back-to-school is upon me. i left home at 10 this morning and did not get back for good until 8.30--i did come home long enough to check on the boys and run to kroger for them something for dinner.
my classroom looked like a tornado had struck. it's unreal the mess--a combination of factors at play: 12 years of accumulated teacher crap, i'm a packrat, i didn't file stuff at the end of the year, the painters totally trashed my floors, all of my desks plus another teacher's were heaped in the middle of my room, of my 9 computers, only two were on their correct table/desk with nothing else on top of them, part of my furniture was pulled apart, literally, and i had to empty a cabinet and a bookshelf to deal with the damage, i had about eight boxes of other people's crap in my room, i threw stuff in piles when the rains came, so there is no rhyme or reason, i can't open my desk drawers...and so on.
but today, things are MUCH better. i could teach if i had to, albeit maneuvering around piles of things i can't really totally identify. i have a shitload of filing and sorting to do (the 'put it all in a box' method is NOT effective) and i have to hang up all of my posters, which in itself will take a couple of hours because i have dozens.
i shall post before and after pics to impress everyone with my teacherly devotion.
tomorrow, wednesday, is our last full day to hang out at the pool, so we're heading over there around 11 and may not return until they close at 7 if we're so inclined and not sunburned or too cranky. thursday, i return to work for teacherish meetings and the whole 'get ready to start the school year' deal. i've already planned to work late that night, so i'm hoping that i won't have to spend the entire weekend getting things ready. i have vowed that i will not start the year off with things crammed in corners or shoved under tables--i'm sooooo sick of the chaos. i need calm and order as i face the 33 seniors in my brit lit class this year. yes, 33. last year? i had 12. talk about a drastic change. oy.
12 comments:
Wow. That's a lot of hard work. Have a great day at the pool! When is your first official day of classes?
first full day is august 2--next thursday. they register on the 31, which is monday.
Although it sounds overwhelming, I think it would be nice to have that "starting over" moment every year.
School starts so early for you! Is it a year round schedule, or do you just get out very early for the summer? Here, the hot weather is just BEGINNING. Most schools start in early September unless they are year-round schools.
kim--that's one thing i LOVE about teaching. there is a definite beginning, middle and end. i love being able to start from scratch.
mtw--we have a modified schedule. it's hot here in may and miserable in agust--i'd rather be in an air conditioned school than dying by a pool. we go for nine weeks, off two in october, nine more, off two for christas break, twelve more (because of mule day) off two for spring break in march/april, then summer break of eight weeks. i love the schedule. i've never really liked having a long summer off, so this is much better. plus i get paid a whole month earlier, wooohoo. used to, we would start august 12 or so and not get paid until september 15. that was HORRIBLE. now we get paid on august 15th for the first check. much less painful.
Wow, that schedule *does* sound great! Here in California, they just recently started putting air conditioning in schools - or at least, they just started retrofitting the older schools to add a/c. Schools without a/c aren't allowed to start in August because it's just too hot. So the modified and year-round schedules are typically only found in newer areas.
12 to 33?! That's obscene. What happened?
Oooh, I can feel your pain on the Brit lit class. We're going from a 7 period to a 6 period day this coming year, which means one of my classes has to be cut. What I had been teaching was 2 Art I classes, 2 Art 7 classes, a gifted Art 7 and a gifted Art 6. Most likely, what's going to happen is my gifted classes will be combined. They were my first few years here until they started getting too big. This past year I had 11 in gifted 6 and 8 in gifted 7. I just went through portfolios for the incoming 6th graders last week and we're looking at taking 15 to 20 more, which means I'm going to have a gifted class of between 25 and 30. Eek!
Even though I haven't been in school for 12 years now (wow. 12 years) in my heart I still consider August to be the beginning of the "year."
I love school supplies. I have to restrain myself from buying notebooks and pencils and sharpies when they're all on sale in August (otherwise I'd have a mountain of them at home.)
33 students in a class is a heckuvalot. Wow.
Thinking about going back to school in july is inhuman, much less actually doing it. Bleahhh. I'm glad you like your schedule, at least; I'd die.
Eerie that your classroom and mine look so similar, for similar reasons. My tornado is worse than usual, because we've had major renovations and construction over the summer. I think I'll need a shovel to attack what's on my desk, and an icepick for the cupboard.
I have 31 in my Soph. Brit Lit class this year. I feel your pain.
Oh, and--speaking of schedules and construction: our start this year is even delayed by two weeks because of the construction delays. First time since my youth that I'm actually starting after Labor Day. We're still getting out the week after Memorial Day, but we have to cut Christmas (1 week) and Easter (little more than a long weekend) vacations to the bone. Not sure I'm gonna like that. At all.
Goth - your schedule is more similar to mine this year. We always start the day after Labor Day and get out the Friday before Father's Day. Then we have teacher workdays the Monday & Tuesday after Father's Day. This year though, the kids are getting out at 1:00 the Thursday before Father's Day and we only have a workday on that Friday. Sweet! I'm sure this is because teachers have to go back TWO weeks before the kids this year instead of one.
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