five more day...
... and then you are back in school.
This is, as always, the busiest and most stressful part of the year. You don't want to fuck up the first few days of the school year because then it'll take forever to right the wrongs - or at least that's what people have told you. You have yet to see it happen, but you don't want to take any chances.
You've started having nightmares. In them, the kids are all a head taller than you. (Never mind the fact that they are, you know: SEVEN.)
You've started showing up at school every day, trying to organize the new classroom, second guessing yourself, changing everything yet again. You've got half the stuff you know you ordered for the new schoolyear, some stuff you're not quite sure is yours, a lot of stuff that you know you never ordered, and you're desperately trying to locate the Really Important Stuff that you know has arrived but is currently missing. Because it's got to be ... somewhere...
You're trying not to show that you're REALLY ANNOYED with the young teacher who spent 700 bucks on a stupid item of furniture she did not really need in her classroom. You're annoyed because you don't care about furniture, you don't care about pretty rooms - you wish you could order more books, or more teaching supplies.
You're sorry you can't email much right now, post much, talk much to your friends, think about anything that is not directly related to the children in your class. You're realizing that you had forgotten them entirely during the summer - forgotten their names, even - but it's all coming back. Ever since you set foot in the school, it's been coming back, the names, the faces, the voices. The whine in David's voice, the sparkle in Isabella's eyes.
You can't be around online much, and you're missing out on stuff, and you're sorry, but right now you have to focus and prioritize. Because the next week may not be 100% crucial - you know by now that you CAN fix things if the year doesn't start flawlessly, and you KNOW by now that there is no such thing as flawless - but you still want to have a good start.
Because for the next ten months, you will be one of the most important people in the lives of these kids. This is your one shot at teaching them the things that matter to you, it is your one chance to open up their eyes and minds to the richness and beauty of human diversity in all its forms.
And this matters to you.
This is, as always, the busiest and most stressful part of the year. You don't want to fuck up the first few days of the school year because then it'll take forever to right the wrongs - or at least that's what people have told you. You have yet to see it happen, but you don't want to take any chances.
You've started having nightmares. In them, the kids are all a head taller than you. (Never mind the fact that they are, you know: SEVEN.)
You've started showing up at school every day, trying to organize the new classroom, second guessing yourself, changing everything yet again. You've got half the stuff you know you ordered for the new schoolyear, some stuff you're not quite sure is yours, a lot of stuff that you know you never ordered, and you're desperately trying to locate the Really Important Stuff that you know has arrived but is currently missing. Because it's got to be ... somewhere...
You're trying not to show that you're REALLY ANNOYED with the young teacher who spent 700 bucks on a stupid item of furniture she did not really need in her classroom. You're annoyed because you don't care about furniture, you don't care about pretty rooms - you wish you could order more books, or more teaching supplies.
You're sorry you can't email much right now, post much, talk much to your friends, think about anything that is not directly related to the children in your class. You're realizing that you had forgotten them entirely during the summer - forgotten their names, even - but it's all coming back. Ever since you set foot in the school, it's been coming back, the names, the faces, the voices. The whine in David's voice, the sparkle in Isabella's eyes.
You can't be around online much, and you're missing out on stuff, and you're sorry, but right now you have to focus and prioritize. Because the next week may not be 100% crucial - you know by now that you CAN fix things if the year doesn't start flawlessly, and you KNOW by now that there is no such thing as flawless - but you still want to have a good start.
Because for the next ten months, you will be one of the most important people in the lives of these kids. This is your one shot at teaching them the things that matter to you, it is your one chance to open up their eyes and minds to the richness and beauty of human diversity in all its forms.
And this matters to you.