Illustrations: Grace Lee
6 a.m. We?re up. Yawn.
It feels like the middle of the night, but we?re up, flying through the morning routine. I drop my five-year-old son at the school bus and my three-year-old daughter at daycare. She cries when I leave her and it breaks my heart. All I can do is hug her?and then bolt.
7:45 a.m. Prep like a maniac.
I?m at school an hour before the bell rings because there?s a million little things to do before the kids show up: tidy the class, take out books, reply to emails from colleagues, assign the kids classroom helper jobs, and so on.
8:45 a.m. Here come the kids.
The bell rings and the kids file in. Parents often use this time to ask me questions about how their child is doing. Note to parents: Please don?t do this! It?s not a private setting, I don?t have assessments on hand to give you the feedback you deserve, and I?m totally preoccupied?taking attendance, collecting money for field trips and organizing the kids for ?O Canada? and morning announcements. (It can actually be pretty overwhelming, trying to remember everything I have to do.) I?ve let parents know that if they want to discuss their kid?s progress, they should write a note in their child?s agenda asking me to call them or set up a meeting. Some of them just don?t get the hint. 10:05 a.m. Recess!
Getting kids to dress themselves for the weather is exhausting, and it eats into the very little time I have to prep for the next block of classes and use the bathroom (I?m bursting ...