A Day In The Life Of A Teacher At Teach For America
A typical day for a teacher, according to Shaneli, a Teach For America Recruitment Manager, follows a "pretty firm schedule," beginning with welcoming students and providing breakfast, followed by morning advisory to address scheduling and student well-being— "checking in with students," even noting details like haircuts. The day then involves teaching periods, lunch supervision including playing games and attending to student needs ranging from "putting on Band-Aids" to providing water, concluding with homework time and dismissal.
Education, Classroom Management, Student Well-being, Daily Schedule, Teaching Methodology
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Shaneli Mirpuri
Recruitment Manager
Teach For America
UCLA 2020
Relay Graduate School of Education; Masters of Arts in Teaching
International Relations & Affairs
Education, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Human Resources (HR)
Video Highlights
1. A typical day for a middle school teacher includes a structured schedule with morning advisory, four to six class periods, lunch duties, and afternoon study hall.
2. Teachers build relationships with students through morning greetings and check-ins, demonstrating care beyond academics.
3. Beyond academics, teachers address students' diverse needs, from providing first aid and water to ensuring they have completed homework before leaving school.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a teacher look like?
Teaching definitely follows a pretty firm schedule. We've all gone to school, so we know what it looks like. It does vary based on whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school.
For me, we had a middle school where we provided warm meals to our students every morning. We would come in, greet our students with a warm smile and a wave, or a handshake, and welcome them into the class where they started to eat breakfast.
After that, we did primarily a morning advisory situation. This looked like going over the day's schedule, figuring out homework collection, and checking in with students. We made sure they knew we cared about them and noticed things like if they got a haircut.
After morning advisory, it went into the nitty-gritty of school. Our school had somewhere between four and six periods a day. I would teach my math periods and have some lunch duties, where I helped supervise students during lunch.
I made sure they got that warm meal and played games with them. I traded Pokemon cards with a lot of my students daily, really tending to all their needs. This ranged from putting on Band-Aids to checking if students had water when they had a tummy ache.
This continued through the end of the day, where we made sure they were fully set up to go home. They'd grab some homework and have a little bit of study hall to do that homework before going home, and then we'd send them off on their day.