i've been meaning to write for about 3 days, but just haven't been able to come up for air to do so. it's been busy, to say the least, and i've been pretty much exhausted and with more stuff to do by the time i get back home. the only thing i've even attempted to do is help elandryn with her new site, novel crit online. beyond that, i've been pretty much getting ready to walk into my classroom on monday morning, preferably somewhat prepared.

the whole things started on wednesday, which was supposed to be just a walk-in, check out the room, maybe pick up some keys, then disappear until monday. but, nooooooooo, it definitely could not be just that. all the tables we're clumped in the middle of the room covered with boxes of stuff for other teachers, all the chairs were stacked along the back wall, all the furniture was shoved against each other in the corners. had i walked into that on monday, i would have freaked. so, froggy and i, and a few others worked on getting things sorted out and somewhat organized. i managed to drop off a few things and managed to pick up the wrong teacher's edition of a textbook that's not being used for 6th grade this year. i also got pulled into a science subject curriculum meeting. pretty much nothing else was ready for me, so i did what little i could and then we left.

i actually wasn't expecting to be able to go back on thursday or friday, but managed to both days. thursday, we cleared more of the room, i actually got my keys, brought a few more things over, finally started organizing said things, and so on. i was also included in a team meeting, which i thought was cool, and thursday night was registration and i was asked to be there for that (which was a good thing since we had to get froggy's schedule finalized by hand and that all took awhile to do). i did my best, since i haven't done any of this before and am not the regular teacher. i actually had quite a few kids come in, but it's going to take me a bit to remember names and put names with faces.

friday i did a little rearrangement and got the last of the boxes stacked out of the way. i double checked my tables to make sure i had enough seating (i have one class with 28) and unloaded supplies. we also pulled down a few of the temporary posters and things we had put up previously because i'll be replacing them with more subject specific stuff. i was also invited to participate in a staff meeting where i was announced as the long term sub for the teacher in question. kinda cool and kinda embarrassing. picked up an appropriate textbook, dropped off a few more things, laid out all the handouts for monday, started putting info on the dry erase board, and so on.

if all i had to do these three days were the classroom stuff mentioned, i'd probably still be tired (and sore! man, am i sore! backache, arm arch, legs ache - if it got used to move furniture, stretched to put up posters, or otherwise exercised to death in the last 3 days from running around, moving things, and so on, it hurts!) but not flat out ready to just curl up and do nothing but sleep. which i can't do, btw, because i'm still prepping stuff for monday! those 3 days, however, included other running around. it's all the furnitaure movin', class setting up, and running around combined that's done me in.

first, wednesday included trying to get froggy transferred - which we did, but it required a bit of back and forth and a bit of haggling. i took the paperwork from the school i'm sending her to (the one i'll be long terming at) to the school she was slated to go to. first i was told it was too late. when i explained, they said to go ahead and fill it out (and that they wouldn't need anything else), but that it would take a few days for the principle to check it over and approve it. i was like, uh, no, school starts monday and i want her in the school she will be attending by monday. fortunately, the principle came out while we were talking and managed to look things over while on the phone, signed it, got me the copies i needed, and sent me on my way.

and, btw, she had no clue what i was talking about when i mentioned i had the resume she was so impressed with. and here i thought the school was finally going to have something that impressed me. :P

ok, so, yea, it's a busy time for everyone and, from what i can tell, i'm not the only one going nuts trying to get things ironed out for monday, but still, it was very disappointing.

we also tried to pick up jewel's schedule on wednesday and were told we would have to come back between 8am and 12pm on thursday to get it. and they couldn't make an effort to give it to us that day at all - they were still moving around teachers! we did manage to pick it up on friday after just missing the noon time limit on thursday. then there were trips to pick up school supplies. we've spent about $300 total on the kids and myself (with about a 50-50 split on how much between us). i now have almost everything i need, right down to a tape dispenser . . . which has been getting well used here at home!

at home activities have included setting up my attendance and grade sheets, creating seating charts to fill in, setting up my classroom notebook, trying to plan for the first week as best as i can, working on the syllabus (which i took in thursday to get looked over and approved by the team and the ms. m - the lady who's helping me with lesson planning and whatnot), revising said syllabus and printing out 125 of them, and poster making.

yep, poster making. my classroom is probably the dullest room on the face of the planet right now. there are a bunch of "unclaimed" boxes in my room with supplies and whatnot in them, but i have no idea if they belong to the teacher i'm stepping in for or if they belong to someone else. so rather than risk using stuff that probably belongs to someone else, i purchased poster board, 3x5 and 4x6 cards, and a few other things, and have been making my own posters - which is probably cheaper than buying premade anyway (and, since this isn't my classroom and not in my subject - the class i'm long terming in is earth science and i'm language arts approved - it's probably a better deal to not spend a whole heck of a lot on premade stuff that i won't need when i get my own classroom, if i get my own classroom). i've hunted down and printed out images on the net, used the word art option in ms word, and have been working on earth science and general class posters since last night. i have 3 of the 5 topics plus 1 of 2 extra posters done.

so, grade book is done. syllabus is done and printed out. some planning has been done for the first 3 days, which will give me time to ask about the packet of handouts i was given on friday. i have more supplies and a few personal items to go with me on monday to give the room a warmer, more personal, less stark feel. i just have to finish 2 topic posters and one welcome poster, and then i've got a lot of reading to do and a lot of thinking to do about how to spice up the lesson plans, if i can. i started off wednesday in a complete panic when i saw that room, but i'm feeling a lot less freaked out right now. course, that could be the exhaustion dulling the emotional tide.

we had one more event we took care of on wednesday - taz's birthday. he's now 13! we let him pick the restaurant. i took the waiter aside and asked about a cupcake or a piece of cake and they didn't really have any, but he did get taz a blondie with vanilla ice cream and caramel over it, and didn't charge us a dime. and it really made taz's night to get that when no one else did - you should have seen the boy's face light up! when we came home, saxy sat down at the table with him and helped him put some stickers we picked up for him on his binder dividers. the day before, my mother had sent him $20 and we used that for a pizza and movie night. so, all in all, he had a very good birthday this year. not a whole lot of presents, but a whole lot of lovin' to go around.