By JADA EMMERSON
The Tower
The first bell may signal that the school has started for students, but for teachers, the work begins much earlier.
Before students settle into their classrooms, teachers have already begun preparing for the day ahead. From organizing materials to reviewing lessons, their mornings often start long before the first bell.
Mr. Hiller usually arrives at school between 6 and 6:15 a.m. He begins his morning with coffee before checking assignments on Teams, updating calendars and announcements, making copies and preparing classroom materials. On lab days, he also sets out equipment and prepares chemicals for student activities.
“I usually get to school around 6AM – 6:15 and the first thing I do is start a pot of coffee, dead serious…” Mr. Hiller.
Mrs. Sicat's morning begins at home much earlier than her arrival at school. Although she usually gets to campus around 7:50 a.m., she wakes up at around 4:30 a.m. to review lessons prepared the day before. Once at school, she posts the class agenda and assignments, organizes the classroom and picks up printed materials.
“Then in the morning, I wake up around 4:30 AM and review my lessons, create and post Class agenda with the lesson notes, Warm Up and assignments in One Note so it’s ready for my 1st period class.” Mrs. Sicat.
A teacher's preparation goes beyond getting ready for the morning. Planning, grading and adjusting lessons are ongoing responsibilities that continue throughout the school year.
For Mr. Hiller, that includes spending about two hours each day grading regular assignments, along with additional time reviewing late and make-up work. He also revisits assignments to make improvements and adjusts his plans when students need more time or technology does not work as expected. He explained that teachers sometimes have to be ready to “shoot from the hip” when unexpected situations arise.
Mrs. Sicat also reviews student work and reflects on previous lessons to determine what needs to be changed. She modifies assignments based on student performance and feedback, while prioritizing the main learning goal when a lesson does not go as planned. Rather than rushing through material, she may postpone the next lesson to give students more time to understand a concept.
“If students need more time to understand a concept, I tried to postpone the next lesson and spend extra time reviewing.” Mrs. Sicat.