hard but they're so wonderful every question i have they anticipate questions i might have that maybe i'm too embarrassed to ask which is one tip of like don't be embarrassed ask any questions because chances are like it is not a stupid question if you are trying to figure out how to be the best that you can for your students ask it it doesn't matter what it is you're trying to do your best you're coming from a place of love and learning ask you know if people judge you for it that's their problem but yeah they're just so wonderful and supportive and all that good stuff so you know it's always really really nice to start the friday with them so i've got about an hour before i have my next class um which is w-4 this is great because it gives me an opportunity to plan and this tends to be unless i'm really busy and i'm like changing something around for the day that i didn't expect this tends to be when i do my planning for the week ahead so i have a couple different ways that i like to plan this is something that is still evolving for me we're gonna get there we're gonna get there eventually but the first thing that i love so dearly is my planner julie i don't know what i would do without it it's the day designer planner and i love this like lily of the valley print i think it's so pretty it's kind of like banged up just because i literally take this everywhere with me and it has withstood all of my use it's got a hard cover and it has beautiful design it's a daily agenda which is a little bit different course that has you know your typical monthly layout i've got all of my events and everything all the big standardized testing all those kinds of dates i've got when my grades are due for the quarter i put everything in there on that monthly view it has a layout that looks like this i can show you guys a blank one and then we can go into how i plan and what i write in there and all that good stuff so this is what the layout looks like we have a today's top three do dollars dinner don't forget and then we have the hours and then we've got a to-do list here so again it looks like this we've got our hourly list and our to-do list the top three here is so helpful to me because i have a tendency to come up with things and create things for myself to do i got some expo marker on my finger but i tend to you know compulsively create tasks for myself and so to list out what are the three most important things i need to do today that's super helpful to me because it helps me to remember that i am productive and that i've been productive today then you can go here and write out your appointments or i like to write out my class times every day if i have an iep meeting i will add it in here so i know exactly okay i have my classes then i have a planning period and during that planning period i might have a meeting and all that stuff it begins at five o'clock and it goes all the way down to nine o'clock which is another ingenious thing because i never really schedule things past here anyway but once it hits nine o'clock you're done you don't look at this anymore and then you've got all these little tick boxes which i love i think it's really really helpful sometimes i'll start off on sticky notes i have a bunch all different colors but i'll start off with a sticky note i'll write down like school and then a list of things i need to do for school and then i'll get a different color and i'll write personal and i'll write down all the things i need to do or me then once i have those together i can look over here and i can write out exactly what i need to do because sometimes my mind is all over the place and i really need an opportunity to draft up what i need to do for example all of these things are i mean i just absolutely like wreck my planner just because i have a lot on my mind and i want to make sure that i kind of get it all out so i have my class schedule on here again i have my english 11 meeting at 8 20 and i have pride time i just abbreviate as pt pride time is like a built-in study hall and that is from 1016 to 1108 then i have my w6 class and this i like to break up into chunks because it helps me kind of plan my lesson i get a little bit caught off guard sometimes if i forget when the lunch bell is and so i like to break it up so we have our class this is all one class these two 11 16 to 11 48 is the first chunk of class then we break for lunch and then we come back at 12 18 and finish at 1 22 and that just helps me figure out okay how much time do i have you know if i have an activity that is going to take a while i don't want to start it at the beginning because we won't have time to finish it we'll get broken up in the middle we'll lose momentum whatever it might be it helps me make decisions like that so sometimes i will come up with a lesson plan idea or i'll hear one from another teacher that i love this one is from one of the teachers that i work with and we're talking about privilege and diversity and social justice and all that kind of stuff so this is a just kind of brief idea of what that lesson is it's on ben and jerry's and how people can use their platform regardless of whether or not they actually are in a political field so how an ice cream company can stand up against inequality and injustice and so we're gonna watch a video on their political activism and what they've been doing to help you know get people out and register to vote and all that good stuff and then what we are going to do for the activity is they're going to design their own ice cream flavor so they're going to draw the little carton and then they're going to come up with like a catchy name for their flavor and then they will decorate it so the example that i came up with is freedom and fudge for all we're doing this on pear deck because of the pandemic we don't pass out markers and stuff we can't let kids share that kind of stuff and most of my kids are online so it's just easier this way paradak has a feature where you can draw and illustrate and all that good stuff so i just use that as an add-on with my google slides and then this is only going to take about 10 to 15 minutes i'm going to set a 10 minute timer check in with them and then we'll take about two to five minutes to share out if anybody is interested so then back to the main overview of our planner i really really love daily gratitude any kind of notes no speak english we're reading the house on mango street and that is one of the vignettes so i just write out to help myself remember okay this is what we're doing that day got it check we're all set so then the way that i experience productivity is i judge myself quite a bit if i don't get a million things done so something that's really helped me this year especially with everything going on it's been insane for everybody and it's really taken a toll on all of our mental health so what i have started to do is i will write my daily gratitude or my daily affirmation and then i will go in and put in my top three and i try to again keyword try i try to always make sure that one of the top three that i have written for the day is something for myself so not something work related something either my relationship to myself to my family to my friends my mind my body all that kind of stuff i try to make sure that i put something in there for me because i'm learning to make myself a priority and learn to take care of myself honestly it's a hard thing to do and another thing i love about this planner is that they have little positivity or happiness or empowering quotes at the top so it says plans are great but living is better so this is my view from my desk i have my little manatee buddy here i have my hand sanitizer of course and then my lotion and then i have i mean i'm a sticky note girl so i have sticky notes everywhere we're gonna be reading dear martin in ninth grade so i have just some of the themes my library dates i keep them here just because i know they're coming up and if i don't see them i will forget so every morning i come in i turn everything on plug everything in and get started so i will always open up my email just because it's really important to me to be able to be in contact with my teams all the time then what i will do is i will open up google i'll go to google classroom and i just want to make sure that i have this up so i can get to all of my links i have all of my different classes set up here i have my r1 r5 and r7 those are my red day odd day classes and i like to have them all be the same standard photo just so that i it's easier for me to keep track then i've made a separate class link for my office hours and this is just helpful if you need an extra meet link we do all of our classes google classroom and google meet so it's just always really really helpful to have a separate link if a student needs to ask you something privately and doesn't want to do it in front of the class and i always make sure that my kids have access to this so again just like i have my red days organized with the same photo i do the same with my white days just so it's easier for me to categorize and i just know what i'm getting myself into so what i'll do is i'll click on w4 i will kind of keep this open just so that i can have access to that meet link as quickly as possible then what i'll do is i have my attendance i like to keep them in here i have a folder out of the month that it currently is and then a folder of ones that have been completed just because it helps me keep a cleaner space every month i will make a new attendance lane trying to make them a little bit on theme so april has this funky bright colored flower print and then a blue background the february one had hearts on it march had jam rocks all that fun stuff this is google forms i just use this as a attendance link i have i'm so happy you're here today i try to really remind them of that that i love to see them and it makes me really happy that they're here today and i value them and they're wonderful wonderful kids because they are so then they can go through and click okay i'm in your w-4 class that'll take them to section two you can have certain questions jump them down to a different section this is great for me because it helps me have a more organized list of who was there that day and what their responses were if i click w4 it'll take me down to section two here i put my first name my last name and did you attend class today and then i have them choose which puppy are you today i love these little mood scales so usually i get like a one which you know he's jamming to music kind of like vibing through the day trying to get through sometimes i'll get an eight if they're just waking up and my favorite favorite favorite to get is the five because it's just comfortable and safe and happy and cozy and just the cutest and so i always tell them if you ever feel like a six or a nine or a two please let me know so that i can help you so they just choose their number and then i ask them a question so sometimes it's a two-part question sometimes it's two different questions but this one is when or where do you feel you're most creative and then tell me more so all of the sections are pretty much the same it's just split into each period so that's easier for me to keep track of and this is an evolving thing sometimes i'll ask a little bit deeper questions sometimes i try to keep it light just because not every day needs to be super deep but i do try to get them to think critically about the world and to investigate what they're feeling what they're thinking about these are my agenda slides which i love this is from last class on wednesday so i have the date i have our agenda of whatever we're going to be doing i have the link to my office hours the bell schedule any reminders that they might need and then like a journal prompt or whatever else is necessary and then i always try to have some paradigm questions and stuff like that in there we did a little bit of a journal on expectations and then we went into an imagery mini lesson and so this was just on imagery and the whole idea of show don't tell so this was last class and then today we are wrapping it up with a new lesson so that's open i've got my attendance open and then i'm going to finish it off with opening up my w8 materials we are in a unit on dear martin that's our last unit for the year so again i try to do my slides weekly we've got some announcements some videos all that good stuff that was last class and then today we are going to be working on our civil rights movement project they all chose a different topic they are going to learn about how to find reliable sources and use databases and then they're going to get some work time today so now that i have all that up i like to organize them so one of the biggest things about virtual learning is that you have millions of tabs open at any given time this isn't very many for me normally it's like tons and tons and tons but on chrome you can create a new group so add tab to new group it's going to pop up a little button like this i can name this resources for today usually if i have more resources per class i'll do like a w6 tab or a w8 tab whatever it might be then i will click out of it my resources for today tab is open i have my dear martin google drive page in there then since i'm not going to be working on my wa stuff right now because that is at the end of the day i can click on it drag it in here and once you see that it's highlighted in your colors in there and then i'll keep out everything that i need for my next class which is w4 so i will keep up my google classroom page i will keep up my attendance page and then i will keep up my slides but now that we have these three tabs and our resources for today click on resources for today and it'll close everything into that group if i need to access them again i can just click on it and it'll expand but this is such a fantastic tool for when you have millions and millions of tabs open you can organize them into different groups and then the last thing that i use regular monthly wall calendar this really helps me to get myself organized when i can just look up at the wall i hang it there just with a little command strip and actually speaking of command strips i have found that these are super super helpful specifically the command hooks i use those little ones for things like my calendar or if you guys can see like my little lights and stuff back there and then i use the bigger hooks for things like my bag my mask all that kind of stuff and they actually make some really cute ones now they used to just have the kind of like not so cute ones so so here's my desk and then here is where i keep my mask and my badge whenever i'm alone in my room and these are really actually cute hooks they're black they're really sturdy they're just really great i have one here where i keep my bag too this is great this bag is just from target i wanted to give you guys a little ootd for today i have my white button up some kind of like camel trousers i've got these little brown leather loafers but yeah it's kind of fun in terms of accessories i have my little wishbone necklace that my husband gave me i wear it every single day i wore it on a wedding day i just love it so much and then i have my little lady earrings i think she's so cute so that is the look pretty classic pretty simple but i think it does the job and it makes me feel confident like myself and i love that so i wanted to give you guys a little bit of a update on how things are going so far so we have gone through the meeting in the morning the w-4 class the like homeroom pride time and then we are in the middle of w-6 so my kids have left for lunch and i just ate some of my stuff i i try to eat things like throughout the day when i have a chance when you're a teacher i feel like you just kind of eat when you can and i really like to like kind of just get stuff done during lunch and not worry about you know needing to eat and all that kind of stuff so that is the update i just gave the kids like 10-ish minutes at the beginning of class to catch up on all their missing assignments and because you know it's the fourth quarter and i'm trying to kind of encourage responsibility throughout the year but especially with the fourth quarter you know it's like these are the little assignments that kind of pile up and then you know if you don't do them at the beginning then they can really bite you in the butt at the end so i'm trying to give them time to get stuff done and not fall behind and take responsibility for their education all that kind of stuff so we will see so that was what we did at the beginning of class and then once they come back we're gonna read a little bit from the house on mango street we're to read our vignette and then we are going to answer some questions and that's pretty much going to be it i think for yeah for w6 and then we will move on to w8 and w8 is kind of going to be a low-key day it's mostly just a work day on our projects so yeah all right you guys so it is 12 18. go ahead and head on back from lunch we're going to get started in just a minute and we are going to jump into hey jump into some questions make sure that you have completed the attendance link join the pair deck all that good stuff so i'm going to put those links back in the chat so go ahead and open those up and we're going to get started with our paradigm questions all right you guys so we are out of school and i met up with some friends this is like hours hours later actually after school got out i went down the hall to visit my friend who teaches in the math department she's just the best and we called a brother friend and we just decided to go out for drinks and grilled cheese and it's just that's i think the best way to end this video because truly no matter what you do in your first year of teaching the most important piece is that you have a support system that you have people that you know love you no matter what that are looking out for you no matter what and and you have people to kind of end the day with it was just it's just the best every time i see them every time we get together after however long it's just like it's just the best so that is the perfect way i feel to end the day and i hope you all enjoyed seeing a day in my life as a first year english teacher make sure to like and subscribe if you would like to see more videos from me comment down below if you would like me to make a video on how to survive your first year it's it's a lot it's definitely a lot but you will get through it i'm happy to help i love you guys so much thank you for following along and i will see you next time

Channel: Caitlyn Hughes

Views: 21,137

Rating: 4.9546189 out of 5

Keywords: #DITL, #dayinthelife, #teacher, #teacherlife, #firstyearteacher, #teachingin2020, #teachingin2021, #highschool, #english, #englishteacher, #highschoolteacher, #nova, #fcps, #planner, #planwithme, #GRWM, #fivefootoneteacher, #ootd, #teachersofyoutube, #vlog, #vlogger, #youtube, #cometoschoolwithme, #cometoworkwithme, #cute, #young, #teaching, #ela, #secondaryela

Id: wCl3HC8FXdE

Length: 23min 49sec (1429 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 27 2021