An exciting day in the life of an Instructional Assistant

Why they call it instructional assistant instead of "teacher's aide" I have no idea. I say teacher's aide, because why say in 7 syllables what you can say in 3? lol!!

I get up around 6:00am, every weekday. Oops, that's misleading. I *wake* up around 6am. I look at the clock and get excited that, once again, I woke up before the alarm. I really detest the sound of the alarm. I also continue to lay in bed to hear if my 12yo got up, yet? Most of the time, he doesn't. This determines whether I will get into the shower BEFORE he does. If there are 3 of us that need to shower, the last one gets a cold one, ugh. I really wish we could get a new water heater.I wake up my other 2 boys at 6:30am.

All of us head out the door about 7:10am. Dh takes 12yo to middle school. I take 10yo and 8yo with me to *my* school. In the car, I tell the boys the "word of the day." It's usually words like integrity, joy, honesty, kindness - character-building words that I can support with a few Bible verses. We discuss what it means and pray for each other to show that character trait during the day.
My 8yo usually prays like this "Dear God, thank you for this day. Pray that 10yo has integrity, In Jesus' name."
My 10yo usually prays like this "Dear God, thank you for this day. I pray that 8yo will show integrity throughout his day. That he will have integrity with his classmates and friends and teachers. In Jesus' name, amen."
Then, I pray and we all say amen. Then 10yo shouts out "Oh, we forgot to pray for our cousin!" I then tell him to pray for her and he does. It's kind of amazing, we forget to pray for her, *every* day, lol! But we always remember that we forget!

Once we are in my school parking lot, we meet up with my 10yo's carpool ride. He catches a ride up to the Christian school that he attends - it's about another 30 minutes north of us.8yo and myself go into the school, which is about the same time that all the kids are supposed to be in school - 7:20am.
We get settled in our classroom and 8yo stays with me. He eats his crackers and juice (his breakfast), and reads books that I put in my bag. Currently, he's reading a Children's Bible! We say the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:30am, and pause for 1 minute for our moment of silence (the state law). I ignore all the morning announcements, led by students, and try to figure out how my schedule will be for the day.

At 7:40am, 8yo and I go into the Resource room. I'm in charge for the first period. Students who need to do makeup work come in here. It's sort of like a study hall. Sometimes, I get students that are learning disabled, so I can help them through their work. I have one student currently, who is autistic. Her biggest problem is that she can't focus to do her work. So, I usually tell her to stop telling me stories and to pick up her pen so that she can work. About every 10 minutes, I tell her to focus, concentrate, and encourage her to get her work done.
A student usually walks in about 8am and hands me toast w/peanut butter or a bagel w/cream cheese or a muffin (I like those days). One of the teachers makes this for me and the teacher I work for, and gets it delivered to us, each morning. Yes, I'm spoiled! I'm usually reading my Bible at that point. Also, I pray for the students that we'll have in class, that day.
At 8:05, my 8yo goes to the front of the school, and waits at the front door for the school bus. This bus will head straight to his elementary school. Did I mention that I was spoiled?

8:30, I make sure all of my students sign out, and I head to my classroom that I'll be in for the rest of the day. The following is what usually entails my morning: making copies, grading papers, organizing homework, sending work to students who get in school suspension, or taking over the classroom because my teacher has to have an important meeting. Although our students are extremely well-behaved in OUR classroom (my teacher is mega-strict, it's awesome), the students tend to be bad elsewhere, so they get into trouble a LOT. There has not been a single day that we've had every single student in all of our classes. The other half of the time, our students have parents who couldn't care less if their kid attends school regularly. So some of our students miss about a third of their school days, just because.

By 10:30am, we're into our 3rd class (but 4th period of the day), and it's lunch time. My teacher OR our teacher friend (who provides us with breakfast), shares the lunch responsibility. Yes, they feed me lunch. Sometimes, I go out at 10am to pick up lunch bc both were too busy to make lunch, but they pick up the tab since *I* drive out for it. (No, I'm not really spoiled).
At 11:40, our 3rd class is over, and so is more than half of our day. It always shocks me that it's STILL morning! We only have 2 classes left, and I feel like the day is almost over.
From 11:40 until 12:30 - I get a planning period. Actually, my teacher gets a planning period. Her other planning period is 1st period (but that was my resource room time). Teacher aides don't get planning periods, but they actually didn't assign me duties anywhere, so in one sense, I can take a break. My teacher works me hard, but if there's no immediate work to do, she doesn't care if I relax during this planning time. However, I usually do miscellaneous work that I didn't get a chance to do during classtime.

After the last 2 classes, I run to my car at 2:35pm. I drive half an hour to 10yo's school and pick him and this 3yo boy up (our carpool rider). During the ride, I ask them if they had a good day and they say, yes. 10yo asks me if I brought snacks, today. I usually do - crackers or candy, sometimes. They munch on their snacks and we listen to our local Christian radio station. I always forget to talk, so no one talks. It's completely silent the whole way home. Half of the time, both boys fall asleep, and sometimes I wish I could sleep, too! We get home about 3:50pm.

I get home and check out my favorite forums on the internet. I tell myself that I can take a moment to relax. As I sit in front of my computer, I yell to my boys to practice their trombone, practice their piano, finish their homework, and ask them what projects are coming up. I sign their agendas, check their tests and quizzes, and keep on them about finishing their homework. I browse the forums, and tell myself that I *need* to start cooking. I hate cooking, I tell myself. About half an hour passes, and then I'm really convinced that I need to start cooking. All while I pull the pots out to make something, I tell myself how tired I am and really don't want to cook. However, once I chop veggies and prep the meat, and it's IN the oven or whatever - I'm very happy!

I go back and check a few more responses on the forums, lol! But then, I feel guilty because I realize that I didn't put a load of laundry in the washing machine. So, I come off the computer once again, and put a load in the washing machine, and pull a load out of the dryer onto my couch. I also pack my lunch (just in case my teacher doesn't feel like feeding me) and set out my outfit for the next day. I also tell my 10yo to make his lunch. My 12yo and 8yo get to buy lunch (it's cheaper to buy school lunches than to pack lunch).

Supper is usually ready by then, and I go through the process of getting mad at the boys for not coming to supper, already. We pray, we eat, and talk about crazy stuff like, how can 8yo's hands be washed when there's still dirt visible. His hands CAN'T be clean. 8yo insists it IS clean, he washed it, feel - his hands are still wet. Other important stuff is discussed too, like, how many vegetables have to be eaten so that we can have dessert? Is mom going to make chocolate pudding for dessert? If so, please tell bc then they will WAIT to eat dessert. They hate when I decide at the last minute that I will make chocolate pudding but they have already eaten their allotted dessert! Dh then gets mad bc we're talking about such important stuff and we won't settle down to read out of the Bible. And I get mad bc, sheesh, what's the rush that he's in? He wasn't in a rush to get to supper (I digress).
So, we calm down and figure out whose turn it is to read out of the Bible. We love when 10yo gets the chapters where there are LOTS of names to pronounce. He's very expressive and makes reading geneologies so entertaining! Who would've thought that was possible? Anyway, after the passage is read, one of the boys quizzes another on something that was read. Then, 12yo and 10yo take turns cleaning the kitchen. I usually put the food away, but they put the dishes in the dishwasher, clean off the table, sweep the floor, and take the garbage out.

It's usually 7pm, and I'm wondering when 8:30p will come so that the boys can go to bed and I can go to bed. At this point, dh usually has to go out for a meeting of some kind. I usually fold the load of clothes that I plopped on the couch. I stack them neatly on the other couch and from there, the boys take their stack and put their clothes away. Sometimes, the boys and I play the Wii. Sometimes, the younger boys will take their showers. Always at 8pm, they go to their rooms and read in bed until 8:30pm. 8:30pm is bedtime. Once in a while, 12yo has a project that he is still working on and stays up until it's done. It usually goes along with a 15 minute lecture from his mom about how dare he wait until the last minute to finish up his project, how long did he know it was due? etc.

At 8pm, I get into my pj's, plop in bed, and have my plan of what I'll watch either on video or TV. This is my FAVORITE part of the day! I'm cozy in my bed, thinking about nothing, the boys are in bed, and I wish it could last forever. But, 10pm rolls around and I get VERY sleepy - so that's the end of the day for me! However, if I'd just watched American Idol, I do usually have to run to my computer and post a few comments on my favorite forums, lol!