A Day in the Life of Miss K

As my alarm sounds off at 6:45am I quickly punch it off my nightstand and cuddle back into my comforters.  Today, I say to myself, I deserve another 5 minutes.  I’m sure you know the drill.  Thirty minutes and six ‘snoozes’ later my mom comes rushing into my bedroom and throws the dog on me (who proceeds to lick all areas of my face – much more efficient than my alarm clock).  “Carolyn, it’s 7:15!  Are you getting up?”  Dammit!  I did it again.  I quickly jump in the shower, pull together a teacher-ified get-up for the day and shove some food in my face before hitting the road.  As I brush my teeth I remember that I haven’t made my lunch yet, and I’m already running 5 minutes late.  I sprint downstairs – toothbrush still in mouth – and (thank the Lord) Mama K has prepared my lunch for me.  I’m in grade two again apparently, and I’m loving it.  There’s no time to check what’s in it, so I’ll have to trust her!

As I pull out of the driveway, it hits me that despite the fact that I was up until 3am “lesson planning” I still have no idea what I’m going to be teaching during 5th period Math.  Today, however, is Wednesday.  And Wednesday is double prep-period day.  I continue to drive – if you can call it that.  I recently re-discovered that driving in Markham is one of the most frustrating tasks I will ever been faced with.  Drivers here are so incredibly unpredictable that I have adopted a new persona known as the Raging Kooymans, which consists of me yelling at people in funny voices and crossing my eyes as I wait for traffic to move along.  I suppose you could say that it keeps me entertained on my morning commute.

I eventually make it to the school (miraculously on time) and head up to the classroom.  My AT has been there for 45 minutes already, which baffles me.  I don’t know how he does it.  But that’s beside the point.  I quickly get my things together for first period and before I know it the classroom is packed full with thirty-two eager Grade 7 students.  Since announcements fall during first period we lose about 15 minutes of valuable learning time, so I prefer to teach this lesson Nicki Menaj-style, fitting as many words into a minute as I can.  As I rap my way through the particle theory, I am abruptly stopped for yet another 15 minutes of DPA.  Now, don’t get me wrong, as a graduate of the Phys Ed program at Nipissing I am a huge advocate of Daily Physical Activity.  So I can’t really be upset.  Instead, I decide to boogey along with the students as they struggle their way through their renditions of “Cotton Eyed Joe” and various other party anthems.  At one point, I actually found myself moving one of the girls arms for her because she looked so miserable.  This surprisingly worked for her and she began to dance on her own (in between giggles that is), so I felt like I’d done something right.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by, as we worked our way through various exciting tasks and before I knew it, the bell had gone and the students were on their way home.  I somehow made it through the day and had a great time doing so.  As I left the school, a girl who must have been about 3 feet tall with these sparkling bright blue eyes smiled at me and screeched “Bye Miss K!”.  Despite the fact that I had no clue who this girl was or where she learned my name, I smiled back and headed out to my car in good spirits.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?  Until then, I must get  planning!  Miss K, out!

By: Carolyn Kooymans (J/I)