A day in the life of Grace follows. You have been warned.

0900am - Walk into classroom; greet children; serve children snack
0905am - Watch teaching aid leave classroom
0915am - Begin cleaning up snack mess; insist that children pick up toys from morning play; greet more children
0930am - Continue greeting children; begin morning lesson; spend half an hour refocusing children with ADD.
1000am - Finish morning lesson; Begin morning craft project; Break up fights over who gets what paintbrush etc
1015am - Get discouraged because children are gluing items in wrong places; Listen to "He kicked me!" over and over
1030am - Postpone morning craft project until afternoon; Send children to use bathroom; Teaching aid returns from extended break; Assistant teacher arrives at school
1035am - Continue sending children to bathroom; Dress children in winter gear for outdoor play; Tie all laces before leaving.
1050am - Walk children to park; Keep them from harms way, as they enjoy running in front of traffic
1100am - Arrive at park; Watch teachers aid leave for extended break number 2 of the morning; Clean scrapes and referee fights between children
1140am - Teaching aid returns from extended break; Line children up; Make sure all laces are tied
1145am - Walk back to school; Watch for cars; Teaching aid disappears again
1150am - Send children to wash their hands; Watch children wash their hands and THEN use the bathroom, leaving without washing their hands; Send children BACK to wash their hands again; Teaching aid returns from whatever number break it is this time
1200pm - Serve children lunch; plead with children to eat lunch; feed children who refuse to eat; Wave as teaching aid leaves for the day
1230pm - Clean up after lunch; send children to bathroom; wash tables, sweep floors
1235pm - Begin pulling cots out of closet and setting them about the room for rest time
1245pm - Help children spread sheets on cots; look for missing sheets; run children out of the cubby every 30 seconds
0100pm - Break time; Leave long enough to run to the corner and get a soda; return to school; dodge administrators attempting to pawn their work off on me
0130pm - Complete paperwork needing to be done for the day; Update children's files; Fuss at children to go to sleep
0145pm - Continue fussing for children to go to sleep
0200pm - See 145pm.
0215pm - Thank the Heavens that children finally went to sleep
0225pm - Wake children up from nap; drag children who just went to sleep off cots; fold up sheets; return cots to closet
0235pm - Coax sleeping children lying on floor to get up and put on their shoes; tie all shoe laces
0245pm - Serve children snack; continue to fuss at children to put on their shoes
0300pm - All children are eating snack, or dropping it on the floor, or spilling milk; clean up spills because children have no common sense
0315pm - Clean up snack mess; wash tables; sweep floors; send children to meeting area for afternoon lesson
0325pm - Begin afternoon lesson (which assistant teacher is supposted to be teaching but doesn't for unknown reasons); teach children reading, writing, arithmetic; refocus children's attention every 15 seconds
0345pm - Afternoon puzzle activities; play games; sing songs; etc.
0400pm - Free play time for children; Continuously tell children to pick up toys off of floor
0415pm - Watch clock, waiting for 430pm; Remind children to pick up toys off of floor; break up fight number 34985 of the day
0430pm - Tell children good bye; leave for home

Now you understand why I became furious this morning when, during a teacher meeting with the director, my assistant teacher complained that I don't include her in my lesson plans. I politely explained that I shouldn't have to come to her, (as she suggested) and ask "Is there anything you would like to do with the children this week?"

I have enough to deal with between the children and the other teachers' laziness. I shouldn't have to ask if she would like to do her job. If she wants to start a project, then fine, go right ahead, I'm not stopping her. But when they're out of the room 9 times out of 10, and never put forth an effort to help me in the classroom, why should I include them? I'm working to take care of young children, not old children as well.

I don't do everything by myself because I want to, but because I have to. I'll be damned if I'm going to let 20 three and four-year-olds run around the room all day playing and driving me crazy because they can't organize a lesson. I'm here to teach children, not to sit on my ass.

Thank you.
::steps down off soap box::