Elliot Hachey is a Cohort 8 Seton Teaching Fellow hailing from Winthrop, Maine. He graduated last May from the University of New England with a Bachelor’s in Psychology, Summa Cum Laude. Elliot serves with patience and virtue at Brilla College Prep Middle School in the South Bronx as an Operations fellow during the school day, and as an 8th grade catechist at the El Camino extended-day program. He agreed to let us join him during one of his days as a Seton Teaching Fellow. Watch and read along to see how the life of a Seton Teaching Fellow is filled with prayer, work, teaching, rest, and fellowship in community.
6:00 AM I wake up and pray Liturgy of the Hours before I start my day!
6:30 AM I get ready for the day with breakfast and coffee, and any final packing of belongings. Then, I review El Camino Slides if I need to.
7:45 AM I walk to school with my community member, Mark, known at school as Mr. Loftus. We usually pray together during our walk.
8:00 AM I put my bags in the main office and drop my lunch box off in the staff lounge. I also get the opportunity to check-in and say good morning to any Fellows who arrived before me.
8:15 AM The work day starts with taking attendance and calling families about any absences.
8:45 AM (Thursday) On Thursdays, we test all students for Covid, so I begin collecting students from classrooms and monitoring/managing the testing procedures through the school.
9:30 AM (Monday) – On Mondays, we have our Operations Team Meeting! We check-in with each other as as a team, take account of the events and projects we are working on, and make plans for the upcoming week.
10:00 AM -11:45 AM This is my work time! There are various main office tasks to work on: purchase orders for classroom needs, event planning, calendar/newsletter creation and editing, data input, and taking/making calls to families in order to assist with their needs.
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM Fellows break
- 12 PM Daily Mass at St. Rita’s, which is right next door!
- 12:30 PM Lunch
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Cover for security at the front door while she is taking her break. Here I’m able to have a change of scenery and work on main office tasks for the day!
2:00 PM – 2:45 PM I head back to the Main Office and finish up my tasks for the day.
2:45 PM – 3:00 PM Distribute El Camino Snacks which are delivered to the schools into crates to be taken to classrooms.
3:00 PM – 3:45 PM This is our daily fellows meeting, where we have the chance to reconnect with
- Monday El Camino Internalization: We take some time to internalize our lesson plans for the week so that we’re ready to teach!
- Tuesday El Camino meeting with site manager: Our site manager updates us with announcements, schedules and news.
- Wednesday Teach-backs with instructional coach: Our instructional coach comes onto campus to help us as we role-play and practice our teaching skills.
- Thursday Fellow team bonding: We usually take this day to go to St. Rita’s for adoration.
4:00 PM El Camino begins! Our lessons are different every day, but our students pray, learn, go to adoration and mass, and even participate in activities and sports.
5:45 PM El Camino ends!
6:00 PM By this time, students have all been dismissed and return home, so the fellows clean up our classrooms and walk home.
6:30 PM By this time, I’m back home with my community members. Here’s our schedule of community activities.
- Monday Community Dinner
- Tuesday Community Dinner
- Wednesday Community Rosary
- Thursday Community Bible Study
9:15 PM We pray night prayer together as a community
10:00 PM Bedtime!
