A Day in the Life of a Teacher

Jeff Truss is a science teacher in a private high school.

“My role as a teacher is to motivate, inspire, and inform,” Jeff says. “With so many personalities, learning styles, and learning speeds in the room all at once, it’s difficult trying to make sure that everybody’s paying attention and keeping up. The best way I’ve found is to be entertaining, listen to the students, and get feedback from a different student each day on how the class went. When you approach a student as an equal and ask for their help in making your class better, it makes that student much more likely to pay attention and stay on track.”

Day Schedule of a High School Teacher

6:15 a.m. Jeff arrives at the school cafeteria to supervise breakfast. He jokes with a few familiar faces, asks a colleague how her math classes are going, and reviews his lesson plans for the day.

7:00 a.m. First period: a chemistry course. “This class is never easy to engage,” Jeff says. “They’re all still asleep! In past classes I’ve tried a dozen things to jolt them awake: fast techno music, an obnoxiously energetic persona, trips down the hall or out to the soccer field… but it’s still chemistry, and still seven in the morning, and they’re drowsy. They don’t even begin to perk up until about ten or fifteen minutes before the class period’s over.”

8:30 a.m. A school-wide break. Jeff gathers up some quizzes to grade.

8:45 a.m. Second period: a study hall. This one is held in the cafeteria. “I don’t know whether it’s the smell of the food or what, but if the first period was too sluggish, this one’s a little too feisty. This is one of those spans that the school considers to be peaceful, paid paper-grading time, which is a joke.”

Jeff turns his head. “Debbie! If you don’t be quiet and read something, I’m gonna sit you in the corner and tell you all four hundred and three of my favorite mitochondria jokes!”

10:15 a.m. Time for a biology course. “I’m trying out a new idea for this period: we’re going to use a webcam to talk to a marine biologist named Miriam Genoveso. She’s an old friend of mine, and she works on a research boat out on the Pacific Ocean. She’s been there for about eight months now. Hopefully she can show us one of those crown-of-thorns sea stars. Have you seen those things?! They’re cool.”

11:45 a.m. Lunch. Jeff’s not supervising the cafeteria today, so he takes half an hour to relax in the teacher’s lounge.

12:15 a.m. Final class period of the day: a physics course. “This class is easy to teach because at least part of every class is hands-on and action-oriented. It’s also the most energetic class of the day.

“That’s one of the hardest parts of this job: finding the tricky balance in every class. Sometimes you’re drilling through eighteen layers of apathy trying to reach the kids; other times you’re struggling to harness their abundant energy before it overflows and social order dissolves.”

2:00 p.m. After hosting a half-hour meeting of the Chess Club, Jeff turns out the lights and heads home with a stack of papers to grade.