It's That Time Again

If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers. ~Edgar W. Howe

My response to this quote is simple: what about the wing of the asylum dedicated to the teachers?

After going to the dentist this morning, I went back to school today to work on preparing the room for the start of the year. The building was mostly empty, and I cranked my stereo, rolled up my sleeves, and started trying to dejunk. I had cleaned up at the end of the year and put away all my doodads to prevent summer school and maintenance from destroying them.

I threw away two trash cans full of last year's papers, got my turn-in table set up with the tablecloth, stacking paper bins, staplers, and other tools of the trade. I put about a million erasers in the student supply drawer. (It never ceases to amaze me how many of those I go through in a year.) I unshrouded my bookshelves from their protective white paper coverings and organized the big blue shelf in the back of the room.

The best part of the day was pulling out all the 10th grade materials so I can give them to whatever unlucky soul is the new 10th grade teacher. I kept finding stuff and stuff and more stuff, so I am now prepared to totally overwhelm him or her with a big old rolling cart of books and supplementals. I will try very hard not to do a jig as I push the cart down the hall, but I make no promises.

I also looked at my class rolls, at least in their pre-first-day-of-school incarnation. I know it will change at least three times before it settles. The first day of school is always insane. One of my AP classes only has 7 kids in it, but I know at least 3 names are missing that should be in there. I don't know if they decided to run away or if scheduling is just messed up.

The projectors are up, but I couldn't connect to mine with my laptop. I did manage to get it turned on, but I suspect the projector needs the wireless card I saw in its case. Theoretically, I could have gone down the hall and swiped one of the wiring crew's big ladders, but ladders and I don't really do well (think cat up a tree -- up is fine, down is very bad) and since there was no one there to hold it, I decided I'd let Technology get to it. However, if they don't have that done by Wednesday, I will be caught hanging from the ceiling trying to get it to work. I am a bit impatient when I have a new toy and I can't play with it. :)

I have a quiet optimism about this year that may very well get smashed flat on Friday. I don't know why I should feel this way when I'm going into two new preps, but maybe it's just the unusual feeling of starting my third year somewhere. I was thinking about it, and this is the first time ever that I've spent three years anywhere. All my other jobs have been two year deals, either contractually or by coincidence. It's nice to feel like I have a place where I belong. Maybe that will be enough to help me face the inevitable cynicism and apathy that will be rolling in on big yellow buses the morning of the 4th.