Oh my gosh, each year I think I have setting up a class room down pat  only to find out , I really don’t. I love change, so I like to change my desk, the student desks, the location of the book cases, bulletin boards, tables, and the computers. If I were able I would probably want to change the white board to a different wall. This year  I did change classrooms so it was fun to start from scratch. Except, I still can’t move the white board.

Officially, teachers started school last Thursday, unofficially like most teachers I started three weeks ago. For some reason the school district thinks that teachers only need two days to get ready for the first day of school but we really need more. Of course, if the district decided the teachers should start a week before the kids I would probably complain about that schedule too.

The first thing I had to do was to un-stack all the desks and then clean them inside and out. The dust and dirt were so thick. Then I arranged the desks into some semblance of a cooperative arrangement. I like my students to work together when learning.   I unpacked all my boxes. I spread all my cherished items across the desks. I thought to myself I really need to organize, toss, and give away all those items that I think “I might need” someday. I tossed what I have not used or even looked at in the past two years, used what I could and organized and filed the items I don’t need at the moment.

Many teachers spend hours on the bulletin boards. However, I don’t.  I consider myself to be creatively challenged when it comes to designing a cute bulletin board. My purpose for a bulletin board is not to look cute but to serve as a resource for my students. I actually spend time at the beginning of the year discussing with the students the purpose of all the bulletin boards. I want my students to notice and to use the information when needed.  I always tell them to use their resources and most of the students will do just that when working.

I spent most of Saturday putting all the final touches around my classroom. One last move of desks, name tags and books organized on top of the desks, welcome gifts out, directions on the white board and lunch count sticks ready to be placed. Though, I really could have spent so many more hours at school I am as ready for the first day as can be. I hope my students are ready for a  fun-filled year of learning experiences.

“Johnny, Johnny, where are you”, I scream as I am running through the museum.

“Sir, have you seen a young boy with a navy blue t-shirt ,about 5 feet tall, blonde hair, baseball cap?”

“No, lady, I didn’t see any kid,”

“Johnny, Johnny,” I lean up against the wall and my back slides and I hit the floor. What am I going to tell his parents? What am I going to tell the school. I will be fired for sure? My eyes open and I look at the white popcorn ceiling. My husband leans over and says, “It’s okay, your having one of your back to school nightmares.” I breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s two weeks before school officially starts and the nightmares have started. I (as many other teachers) start to have nightmares about starting school. I usually have several. I have the typical dream of my alarm not going off the first day of school. I often have a dream of losing a child on a field trip, along with forgetting my students names. My favorite dream or rather nightmare is  I forget  everything. I can’t find any of my books, my lesson plans, my markers, I am at an impasse. Thank God, it’s only a dream.

Along with the nightmares come the constant panic of setting up my room. This year is especially frantic because I moved grade levels and rooms. Along with that ,the entire school was re-carpeted and all of the teachers had to pack everything up and move it out. Of course, the carpeting took longer than expected and the men were two to three weeks behind schedule. So now I am three weeks behind un packing, cleaning, moving the desks, designing and creating bulletin boards, writing name tags and sending my welcome back postcards.

Through the panic, stress, and constant worry two weeks before the 180 days, I somehow manage to get through it all and create a wonderful and safe learning environment for my students and for myself. I am sure this year, though it seems a little more stressful and time consuming, I will manage to do the same.

As an educator, I often get the comment: ” I wish I had the summer off” or “I wish I could take two weeks off at Christmas“. My comment back is “Well , become a teacher like I did”.

I became a teacher when I was 40 years of age. It has been the best decision I have ever made. After many life experiences and jobs I decided to go back to school to earn my Master’s degree and my teaching certification. I finally have a career and not just a job. I am in it for the duration. However, do teachers really have that much time off? Not really.

When I first started teaching, a friend  (who also gave up the business world to become a teacher) and I would laugh at the teachers complaining about working all the time, staying after school for a couple of  hours a day, going to the classroom on the weekends to get work done, grading papers, worrying about kids and if they are getting what they need at home. Worrying about test scores. Together we would talk about how these teachers have no idea what it is like to work in the business world. Why are they complaining?  They should try working   in the hospitality business where I worked holidays, weekends, over nights if necessary, and many times I worked 14-16 hour days and would sometimes work 2-3 weeks straight without a day off. Being a teacher was heaven compared to hospitality. Right? Wrong. I now understand the worries and the stress of being a teacher and I have become that teacher that sometimes complains about the lack of time off and I certainly believe that the public doesn’t really understand the extra time outside of the daily classroom that goes into being an effective and successful teacher.

Summers off? Huh. I don’t think so. I have been at school many times though out the summer to attend meetings, to meet with my new grade level team for planning our next year. Our rooms were re carpeted this year so for the next two weeks (before school officially starts), I will be in my classroom cleaning, un packing, organizing and setting up my class room. I have taken several classes during the year and summer to keep up my certification hours. Outside of the class room I spend many hours correcting papers, creating  lesson plans so that my students are engaged in learning. Quite often, I am at school for a night time or weekend functions and when I do have winter or spring break I end up finishing up grades or report cards.

Am I really complaining?  I suppose so. Am I the only person who puts many hours out side of their daily required day. Not at all. Would I give up teaching? Not in a million years because the kids who step into my classroom and smile or laugh or say thank you for teaching me makes it all worthwhile.

I am a 48 year old woman who has never been married.  Do I want to get married? Yes, someday I still hope I find that special someone who loves me for who I am and with all my faults as well as my strengths. But I do have to admit that I am often very happy that I am not married. Several of my friends are married and are so unhappy and have been unhappy for a very long time. Each one of my friends have good reasons for staying married, but are those reasons worth the sacrifice of your own happiness especially if you know your marriage is over?

There a four or five core friends that I hang out with and talk with on a regular basis. All were married young and each have two or three children. When we go out especially all of us together, the conversation inevitably leads to how pissed off they are at their spouse and “if things were different” they would leave.

Often I feel like the divorce encourager. I end up asking many questions about why they feel they have to stay married. Each one has a great reason, “I am doing it for my kids, I still love him even though I hate him and he pisses me off each day all day, I can’t afford to leave……..

I totally get “doing it for the kids” but do your kids really think you are happily married. Kids are very intuitive and resilient. I hate to tell you whether you get divorced when your kids are 13, 23 or 45, your children will be devastated that the parental units are divorcing. I get the money situation but where there is a will there is a way. Family and friends are always supportive and willing to help out. My favorite excuse is “I still love the guy”. Really, because in my opinion you treat your husband like crap and you speak to him with a tone that says “I hate you” and in public. And you supposedly love him???

Granted I certainly don’t know what it is like to be married. I have never been married. I have been asked and I said no because I knew it was not the right decision for me to say yes. If I did I am sure I would either be unhappily married or divorced. I do believe that communication is the key to a happy and long lasting marriage. Marriages go through waves of good times and bad. A couple needs to communicate in the good time and in the bad times. Sometimes what is said might be tough but isn’t tough worth it if it helps to strengthen your relationship. If you are unhappy in your marriage, and you are unwilling to put any more effort into it or even worse your spouse is unwilling communicate then get the hell out. At least stop talking about how unhappy you are and bitching about your spouse in front of us single people.

I am very excited to blog. Why am I starting a blog? I have been thinking about it for a long time. I would love to think that I would have some words of wisdom to offer someone and have those words change someone’s life. Wouldn’t that be awesome?  However, the real reason is that I love to write and I thought I would enter the cyberspace world of letting all see my diary. Another reason, is that I am teaching 6th grade this new school year and I will be teaching writing. Blogging just might be a way to engage and encourage my students to write.   If I want my students to be excited about blogging I need to be excited about blogging. I also need to know what I am doing so I can help the students. Although, in this technological age I am sure my students will probably teach me.

Wish me luck.