Mission #7: A Day in Your Life

You’ve read about what other people are doing in snippets and snapshots. You’ve shared about yourself in 140 characters or less. This week is your chance to know more, and to share more. Just about this time last year, a concurrence of events led to people who were frustrated with the perception of teachers by the general public. We wanted the world to know exactly what it is like to walk a mile in our shoes. Some of our shoes drive a long commute while others walk across campus to get to class. Certain teachers’ shoes are tied tight to race from one class to the next as they try to beat their students. Others have a change of shoes as they get out on the track or court or field to coach. All of us have a different story to tell, but we all have tired feet by the end of the day!

While we started with an outside audience in mind, we were each fascinated by everyone else’s stories. The ways people balance home and school. The differences between public, private and boarding schools. The small, large, urban, suburban, rural… The project turned into a fascinating compilation of experiences from across the world. I still hope it opens peoples’ eyes who are outside of the teaching profession, but it opened my eyes to the variety of ways educators manifest themselves.

A fair warning: it’s really challenging to encapsulate an entire day. Some of us started with the alarm going off in the morning and ended with the lights turning out at night. Others stuck to a school day. Even detailing one full class period is a great insight into the mind of a teacher. So, with the challenges in mind, decide how much of your day you want to write about and set out with a notebook (digital or paper) to record one day this week.

If you’re not a classroom teacher, we still want to hear about your day! The prompt is “Day in the Life of an Educator” and if you’re reading this post you’re probably educating someone, somewhere.

You’re welcome to try to describe a typical day, but I think more of the character of teaching comes through when you decide “I choose today!” and write about that day, no matter what happens.

Bonus Options:
Write about the day from the perspective of your shoes.
Document the things you found interesting and examine their potential to be math lessons a la Michael Pershan.
Record yourself (audio or video) describing your day or living it!

And of course, your favorite paragraph: Share your post with a tweet (including #MTBoS and #DITLife) and leave it in a comment below. Then, read and comment on the blog posts of the three commenters directly above you. Be sure that you are commenting on their blog and not here.

If there aren’t enough posts here to satiate you, check out the archive from last year’s Day in the Life. And, because it’s Tina, here’s a form to add yourself to the archive!