School prep is mostly mental at this point, right? O, and a bulletin board. Sigh.

Thursday, a little damp, a little cooler... good day to get things done. Well, sort of. I got the laundry done last night, and (drumroll) I got the first month penciled into the plan book. Might as well. It's about time. 

If I can get all the piddly stuff figured out, then I can just focus on setting up my classroom on Monday when we have time to do it. I don't imagine I'll get everything done, but making it an organized space is good enough. I do not envy elementary teachers. They have to jazz up their rooms to make them all sorts of bright and colorful. And it seems that they end up having to move rooms fairly often, so all their stuff is packed up in totes and they have to start from scratch. Ugh. My posters stay up. I have a handful of books coming in, but not a lot (who has a budget?), and I need to reconnect the SMART board and put up a bulletin board. Nothing all that taxing.

Speaking of taxing, I sincerely hope that the lady at HR Block is in today, so I can (finally) get that stupid thing I wrote about the other day off my brain and my metaphorical desk. I'll have to bring Holly, but if it's a matter of just paying her to send the dang thing, it won't take long. 

Other than that, it's bank/ bills/ housework today. And whatever I need to do to keep Holly from making me want to run away to join the circus. I know she is super anxious about starting a new school, but yikes. This whiny, clingy phase is enough to make you want to chew rocks. And I agreed to have her all weekend, too (not the usual plan) so her parents can hoe out her room and make it clean, inviting, and useful. She's got so much STUFF. And the room is small. So, Saturday I will have to figure out something to entertain the wunderkind, and Sunday we'll go to the church picnic. Then, I'll have this week's guest poet event at Iron Furnace-- yay, adult time! 

Monday I'll be at work all day, but Holly will be with her dad, so I will get some quiet time when I get home. She doesn't start school until Sept. 8th (two more weeks!), so she'll be entertained by her dad for three of the days this coming week, her mom on Tues., and Papa on Friday. I will be (blessedly?) at work. Don't misunderstand me, I love the kid more than the world. But I am having a hard time finding mental prep time, and I need a stretch of quiet to shift into teacher mode. In short, I'm tired. And tired is not a good way to enter into year 40. At least it's a short week with students (Wed-Fri), and the following weekend, both Meg and Tim are home, so I might be able to claim some stretches of mental prep time. 

Why mental prep? Haven't I done all this for years? But still, given the changes in students (a rant for another day), it's not so easy. Suffice it to say, my incoming Sophomores are not of the usual preparation: they are coming into a dual credit British Lit course, and frankly, I'm not convinced they are ready for it academically. Kids have changed. Most don't read much, they have the attention span of a goldfish, and they whine a lot. It takes a lot more to get them interested in things. I hope there are a few sparks in the crew. At least I know the kids coming into AP Lang; they were sophomores with me last year and they are a fun bunch, for the most part. At least I know what they can/can't do-- and we can build on that. But yes, I will have to get my noggin into the nonfiction/ academic writing mode for that class, too. It's not my favorite to teach, to be honest. I'd happily let someone else do it and I could shift into just literature mode. But my colleague is not ready for that challenge yet, though I believe she will be in a year or so. The master schedule might not align well, though; she's teaching a sort of remedial math class in that block. No thanks-- not my forte. At all. 

So, here we are. Stumbling my way into year 40. I'll be fine, I just need to get into the harness and pull.

Have a good day, friends. Hugs all around. Keep the faith. 

C