Tomorrow is my first day of school

What is nice about being a teacher who has been at the same school for awhile is that I don't have much set-up at the beginning of the year. I know myself and did not bring much home at the end of the last school year. I just brought home my work stations to be organized. I knew that I would not get around to much. I did more than I actually thought I would. I went in for a couple of days last week and my room is pretty much set-up. I just need to put up the posters as I go along. I have to sort out my file cabinet since I shoved all my teacher's editions in there. Otherwise, I am good to go. I got some shelves from my sister, so I am storing more vertically now. That saves a lot of room for me in my small trailer. Not complaining though, I am only one of two teachers in my building with air conditioning.

I could have used a month more of summer vacation. It went so quickly this time. I did not do half the things that I wanted to with my kids. We did a lot though. We even went to LegoLand. Not worth the price of admission (in my opinion), but my kids loved it anyway. I will go into that in a later post.

What I look forward to at the beginning of the school year is a new crop of kids. I like getting new kids every year. That really keeps my teaching fresh and keeps me motivated. If things didn't go as well as I would liked the previous year, then things can be a lot different this year. It is like a reset button. I am such a technogeek. The only thing I don't like is memorizing names. I am so good with faces but lousy with names. I have so many things that I want to do with them. But you know the saying about the plans of mice and men. That applies to teachers as well.

Things will be busy this year with school, my own kids, mentoring, and going back to graduate school. I am just glad that I have class one night a week. I will read and get things done on the weekends when I am being soccer mom. Oh yeah, cheerleader mom as well. Less art time for me. I will have to help Zack with his homework more since he will be in 4th grade. That is when the homework gets harder and gets more plentiful. I am still the mentoring facilitator for my building. That gets into a smooth rhythm after the first couple of months. First year teachers now are required to have mentoring for two years now instead of one or be in the process of getting their masters. I wonder how that will work out.

Life has changed so much for me this year. I lost both my grandmother and my sister within a few months of each other. My art life really took off this year even though my family life was in an upheaval. Odd how things work out. Is that a cosmic or a karma thing? Things are starting to settle down and become semi-normal now. I sniffle less and just keep plugging along.

To all those teachers out there - have a good year. May you have a couple of snow days this winter and have more sick days than you can ever use. One question: Do the kids ever believe you when you tell them that you look forward to summer vacation more than they do? Mine just laugh at me.