Last week I had the opportunity to experience the day in the life of a teacher. While shadowing English teacher Daniel Pecoraro, I got a glimpse into the holistic experience of the people we only get to see for 42 minutes a day. I found it to be a drastically different experience than students’ seven-hour day.

Pecoraro and I met in the staff parking lot at 7:20 a.m., just five minutes before the workday officially starts for staff. I was surprised to find out that our first stop was the main office, where staff are required to sign their initials each day on a document hanging on the wall. He also grabbed his mail for the day and we quickly made our way upstairs.

I learned that each full-time teacher typically has five class periods each semester, as well as two planning periods. Pecoraro had one of those planning periods during first period, so we spent that time in English department Resource Teacher Evva Starr’s office.

Pecoraro got to work immediately planning for his classes. He set the agenda with a level of thoughtfulness that students may not pick up on. “Students will define…” turned to “students will develop…” after a minute of tediously searching the list of verbs taped to the wall. Teachers preach the importance of word choice and detail in students’ work, and I was pleased to see that they hold themselves to a similar standard.

After finishing the agenda and organizing materials for class, Pecoraro turned to his most common activity of the day, grading. He was grading a thesis assignment for his AP Language students, and he looked at each student’s short paragraph for about one minute. My biggest observation was that teachers really do grade on a rubric, and if you check a certain box in your work then your grade will reflect it.

After the busy off-period, we headed to Pecoraro’s room, and I noticed that a few small changes in succeeding class periods made them more efficient and digestible for students, compared to the early periods. For example, Pecaroro shortened the length of his AP Language warm-up activity by two minutes, and he also added a couple of real word examples to his English 12 discussion.

The improvement on the teacher’s end was sharply contrasted with the students’ afternoon decline. The fatigue was visible on the faces of his later classes, and I gained an appreciation for teacher’s ability to stay focused and improve despite students going the opposite direction.

Although experiencing the same lessons repeatedly did become redundant for me as an observer, each class had a different vibe to it, or a new idea that Pecaroro helped explore. It was wildly different from the rapid change of subject students experience each day, but those subtle differences between classes were enough to keep me, and Pecoraro, engaged.

I gained sympathy for teachers because of their lack of breaks throughout the day. Pecoraro spent lunch, advisory and both planning periods primarily grading. These “free” times were interrupted by students needing help, and a trip to the English department to resolve an issue with a document. I was sympathetic to the regularity of random tasks teachers have to do, even if many of these tasks are uninteresting parts of their job description.

Of course, there are perks to the job as well; the reliably open bathrooms being atop the list. Additionally, I observed the communities built within departments, and I was lucky enough to try some cake that a teacher had brought into the English department.

I ultimately ended the day with two main takeaways. First, teaching requires patience, focus and energy that exists throughout the entire day, and there is very little breaktime. But, I also came to the realization that the student experience is still more difficult than the teacher experience.

I urge teachers to put themselves in our shoes, like Pecoraro did for his article here. Students are expected to mentally switch subjects and physically switch rooms seven times throughout the day. If students can show more empathy to the challenges teachers face, and teachers can do the same for students, we can build a better school for everyone.

I would like to thank Pecoraro for welcoming me into his teaching world, and my teachers for accommodating both of us.