Another Day, Another Year

So I am sitting in my classroom procrastinating doing anything. I don't officially have to be here today, which is probably why I am not motivated to do anything. I still have tables stacked on top of one another and have spent about 2 hours just talking with other teachers, yet I have been sitting at my computer reading old emails and my friends' and families' blogspots. This is a serious problem I have--wasting time on the internet--so it is probably a good thing that we don't have the internet at our house.

As to the title of my entry today, I am not too excited about starting school this year. I think it is because my first two years had unusual circumstances surrounding their start, but this year is just blah. My first year was, well, my first year. Everyone is excited, albeit anxious, about starting their dream job, right? I was an intern at Sandy Elementary teaching Kindergarten. I didn't have to do student teaching (I like the power that comes with being in-control all by yourself) and I was getting paid , even if it wasn't much (half a first-year teacher salary--you do the math)! The year turned exciting when two months into the school year, there was a fire in our building and we had to re-locate and our classroom was packed into un-labeled boxes by people who just wanted to get it done quickly, not carefully. Life turned out well and I actually really enjoyed the year. Then my second year, they had re-opened our newly remodeled school and deposited the contents of our classroom right in the middle of the room. My ceiling had leaked into/onto two or three of the boxes, but the contents probably would not have been saved anyway as we were told to weed-out the old and request new, under the circumstances. I had a week to make my room presentable for 50 students students ready to start their first day of school--ever! It was quite thrilling and needless to say I was much more motivated and productive than I have been today.

But now it is today. It is not my first year teaching and I am not trying to recover from a year in boxes. I am team-teaching with an intern (who has to go through 5 days of new-teacher orientation as opposed to my 6 hours of it) so I can't do too much on my own anyway. As hard a time as she will feel having to share her first year with another teacher, I want her to feel like this is her classroom, too, not that she is just coming under me and has to do all things my way. Hopefully I will be good with change and be able to work with her well and respect her ideas and opinions. I think I will be able to, but I know that we are both looking forward to my vacation and her two weeks of solo teaching.

Well, I must become a "moving woman" and get to work so I feel like I have accomplished something before I leave in another 3 hours.