What is it like for a teacher day to day ?

Teachers really do it all, every day.
You plan to start the day off by getting your materials ready, realized you have a meeting for a student who is on an individual plan and go to meet with a team and the student's family to discuss and develop the plan, and then you have to greet your students. You have prepped (hopefully) a wonderful lesson that is engaging and hands-on (and let's be realistic, you spent hours prepping and making materials and researching on pinterest and teacherspayteachers). You deliver this lesson. If you are high school, you may do this on repeat or may have different preps. If you are elementary, you most definitely have different preps for the day (a prep being each different lesson you need to teach). You do this all day while managing students who are bound to push your buttons (as children do) and then end the day knowing you have a stack of papers to grade to give your kids quality feedback and a few parents to contact, for both positive and negative reasons.

Throughout the day, you may have to rearrange your space, act as a counselor, be a disciplinarian, reach students across a broad spectrum of ability levels and attempt to get them all to achieve a singular standard of excellence, despite where they began, and always remain calm. Your administrator may walk in at the most inconvenient time so you need to be on the ball always. You get very little time during the day to plan and grade, so you do most of it at home.

As hinted at above and in the reference to Danielson's framework, you have to be very creative in designing lessons.There is no such thing as a one-size fits all activity and learning should be hands-on and full of student-to-student discussion.

But you are rewarded when your students get success and there isn't a better reward.

I agree with Leslie, teaching is a lot of work that can also be tremendously rewarding. I ran across Charlotte Danielson's Framework For Teaching today and thought I would pass it on. It gives you a pretty good idea what teachers have to be mindful of throughout the day. Every point of every domain listed below is part of every class every day, which may sound overwhelming but on the first day, as you step in front of your first class for the very first time ever in your professional life, you will have had years of classes and hours of observation and practicums in all aspects of teaching to prepare you for this exciting moment. I know of no greater challenge than striving to teach well, and no greater satisfaction than knowing you have met the challenge and succeeded.

Charlotte Danielson’s

FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHING

DOMAIN 1: Planning and Preparation

- Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy

- Demonstrating Knowledge of Students

- Setting Instructional Outcomes

- Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources

- Designing Coherent Instruction
- Designing Student Assessments

DOMAIN 2: The Classroom Environment

- Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport

- Establishing a Culture for Learning

- Managing Classroom Procedures

- Managing Student Behavior

- Organizing Physical Space

*DOMAIN 4: Professional Responsibilities *

- Reflecting on Teaching

- Maintaining Accurate Records

- Communicating with Families

- Participating in a Professional Community

- Growing and Developing Professionally

- Showing Professionalism

DOMAIN 3: Instruction

- Communicating With Students

- Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques

- Engaging Students in Learning

- Using Assessment in Instruction

- Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness

If you have read down this far you will notice that Domain 3 and Domain 4 have switched places.
This was a test.

It is a lot of work but it is very rewarding. You have to be in school every day by the time the bell rings (so, probably 8:10am or so). Then you spend the majority of the day teaching classes. However, most teachers also have what are called "preps" during the day. These are periods when they don't have to teach and can prepare lessons and grade. Then, when school is over, you usually have more work to do, including grading, planning, dealing with parents etc. Committed teachers often will work several hours past the end of the school day. One benefit, though, is that you get a lot of vacation. I hope this helps!

Classroom Preparation
Teaching in the Classroom
Grading Student Work
Administration
Personal Attention to Students
Coaching/Extracurricular Activities
Parent Interaction