Year 2: The Prequel

And so it begins. Monday found me at the TFA orientation, spouting terminology and getting pumped, building my expectations and developing my core values. And then I was brought back to reality...

Wednesday was our first day reporting back to school. I was initially very impressed by our new principal, Mrs. Simpson-Marcus, even though she made us play a 45 minute get-to-know-you game. We did all that faculty meeting nonsense, had a little breakfast, department meetings, lunch was provided, yadda yadda. I was NOT happy to find out that I'm teaching 6 classes instead of 5, and what was going to be an awesome schedule is now like last year only worse. After lunch, Mr. Brown let me in to my room (which rocks) and Michelle and I carted all of our junk upstairs. It seemed like a good beginning, for the most part

So for those who maybe didn't keep up last year, our school was housed in a building with 3 other schools. We were slated to close the building and move in to another one for this year, but it was not feasible, so we are staying in the building, along with one of the other schools, school 412. We were told in no uncertain terms that the city doesn't give a damn about us this year, and we're going to have to fend for ourselves as far as building junk is concerned (which will surely trickle down to everything else.) 429 and 433 are still moving out, and we are taking over the space that 429 used. However, 429 was not out of the building by Wednesday. Not even close. In fact, I don't think they started moving until Wednesday. To be fair, it's not their fault...first of all, they didn't schedule their own move date, and secondly, their building isn't even ready yet. Anyway, they started getting fussy and told us to stay out of their side of the building until they were out because we were getting in the movers' way. So I just went home on Wednesday, figuring I could get in my room on Thursday.

Thursday rolls around, and more time in our rooms, and no room for me. We were told to stay out under penalty of death. I wandered around for a long time trying to look busy elsewhere, and then finally just left to go fetch my computer cable (another long, dramatic story) from New Era and run some errands. I spent all night making the stuff I wanted to post on my boards, figuring I'd definitely be able to get in on Friday (Tom said he got in to his room by 5 Thursday, so it was a reasonable assumption...)

Friday morning I walk in, all cheery like...only to find that we're still not supposed to go over to the 429 side. Out of frustration and a deep seeded perfectionism I'd rather not discuss right now, I spent two plus hours organizing Tony's office supplies. Once he was tired of me, I eventually made my way to Michelle's room to work on my ocmputer a bit. FINALLY, around 3 o'clock, Mrs. Stokes said we could go in to our rooms and at least start setting up our boards. I did. Then I got kicked out of the building at 6. But not before laying claim to two fantastic tables that were forbidden fruit last year (the response from Simpson-Marcus when I asked for them? "I don't care who had them last year, you asked first. Need help carrying them?")

Saturday I went in to finish my boards and do something about furniture. I have 7 high lab tables and the 2 big wooden tables now...I need lab stools (which are going to be ordered, I think...) for the lab tables. I managed to scrounge up about 18 of them from the recesses of the crap-filled rooms on the 429 side...broken old things, but they'll serve for now. The rest of the kids are going to be seated mighty low at those lab tables until the new stools come in! By the time I left at 1 o'clock, my room was beautiful. And grafitti-free, something that causes me both great joy and great concern. Oh, and as I was leaving on Saturday, I ran in to the boss lady in the office. She looked me dead in the eye and said "We're blowing this bitch up on May 30th, right?" We decided it's my job, as the Chemistry teacher, and I'm allowed to get my best students to help. She rocks.

So now we're on Sunday, the day before school starts, and I've got a raging cold. Matt and I went to DC today to see the American History Museum before it closes for 2 years for renovations, and we had to leave early because I was dying. (Below is a picture of Matt all patriotic style standing in front of the flag that was hung from the pentagon after 9/11.)



Not a good start to the year. :-(