It seems that once August 1st. hits the calendar, summer is for all intents and purposes, over, no matter what day you report back to school. Our 'official' teacher back to school day is August 16th. (students report on August 28th.), but my team has already been at work for a few hours this week creating our class lists for the first semester of the school year. We are VERY grateful to be able to do this-it benefits all of us to be able to sort our students according to personalities and being that we teach them all, for all 3 years that they are in middle school we become very aware of classroom placement and it's advantages for everyone.
I've been asked to report early to our Central Office on the afternoon of the 15th. to be trained on how to train other teachers on one of the required district training days. If you are a teacher and you are reading this, I'm sure you are smiling and nodding your head. So that is another day of my summer vacay gone.
Am I ready? Yes and no. It's been a good summer. I pretty much got NOTHING on my list done that I wanted to get done, which is typical for me but I'm okay with that. I went to the beach with my bestie for a few days which was awesome. I had lunch with friends that exist only in cyberspace for the rest of the year. I went to the movies. I ripped up my carpet (I can't even...) and I have tried to embrace the change that always comes with each new school year.
I've missed my team. I am so lucky that I work with a bunch of people that I call my friends. So, I'll be glad to spend my days with them again. I've missed my kids. Mostly all of them. I've missed being creative every. single. day. I've missed being on a schedule. I've missed wearing pants. Ha ha. No, I haven't. Really. No, I haven't.
Every year, I try to avoid WalMart and Target this time of the year because of all the Back To School displays and this year is no different. I did end up going to Target the other day (where I ran into teammate Nick, PE and Health teacher extraordinaire) looking for pastel crayola markers which seem to be in short supply this year and I did find a few. I haven't had to purchase as much stuff this year out of my own $$ because I've either 1. hoarded way too much in past years or 2. been frugal and stingy when passing out supplies over the last couple of years. That being said, there are ALWAYS a few things that I can use in my art room that are either used up at the speed of light or too expensive for my meager budget. I've created an AMAZON WISH LIST that you can access here or through the tab at the top of this page. It will be updated throughout the year, shipped directly to Albemarle Middle School and greatly appreciated if you are so inclined to bless us with your generosity. Thank you in advance.
Here's to another great school year!
