Late August

 Can you smell the laminator film melting together? Most of my former co-workers go back to school this week, on Monday or Tuesday. But this year I am headed into the before school teacher meetings, with the "meet and greet" where students drop off their school supplies on September 7, and our first day of school on September 8. So unlike most teachers nationwide, I'm still knee deep in back to school prep. And while I know that encasing paper in plastic is not great for the environment, I can't imagine this time of year without a heavy dose of laminating.

This weekend I created name labels on hands, suns, and squares with chevron stripes for the cupboards I'm using in lieu of backpack hooks, cubbies, and a magnetic restroom checkout system. I put together and printed a document with the daily schedule to hand students on the first day and a bigger picture of my Bitmoji mining a heart shaped gem for my hallway display tied to our theme of "Building a World of Joy." I typed affirmations into little squares to use in taking attendance (students will read the affirmation I leave on their desk instead of saying "here" during attendance.) All of those items ran through my home laminator this weekend. The list would more than double if I included everything I've laminated since the beginning of August.

I also created the annual welcome back postcard and a document to hand out at the meet and greet for students to do a scavenger hunt around my classroom. The latter is something I've never done, but my new partner teacher has seen at her own children's schools in previous years. I'm excited to see this new activity in action.

My partner teacher and I sat on a Zoom call for hours on Saturday finalizing our class schedule and creating our back to school presentation for the evening of the meet and greet. This was after my husband and I went to my classroom so he could set up my displays (external monitor and SMART board) and add a printer I was gifted on Friday to my school computer. He took the opportunity to also manage my cables. While he worked I affixed student names to cubbies and cupboards and set out some of my classroom decorations.

For the first time ever, I had made the decision to not purchase a paper lesson plan book. I stopped using one mid-way through last school year because my partner teacher and I planned via Zoom using a template I created on Google Slides. Writing everything into a paper planner was an unnecessary step that I decided wasn't worth my time. On Saturday during a conversation with my new partner teacher, she seemed excited about using a paper planner to plan together in person. Sunday morning I browsed Amazon to discover that lesson plan books are deeply discounted during the final week of August and prepped to ship. My new plan book arrived before the end of the day.

Sunday night I met up with a former middle school teammate of mine who just accepted a fourth grade position at the school where we used to work together. She was looking for advice about transitioning down to the new age group. Her students come back to school this week. We talked about the core subjects and what reading and writing skills to try to develop by the end of the school year. I promised to share some resources with her and we agreed to talk to our partner teachers about having our fourth graders become pen pals this school year. The visit left me filled with joy and ready to take on the school year.

Classroom Decor

 In the back to school season my Facebook feed is full of pictures of classrooms decorated by teachers who have serious Pinterest addictions. Everything is color coordinated and chosen to enhance the overall theme.  These posts used to stress me out until I learned to scroll past them. 

My room has never been Pinterest worthy. I have never selected a theme or worried about colors clashing. This time of year I spend time sitting in the middle of my room, thinking about room arrangement. This year we are required to have three feet of distance "nose to nose" between students. It's better than the six we needed last year, but still fraught with challenges. I have re-arranged my student desks at least four times and my teacher space twice so far this week. It's Tuesday.

I hung fabric on my bulletin boards this year based on the rumor that it won't fade and I will be able to leave it up for years, possibly until I retire. I've heard of teachers "inheriting" fabric covered boards who never changed them during the 10+ years they were in the room. I hope it's true because I wrestled with the stretchy fabric I purchased for hours over two different days. I chose stretchy fabric because I was worried about wrinkles, but it proved challenging to hang. Despite my best efforts, I was never able to pull on it evenly. I butchered the edges of the fabric (with regular scissors that have cut countless sheets of paper and laminator film) enough that I may never be able to change out the borders. I'm praying that the hundreds of staples I impaled through the fabric and then removed didn't cause any runs that will become visible outside of the borders.

Each year my school selects a theme that we use throughout the year, and most teachers use in their welcoming hallway displays. This year the theme is Building a World of Joy. My co-workers have focused in on "world of joy" on their boards. Apparently I went against the grain by zeroing in on "building." I plan to add my students' names on hard hats around the tools.

I helped with the new teacher orientation this year where I learned my school has a budget for flexible seating. My room was a middle school science lab right up until COVID shuttered schools in March of 2020. I snagged a couple of standing desks last school year, but don't have anything else that would qualify as flexible seating. I emailed the principal and facilities director asking what was available and expressing interest in a low table and floor cushions. My principal replied telling me to order a table and cushions. I didn't waste time ordering, but don't know if the new table will arrive before school starts.

Despite my best efforts to ignore such posts, I am in the process of creating a new poster for my classroom based on something I glimpsed in my Facebook feed. Someone was asking about poster ideas for a middle school math room that weren't cheesy. The comment that was visible to me as I scrolled past inspired me, and I hope it will inspire my fourth graders. When I was in fifth grade I decided I wasn't good at math. That internal perception (even though at the time I was in the "high" math group) plagued my progress in math through college. I hope to head off that kind of negative self talk in my students.

My "new" partner teacher quit on Friday, before she had started putting her room together. By the end of the day we had hired the person who student taught with my partner teacher last year. She and I met for drinks on Friday and went in yesterday to work on setting up for the year. She and I get along, she already knows the building and lots of the curricular resources, and even knows many of the new fourth graders from her time subbing in third grade after her student teaching was complete. I'm glad she was offered the job and happy to have her as part of my team.

Tonight I attended a happy hour send off for a co-worker who is moving out of state. It's been a whirlwind kind of August for sure. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I do know I will meet it head on when it arrives.

Mid-August Already!

 It's already the middle of August. Summer is flying by, even without the big trips we had hoped to make our yearly norm. I've already had several meetings in preparation for the new school year because I have taken on a leadership role within my building and the Archdiocesan school community. I am a teacher leader responsible for attending Archdiocesan meetings and bringing information back to my principal and helping to implement in our school. But I'm also a regional leader, acting as a liaison between 21 schools in my region and the Archdiocesan superintendent in charge of overseeing the program as a whole. It was fun making a slide to introduce myself to the group of teacher leaders during last week's kick off meeting. I was able to reminisce about some pretty cool professional development and think about what in my life matters enough to share with others.

My cat attending a meeting with me.

In the ramp up to the school year I'm glued to news from schools that are already in session in other parts of the country. Local soundbites say things like, "COVID cases on the rise as schools start to re-open." The back to school COVID anxiety feels more pronounced this year than last. The Delta variant is very different from the original strain of COVID that was circulating before the start of last school year. Several countries in Latin America apparently already have the Lambda variant as the dominant strain. Thus my hyper awareness to news of what's happening where school have already started up. My Facebook teacher groups have people reporting about COVID positive cases in their districts, buildings, and rooms. One said something along the lines of, "Well, we made it three days before going back to virtual."

Last year I knew I was starting virtually but didn't know when I was going back in the building. This year I'm planning and prepping as if I'm going to begin face to face and stay that way. There will still be masks and physical distancing (three feet instead of the six we attempted to maintain last year), and we'll likely use our shields while students eat in the classroom. But once we went back to the building last year, I didn't worry about returning to online school. This year, in the back of my mind I'm bracing for that possibility.

My partner teacher decided to leave classroom teaching two weeks ago. We've hired her replacement, a former co-worker of mine from a previous school. I'm excited to work with her, but I hadn't been anticipating onboarding a new partner when I volunteered to not only be a teacher leader but also a regional leader. My whole mindset about the upcoming year has shifted, and I wonder how the team dynamic will change. It's going to be an interesting year!

We spent a little time this weekend cleaning a path through the garage for tomorrow's AC installation. The annual smoke and heat, coupled with everyone being home all summer have finally made us buckle. I have a stack of boxes to bring to school that were relegated to the garage shelves when I left my previous school. I am actually moving into my classroom now that I know I'm staying in the same room (and the science supplies have been relocated to their new room). I've been printing, cutting, laminating, and taping in preparation for the first day. I have lists of things I can work on at home and what I have to be at school to accomplish. I plan to spend at least one day in my classroom this week and then will likely be in every day next week which is the week before our in-service days.

The 2019-2020 school year was unprecedented but 2020-2021 upped the ante. My school's theme this year is Building a World of Joy. No matter what the next ten months bring, I will do my best to build joy in my students each and every day.