SOL29....Packing Up

Packing Up for Break

     I walked back in the classroom and stopped to look around. The kids were gone. The day was over. It was officially Spring Break. I smiled and walked further into the room, toward my desk. As I continued walking I looked around the room at any last minute chores. The kids put the chairs up, check. They wiped off all the tables, check. The counters were all wiped down and straightened up, check. Pretty good! I looked at the counter in front of me. It had several piles of papers, a few scratch pieces of paper, my lunch bag, and three books. Not bad. The papers and lunch bag went home with me, and the table had been wiped down earlier that morning. I reached my desk and looked down, yikes.

     I had my laptop open, a notebook I was using to check in assignments, my Slice of Life binder open to Block 3's class, many, many scratch pieces of paper, and several pens. I don't know how this always happens. Every day when I leave, I straighten the desk. I make sure papers are either put away or in a neat pile. I throw out any random scratch papers or garbage, put the writing utensils away, and pretty much clear the whole desk. Ye, somehow, every day it always ends up looking like this. Alright, so that was one thing that needed to be cleaned. What else?

     I turned to look toward the board. I had wanted to write the new agenda and objectives before I left. I should also probably redo the calendar now and have it done. That wasn't something that needed to be done though, right? I could do it when I came in Monday morning after break...right? I stared for several more seconds, arguing with myself. Yes, of course it could be done Monday when I come in, but would I remember what the agenda was? Would I remember what the objective was? What we were even supposed to be doing that day? It was over a week away, after all. 

"Fine! Fine...I'm doing it now." I announced to the empty classroom. I know what my brain would be like coming back that Monday morning. It would be empty. It wouldn't remember anything we'd been working on or anything we were supposed to be working on. It would take me forever just to get my bearings and remember, and by then the kids would be here. It wasn't worth risking it.

     I walked over and started erasing everything.  When I finished the first board, the only thing left was the word AGENDA written in purple and pink in big, bold, capitalized letters. I moved to the left to erase the second board. This one didn't have as much to erase. I started with the objective written on the top, then moved my way down to homework and weekly announcements. When I finished erasing everything, I walked back over to the first board, picking up the blue dry erase marker. As I pulled off the cap, I bit my lip, trying to remember what the date would be when we came back.

     When I remembered, I quickly scrawled it across the top of the board. This helped. It would be an A day when I came back, which meant I would have morning duty. I needed to be early. I might not have remembered that otherwise. I quickly wrote the daily agenda, grateful we were done with PARCC and holidays so we could get back to our regular schedule. The kids needed it, and I needed it. I added the assigned blog posts for the week on the board next to them and moved on to the second board. 

     Once I'd written the objectives and homework for the week, I stepped back to appraise my work. That was good enough. I didn't need to make any copies or have anything else prepped for Monday, so I was good. I looked over at the calendar though. It would be the second week of April when we came back, I really should change the calendar now. Changing the calendar meant at least another 20 minutes though...did I want to do that? I scowled at the calendar and walked over to pull it down. Of course I didn't want to do it, but same as the agenda, it was better to just have it done and over with. I didn't want to come in Monday with a ton of chores still to do for the day.

     I slowly, carefully, started pulling the calendar off the wall, being gentle with the staples so it didn't rip anything. Once I had it down I moved it to the table and turned to pull off the month as well. Done and done. Now, I needed all the supplies. First, I needed to wipe it off so I grabbed the eraser. Then, I grabbed a handful of markers, all different colors. Once I'd dumped all that onto the table next to the calendar, I made my way back to my desk to grab my planner. I'd written all the kids birthdays in there at the beginning of the year as well as school events, so I needed it.

     I unceremoniously dumped that on the table too and stared at the desk full of stuff. It wasn't a big project, but it was definitely one I hadn't anticipated doing, so it was still a little frustrating. I ran over to my desk and grabbed my laptop last so I could play some music while I worked, that would at least make it a little easier. It would definitely be oldies today. Maybe Otis Redding. He was my favorite. I sat down, pushed play, took a deep breath, and picked up the eraser to get started....