From 7 to 9

So, I'm the director of a program that offers English as a Second Language to immigrants and refugees. Our classes are mostly at night; and although I talk about "class", it's really small groups that meet with volunteer tutors. The other day someone asked me, "Well, if someone else is teaching the students, what are you doing?"

"Oh, y'know. Stuff. Different stuff." (meanwhile thinking, "What DO I do?") "Stuff?" "Yeah...."

I decided that for one night during class from 7 to 9, I would pay attention to what I do, and record it in case anyone asks me this question again. I'll be ready.

First thing on the list: remember to pay attention.

7:00

1. Volunteers and students are arriving. My lesson plans are ready for them and packed in a crate. I take the crate out in the hall and lay out the lesson plans for volunteers to pick up when they come in. As always students comment on my clothes (not always favorably). It's tradition.
2. Check and make sure that my volunteers all arrived and that they all have students.
3. A couple of Peruvian students return from a long journey to their homeland. They present me with a cute leather coin purse with alpacas on it. It's the kind with the metal bands at the top, that you squeeze from the sides to open. These bands are very powerful, requiring all my hand strength to open. Colleague M. got one, too. We snap them at each other's fingers. "HARMP!"
4. New volunteer comes in looking for colleague W. "Please sit down, I'll go and find her." Upstairs, downstairs, forming a loop with the two staircases. No W. Upstairs, downstairs. Still no W. Reverse directions. Find W.
5. Feel overjoyed to see the once familiar face of volunteer J. M. She tutored for about 8 years, but had to quit a few years ago when her mother was ill. She's back! Big hugs.
6. Vietnamese students looking lost at the office door. One used to be a student and wants to come back. The other needs to fill out an application. Take care of them, speaking s-l-o-w-l-y.
7. Bus driver / computer lab assistant comes in sick. She drove the students here, but she's dying and needs to leave. Close the computer lab for tonight. Ask floor manager M. to drive the bus when it's time to take students home.
8. My student H. is back after being sick last week. Bullshit with him.
9. Find a student in a group who is not, in fact, a student. He would LIKE to be a student, but is still on the waiting list. Laugh and pat him on the cheek, but send him out.
10. Sit and observe one of my groups. Overhear another group talking about grammar. One student makes the sentence, "The woman looked at her children while she hit her head." The volunteer knows it's wrong, but can't really explain why. I demonstrate the actions of this sentence, using my three-ring binder to smack myself. Hilarity ensues. The students think I am incredibly weird.
11. Try to continue observation of my group. Get pulled away to explain the difference between tense, aspect and mood.
12. Try to continue my observation. Student sends word to me that he has to leave: his daughter has locked herself in a room and he has the only key. I'm glad to know, but he isn't my student. Oh, well.
13. Try to print a February calendar page. I recently got Office 07, and I think it's pretty easy to use, but I got tangled up in Publisher. Waste time dicking with this.
14. Pass out W-2s to support staff

Whoops, an hour gone.

8:00

1. Unlock the cash cupboard and put money in petty cash.
2. An advanced student needs to take the Test of Adult Basic Education. Unlock the test cupboard and find the right test booklet. Go make a copy of it. ARG! Yes, matey, I AM a pirate! Hey! We're poor! Don't call the cops.
3. The Vietnamese students are back. The husband of the applicant is bummed that there's a waiting list. He tried to persuade me that his wife needs to be a t the top of the waiting list. I listen, knowing his cause is lost. Nod and smile.
4. Confer with the floor manager. Tell him that we want to fit 2 more children in the child care. I think we have the capacity. Could he please double check? Tell him that on Thursday, a language development specialist who works for Chipotle Mexican Grill will be visiting SLC from Denver and wants to tour the program. Make plans for this.
5. Rustle up a few helpers and go pull my truck up to the door. The entire back of my pickup it PACKED with donated clothes, shoes, fabric, blankets, etc.... There's so much, we are worried about storage. Floor manager rearranges until everything fits.
6. While I was unloading the donations, somebody nabbed my parking place. Find a new parking place.
7. Take the Test of Adult Basic Education to the student who needs to take it. Get him settled with the test paper and leave him to it.
8. We have a student who lives outside the range of our little bus, so I have figured out a carpool system for her. She's a sweet little grandmotherly lady, but she is forgetful. Go find her and ask her if she remembers whom she is riding with tonight. No, she forgets. Jesse, I remind her. Who's he? I take her to the room where Jesse is teaching and show him to her. Oh, yeah.
9. Go to the classroom where student A. G. is studying. She has been considering my request that she prepare and give a speech at our fundraising luncheon in March. Only for 400 people or so... how 'bout it? She's been thinking it over. I perch on the table next to her and give her my "begging puppy" act. She laughs and says, "Yes." Whew! I tell her to start writing down some ideas and I'll start working with her next class.
10. Find child attempting to scale the toy cupboard to reach a top-shelf toy. Remove child from precarious ascent. Reach toy.
11. Realize that I need to give an oral Basic English Skills Test, and that I left my laptop at home. Ask colleague W. if I can use her laptop. Get it set up in the lunchroom, which is quiet this time of night.
12. Go to get the student I need to test. Get distracted by an enormous stranger wandering the hallway. Give him my polite but wary version of, "How can I help you?" He's looking for someone. I find that person.
13. Go to get the student I need to test. Get called to a group to explain "dear". Is "my dear" the same "dear" as in "Dear Sir"? What about "dear" vs. "deer"? And when we say, "Oh, dear", why do we use "dear" there? Uh...hmmmm...
14. Finally get the student I need to test. Administer the test, being careful not to cross my legs. My boots have these nasty sharp buckles and this pair of stockings is still intact.
15. Have a little one-on-one time with the student I have just tested. Everything all right with her tutors? Fellow students? Lessons? Home life? etc...
16. Realize that I have been too busy to mark my groups' attendance. Luckily, I know who was here. Quickly mark attendance before I forget.

9:00. Done, but not really done.

1. Volunteer tutor David L. comes to find me. Great lesson! Students did really well tonight. Tells me about how the lesson went. Asks about an award nomination I wrote last month. Still too soon to know whether we won. Tells me about a grant proposal he is writing.
2. I can hear the clatter of card tables being broken down. Since Floor Manager had to leave and drive the bus, the teachers are stacking chairs, folding tables, tidying up. I go to join them.
3. I carry a box of donated books into the little room where I keep our lending library. I have a volunteer coming in the morning to sort and level these and a whole bunch of others that I have collected this month and stored under the table in here. Look under the table and see that there are NO BOOKS. NONE. Every single book is gone. The teachers in the childhood programs must have taken them for their classrooms! Agh! Feel frustrated. Mental note: call the volunteer and tell her not to come! Dammit. Will I be able to get them back? I will have to put out an All Points Bulletin.
4. The results of the test I just gave are on a flash drive. I print the file off.
5. Head to the printer, but get waylaid by colleague W., who needs help finding a student file.
6. Head to the printer but get waylaid be colleague R., who needs me to sign her time card.
7. Head to the printer and actually make it.

And that's it!