Putting my (work) house in order-- and the stuff I found!

It's amazing just how much stuff I can accumulate. I've moved classrooms a few times over the last three and a half decades, and each time I toss a ton of paper. This time, I'm not even moving classrooms, and I managed to fill the recycling bin and the trash can. I cleaned out desk drawers, a cabinet, and a rolling utility cart (it's cavernous!)-- and found stuff I "saved for later"--and that is a good thing, too, since it is now later, and I need them!

What I kept, and likely did not need to, are college notebooks of mine. Why? I have no idea. They were hugely helpful when I was a new teacher, though, to review and make notes from so I didn't look like the newbie I certainly was. I re-read some of my papers that I wrote wayyyyy back when, and I'm always partly ashamed at how facile some of my assertions were, but also partly pleased with the budding scholar I was as well. Nice little trip down memory lane, anyhow--so I kept them. I probably won't see them again until the next time I need to clean, or if I ever get to retire, whichever comes first.

So my classroom and the storage that I've been hoarding things in are clean. My books are tidy and accounted for. My papers are graded and grades are uploaded to the computer program. In short, I'm all done. Except, there are three more days.

Today, I will supervise indoor floor hockey as part of field day. It involves plastic hockey sticks and wiffle balls and a whole lot of mostly middle schoolers in pinneys. I'll get my coffee, sit on the sidelines, and make sure they don't hit each other intentionally. Then, I will go home at the end of the half day. 

Even if the order of the day changes a bit, I'm done, except for being present. And I kind of like the unhurried nature of being present today. Tomorrow, we have a professional development day, during which we are to work within our departments: I am, for the moment, a department of one, so I'll probably give some thought to the things I want to do in the fall (maybe). I know I'll be teaching College Comp I again, so that syllabus is all set already. The other class, my new creative writing class, is pretty well settled, too, but who knows? Maybe I'll come up with something. We'll see-- again, it'll be a pretty fluid day, and that's okay. Friday has been set aside to wrap things up and people who are moving classrooms are doing so. I got permission to take a personal day. I would just be in the way.

What I found, besides notebooks and a ton of colored pencils, three pairs of shoes, and 40 cents in spare change, is that I know how to wrap things up. I'll start a new "jump file" folder for the fall; this is something I've done for a long time, and in which I put things like the school calendar and class lists and so on. All the stuff I used to put in a safe place and then forget where I put it. 

And now, to mentally transition to more flexible time, summer-schedule style. I am not (at the moment, anyhow) working a side job, I am reporting for jury selection in July, and I want to really focus on getting my mental house in order. The summer will pass pretty quickly, and I want to start the next school year in a better mental place. Seems like a plan. Maybe I'll find, after all that, balance?

Have a good day,

C