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It’s fair week here in our small town, and I cannot believe that the summer has already flown by. I mean, it seems like I just cleaned up my classroom and walked out with an armload of books, ready for a break and a fresh start in the fall. I say “fall” loosely, because it seems that school starts earlier and earlier every year, and it no longer is limited to the fall, but mid- to late-August. This year it’s beginning on the 17th for us teachers, with the regular circus beginning on the 19th. Oh, how I long for the days when the school year couldn’t begin (by law) until after labor day!
Of course, I understand that with most schools being climate controlled, there really is no reason to hold off the commencement of school until after the typical August blanket of heat and humidity has dissolved. We’re good to go as soon as the teachers shake off that zombie-like stare and begin to feel like their old selves again.
It’s a typical pattern that I will spend most of August resisting the urge to begin really long, time-consuming projects in order to procrastinate working on school stuff. It’s like the opposite of a nesting instinct because it’s an instinct that tries to distract me from what needs to be done. In fact, that anti-nesting instinct is the very feeling that provoked me to begin this blog a year ago. I wanted to do something — just not school stuff. It was a good move, because this blog satisfies my urge to write and also allows me to connect with others who enjoy the same things I do. I’ve met some great people just by reading other’s blogs and maintaining my own. So if you’re one of the handful of people who regularly stop by and read my feeble ramblings, thank you.
I’m feeling motivated to make the upcoming school year as stress-free as possible. I’m sure by October I will be laughing at my naitvetee, as I often do, but I know I have to do something in order to keep my sanity a little better this time around. You see, last year I began teaching high school AND middle school, and because the two buildings are currently not together, that meant that I’d be doing some traveling back and forth to the different buildings. Basically I’m half time at one building, then I get in my car and zip over to the other building and spend the rest of the day there. And while the arrangement does provide some wonderful variety, it just about kills me every day. I didn’t go into last year being supremely organized, and trying to deal with the new situation, the new classes, and my lack of organization is what just about did me in.
This year (I told myself), it would be different. I’m playing around with some options to help make being a multi-building teacher a little less chaotic, both for me and the students. I created a website that will house all my lesson plans, class information, resources, etc. I’ve done that in the past, true enough, but it was always part of some company’s setup, so the URL was always hard to remember for the kids. This year, using the great discount I get at ICDsoft for creating new websites, I bought a domain with just my name so that the students have no excuse for not remembering it. There it is — use it, kids!
Now, if I can only fight this weird urge I have to go buy a bunch of school supplies I don’t need. As someone who has an admitted fetish for office supplies, that will be more difficult than it seems.
