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| (C)2016 Douglas W Davis |
Today marked the first volunteer workday of the new school year
at my school. Teachers were allowed to come in and begin working in their
classrooms with the blessing of the District Human Resources Department
beginning at 8 a.m. We were expected to leave campus No-Later-Than 2 p.m.
While this may seem odd, it is all due to the Byzantine Workers’
Compensation Laws passed by the State Legislature and Congress. Most of the
teachers I know, myself included, would have been glad to go in and start
getting their classrooms ready for the coming year earlier in the month and
would be willing to stay later in the day.
My goal for today was to move everything I needed to
move from my old room, a science lab, to my new room, a standard classroom. My
secondary goal was to update my class website on the official school website. I
achieved both goals, I am happy to say, and was off campus promptly at 2 p.m.
While I didn’t have the chance to visit all the halls on campus,
based on what I saw, over half of the teachers at my school came out and spent
several hours working on their classrooms. You may be wondering why we have to
spend so much time getting our classrooms ready for the new school year. Take
another look at the photo at the top of this post. It is a picture I took of my
new classroom when I arrived this morning, after I’d moved the first batch of
boxes in from my old classroom. The boxes can be seen at the back of the room.
During the summer everything is taken off the walls, all the
furniture that can be moved it taken out of the room, the floors are stripped
and waxed, and then the furniture is put back in stacked up the way you see in
the picture.
It is up to the teacher to decide how to arrange their room for
the coming year. Before I can even do that, though, all the furniture in the
room will need a thorough cleaning. I plan to go in tomorrow with a full complement
of cleaning materials.
The other goal I accomplished today was much easier than moving
the boxes of materials to my new room. Updating my class website to reflect my
being a math teacher this coming year instead of a social studies/science
teacher was only a matter of a few clicks, a few edits, copying and pasting a
few things from the math curriculum page on the District website, and viola, it
was done.
Okay, not completely done, but updated enough to reflect a new
year, and included what the objectives and goals for first quarter will be as
well as my supply list.
One of my teammates also came in today. She is the teacher who
will be teaching science on our four-teacher team. While I was busy moving my
things out of the science lab she was busy moving her things in. I should say
back in as she was the science teacher who had that room the year before I did.
The math teacher for the other seventh grade team was also in
today and we got to speak for a few moments. We agreed to meet next week to
discuss how we are going to best utilize the new curriculum materials the
District purchased at the end of last school year.
I also met briefly with our grade level chair, who is also the
team chair for the other team. I have the honor this year of being the team
chair for my team. The two of us didn’t talk much about what’s coming up for
the new school year. We basically caught up on how each other’s summers were.
Our new Assistant Principal was on our hall this morning and introduced
himself. He made a very good first impression on me. I hope I did on him. I
have a feeling he will very good for the school.
I also met the new custodian on our campus maintenance team. He
seems like a hard-working and conscientious fellow. We also have a new
Exceptional Children’s teacher on our hall. Her room is right across from mine.
I stopped over and introduced myself this morning. It turns out I taught one of
her children several years ago.
I got to say hello briefly to my Principal this morning. We didn’t
have much chance to talk as she was busy with all the last minute things a
Principal has to take care of before school opens.
All-in-all it was a very positive morning. Tomorrow I’ll go in
ready to employ some elbow grease to get everything clean and put away. I’m
starting to feel excited about this new school year.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
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