This list was compiled from a Facebook post about teaching. This list is not comprehensive and includes tasks for both general and special education teachers, but these tasks often involve both sped and gen ed teachers. This post does not address the stress teachers experience and/or the support, or lack of, that they experience daily. Given all this, making a student’s day better, safer, more enriching, is why we come back again and again. Please, let them teach.
A Teacher’s Day
- Lesson planning: Creating fun and engaging differentiated instruction that is based on the curriculum. Should address different learning styles, include hands-on experience and independent work, challenging for everyone including higher level learners, and include technology. Also will include assessment preparation and implementation.
- Teaching/Transitioning (70%): Time spent with students implementing lesson plans, building relationships, and fostering academic independence, and assessing progress, implementing campus and district strategies.
- Grading papers/Entering grades
- Parental communication and documentation.
- Proactive behavior management: Creating a highly structured classroom community which proactively helps behaviorally challenged students engage in content without unnecessarily restricting the students who are capable of more independent work.
- Behavior documentation/Data Collection
- Reading and implementing special education or 504 accommodations, or sped BIP’s, IEP goals, data tracking, and more.
- Professional development, including mandated and voluntary training, pursuing advanced certification or degree, teacher annual goals and observation preparation, and more.
- Studying and implementing new teaching techniques required by the district or campus.
- Mandated district and campus meetings for learning communities, curriculum meetings, meetings with case managers, meeting for in-class support, COS and ARD meetings, staff meetings, on and off campus training, etc.
- ARD preparation and meetings: Preparing for an ARD is critical, time consuming, and essential. This requires detailed interviews with parents and teachers, collecting and synthesizing data, and then writing PLAAFP’s, IEP goals, and accommodations. Once this is completed the parent/guardian should review it and confirm its suitability before the meeting.
- Guided math or guided reading: includes finding, creating and making 3-6 station activities every 1-2 weeks-task cards, scavenger hunts, academic games.
- Learning Technology: implementing and using Canvas or other district teaching software including creating quizzes and assignments, modifying assignments for sped and 504, recording tests for oral administration, and spending time navigating through the system to put it all together.
- Sponsoring clubs and other extra curricular activities.
- Language Arts District Assessments: Grading and inputting fluency checks, screeners, 4 writing prompts (ELA teachers can offer more insight), etc.
- Analyzing the data collected from informal/formal assessments and exit tickets, to drive your small groups and instruction.
- Conference period: Lesson planning for 1-4 subjects, planning with subject team, data collection, case manager check-in sheets, planning for teacher observation, ARD preparation, district coach, parent communication, checking and responding to emails, looking at data and assessing it and creating a plan of action with other teachers, modifying tests and assignments for differentiated student population, creating and planning behavioral strategies for struggling students, updating Canvas, etc.
Other Items:
- Hand grading 70 – 100 tests some being 85% free response and only 15% multiple choice, or the district requires that some tests be graded using complex grading methods.
- Tutoring students
- Setting up and cleaning up labs
- Robotics, DI, or Science club
- Making copies (Sometimes this requires additional time due to a line for the copier or a broken copy machine.)
- Involvement in school committees and/or leadership positions
- Mentoring new teachers or having a student teacher takes time
- Sharing technology and pedagogical information
- Professional development during summer