Busy Bee

In a chapter of this book, Done was talking to his friend who worked in an office. His friend said teaching is easy and you get too many breaks. Done said it was to recharge and his friend said he didn’t need it. So just to see how different their work is, for twenty minutes, they both wrote everything they did. Done wrote...

• Ryan told Done he was leaving early
• Matthew asked to use the bathroom
• Done started taking attendance
• Ronny handed him a note from his mom
• Aaron told him about his sleepover
• Michael asked what's for lunch
• Kevin gave Done a picture he drew
• Aaron borrowed lunch money
• Amanda asked how to spell octopus
• Done picked up a glove off the floor
• Kenny wrote hello on a calculator and showed everyone

and so on and so forth for about four paragraphs. The friend wrote,

• Stood in line for a latte

I think this is an accurate representation of what elementary school teachers do in a short time. Sometimes I feel like I do too many things at once when I work at my daycare. The first twenty minutes are always the hardest. I have to great the kids when they come up from school, sit them down for snack, listen to all their stories about school four times, dismiss them for snack, make sure they use soap while washing their hands, help half of them open their snacks, make sure they are sitting down while they eat, help them with their homework, try to listen to all of them to make sure they are not talking about inappropriate things (my first graders like to push it), get the right kids to their activities, make them quiet, tell them what were all doing for the day, then let them play. Everyday we go through the same thing, and yet the kids seem like they are doing it all for the first time every day. Sometimes it is frustrating, but it’s something I love doing on an almost day to day basis.