SuperSpeed Time or On Getting Ready For School to Begin

It is both funny and frustrating how I use my time in the summer. Towards the end of the school year I start to plan all kinds of projects I want to get done over the summer. Summer arrives. I am deadbeat tired for the first few days. Teaching really takes an emotional and sometimes physical toll on the teacher. Many, or perhaps even most, teachers get sick right after school gets out. It is like out bodies held out until we had the time to be truly sick. Then I try to put myself on a schedule of some kind, but having olderish kids throws that out as their calendars often trump my schedule. Flexibility is key here. Summer goes on and I never get as much done as I expected. During the last week or two before school is in session I go into super speed mode getting lots of stuff done. The pages below are an example of that. Now, if I could just keep on top of it.


I am back at school. I've been mostly in meetings for about three full days. While they are useful and it is great to see everyone again, it is also hard. I am not used to sitting for long. When I teach I move around a lot. At first most of us resist coming back. We don't want to give up our summers. Then we begin to plan and anticipate what the new year will be like. Today I embraced the new year. There were several joyful moments as I moved around the building getting ready for the kids. When I was on my way to the copy room I was stopped in my tracks listening to the drum line practice. The kids on the xylophones were practicing in the hallway. They were just doing scales and silly stuff, but I was still spellbound. I used to have fantasies that I would one day get to play them. My band (I played the clarinet from second grade until my junior year in college)needed me to play the clarinet, the flute and sometime a saxophone. One time I even played an oboe for a short while. Still, I trained my ears to drown out the other sounds and listen for that sweet, sometimes soulful instrument. That music set my foot tapping and a hum going on in my head. I was singing songs from "Annie" in my head. Back in my classroom I watch as anxious and excited families walk around the building helping their soon to be Bulldog student find their way around our three story, sprawling school. I great them and check to see if they need any help. They rarely take me up on it. I just want them to go away with an idea that there are friendly people here. I talk with my friends about how they will use their first day. I never do the who "here's your syllabus" thing - too boring. I change up what I am doing every year. If I am not excited, why should they be? Finally, I begin to retrain myself to the bells. Eat at a specific time, go to the bathroom between bells and getting out of the house early, usually at about 6:40 a.m. Oh, that's the tough one. I'll get it down and I will be happy when the kids are finally here. I'd rather be with them than in a meeting any day.