8:56 p.m. - 2006-07-28
streeesssed
Well... I was quite the busy bee at work. I would say the paperwork end of getting ready for the school year is 90% done.
The physicality of setting up the classroom is 50% done.
Desks are still stacked in groups of 5.... but that's all I really need to set up furniture wise... oh crap.. that and the supply table and the overhead table.
People have no idea the work that goes into planning for a new school year. It doesn't matter that I didn't move classrooms.. you basically restart everything every year. I usually have a different theme every year, and as a beginning teacher, I am constantly tweaking things, and trying new things out.
Here are just a few things that I've done to get ready for the year.
~ shopping - had to buy a new lesson plan book, a new grade book, new classroom decorations (our theme is sunshine and rainbows), stickers, stamps (like parent signature required, please redo), pens, pencils, folders, incentives, book pockets to make bahvior chart with, bathroom passes, magnet roll, and like 800 other things I can't think of.
Over the summer they deep clean the carpet so all the furniture gets pushed to one side of the room and then the other. I had to untangle a mess of 36 desks, 2 teacher desks, 2 tables of computers, 3 books cases full of books. That's all situated (except the desks, ugh). I moved the book cases from one side of the room to the back.. which meant I had to unload all the books to move the cases. Please understand that when I say I have at least 500 books in my classroom, its by no means an exageration.
I've retyped parent letters, made 3000 copies (that's how many we get a month) of various things like said parent letters, tests, activities, and stuff like that. I've laminated and cut out more things than I can list, made folders for all the students, made parent folders for open house, created posters for the classroom, and much more.. all the while mentoring 3 girls on how to set up their classrooms.
I've taken on the job as co team leader... and with the help of some wonderful teachers and my amazing boss (seriously, she's the best boss ever), created a matching for the mentoring program.. which I have to do a presentation about in front of the entire staff and THEN lead an afternoon training session for the newbies.
*sigh*
Needless to say the house is a mess. Pepe' feels abandoned and I seriously need to sleep. Tonight is cleaning, laundry and going over the staff handbook so I can start assigning parts of it to the other mentors for them to go over during our training session... what an exciting Friday night. Tomorrow is back to school shopping (and torrid is having a sale.. YAY!) and going out with Jamey... thank fucking god. I need it so bad.
I'm going to be lame and repost this on my real journal site so I don't have to be creative and post anything new.
I need a shot of tequilla, a massage and a hot bath. Instead I get laundry detergent, cleaning my room, a vaccum and a staff handbook.. oh the joy.
