Well, I made it through the first week of school. Whew! It's amazing how quickly one's body goes out of shape. It's been a blur of cleaning, (how does inches of dust pile up when it seems like I was just there?) planning, driving, and laying wide awake, staring at the ceiling at night. 2 am. 3 am. 4 am. Only an hour and a half to go... Thank god for medication!
I arrived on my first day at the high school to find out that contrary to what I was told, the construction was started in my room this summer. And, well, the custodians and my principal went though my room and decided what was trash and what wasn't. Somehow, examples that I spent hours and hours creating (and then laminated -- hello, trash isn't usually laminated!) were thrown away. Yep. Just as calm as could be, our head custodian came in, scratched his head, and said... "Yeah, I think that stuff got thrown out." BREATHE, BREATHE. In goes the blue air, out goes the red air... AAAARRRGH!!! Ever hear of a cell phone?!
I don't have the energy to put my room back together, so all of my supplies are in piles on the side of the room. My storage room was taken away and filled with boxes of records all over the floor. Great use of space. A temporary wall will be built along the wall where my cabinets are, so those can't be used. Our hallway looks like a mine shaft, with hanging lights in cages exposing a dark pit of wires and pipes along the ceiling.
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But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The kids came streaming in, and everything is a little brighter. Well, almost. Only one of them had a good summer. I stopped asking the question. I can't bear to think of how their summer was bad. One of my cheery little 8th graders, always full of giggles, is now a somber 9th grader. I had to create a referral to the counselor, afraid of what's going to happen to her. Or what did happen to her. Or what she's going to do because that thing happened to her.
I have the sweetest bunch of 5th graders, all boys, and eager to learn. They're so small! So cute!!
One of my largest students, a big, burly 11th grader, came bouncing down the hall the first day, engulfing me in a bear hug. Wow!! We all but came to blows last year over a cigarette lighter, but after it all... he missed me.