First and Last

Today was the first day of school. I haven't posted in a few days due to getting my classroom ready. After wasting the 3 day headstart, I was still in the pack of other teachers trying to get their classes ready. Since I did not finish on Friday, I signed up to come on Saturday, something I said that I would not do this year.

Saturday
Well, after arrived in the building, I was informed that we only had a half day to finish. I had arrived about 9:45am. After putting up wall and window coverings, knowing that I had to be out of the building at 12noon, I made sure to be ready. Well, when noon arrived, I was ready to leave. After chatting with Ms. Across the Hall, and the new second grade teacher (a former 5th grade male teacher, who was tired of the nonsense of the upper grade students and wanted a lower grade, but had to settle for second grade. An annoucement was made that all staff had until 1pm to be out of the building. Great, I had already shoved what could be shoved and put things away, so it wasn't worth touching anything at that point only to have to start putting things away again.I spent the remaining time chatting and helping Ms. ATH with her things.

Sunday
I was invited to my foster father's daughter's BBQ. This is a very nice family that often consider me a part of the family even calling me brother as if I've always been a part of the family.

Anyway, I decided to take public transportation. However, what is about a 16 minutes car drive from my apartment to my foster sister's place, would take me about 90 minutes by public transportation. The area I live in is mountainous with lots of rolling hills. Since most of the transportation traveled in north to south directions, I had to travel south then cross east before traveling North again. When I arrived at the closest bus stop, I then had to walk up a steep mountain road without any sidewalks (about 12 minutes). I arrived at FS's place, but the hostess or host were not home, but there were a lot of people. On my hike up the mountain side, I stopped off at Pathmark. I bought a large soda, large grade juice, granola bars, and a box of donuts. I was a bit annoyed that I just put the bags on the table with the "other things" without the hostess seeing that I did not come empty handed. Anyway, I spent most of the time on the upper deck, while most of the action was down on the ground level. Since I'm not really a party person, I did what I usually do, I just sat and watched the action pass me by. I left about 6:15pm to catch the bus. But the 6:33 bus just passed me by. I was so busy playing Tetris on my cell phone, that I did not see the bus until it zipped by. It didn't even slow down with me being the only one at the bus stop. I starting walking and waited for the next bus a couple of stops down the road, and again, it almost did the same thing. Apparently, you have to wave your arms like a madman to get the bus to slow down and stop.

I stopped off at the local area mall to do some clothes shopping for "Back to School" for myself. I bought a couple of white dress shirts, a couple of black slacks and a pair of black shoes.

Monday Labor Day
Monday should have been my errand day, but it was my procrastination day. I didn't do much but watch the clock knowing that school started the next day. Until the evening, I really couldn't get my mind to think about school related tasks. Finally, in the evening, I was able to type up my letter of introduction and my supply list. I emailed the letter of introduction hoping that I would beat the last minute rush so that I could send it out on the first day. Here, letters of introductions (as well as most communications have to have admin approval). I shaved (my head), showered, and ironed my clothes for tomorrow. I was in bed by 1:30am.

Tuesday, September 2nd
I was hoping to take a early train to arrived in school to do some last minute set up, but I missed the early train by about 30 seconds so I had to take my regular train that would put at school with about 15 minutes before school starts. Unfortunately, dragging the granny cart full with books I didn't use for lesson planning, and my gym clothes, I was dripping with sweat this morning. I was too hot to put on my jacket. So how was the first day?

Actually, it was okay. Despite poor planning, and an incomplete classroom set up, with boxes still unpacked, the day was nice. Even "Wild One" (the second grader who spent much of his time last year out of the classroom was [relatively] nicely behaved. Would you believe that he arrived to school on the first day chewing gum with nothing but a handful of wrinkled loose-leaf paper. Oh, I also had to revise my letter of introduction, because AP1 told me that it was too formal and needed "more fluff" (more please and thank yous). That surprised me. I'm a bit too soft and usually say please and thank you too much. I don't think I've ever been told that I have a rough edge (usually it is the opposite). I also couldn't send out my supply list because Admin had one for the whole school. On the last day of school back in June, an announcement was made to send down a supply list that we would be using for the coming school year. Since that was the first (and only) annoucement, I put it off, until it was too late. As a result, I now have to send out this crappy list with half the things I don't want my students to have, and missing items that I wanted to ask for. "Two packs of loose-leaf paper (wide-ruled)" is just asking for an endless supply of drawing paper and paper airplanes.

At about 6pm, I was expecting the firedrill bell to go off, but it didn't. Anyway, I left the school and went to the boxing gym with the plan of signing up for a 1 month package of group boxing lessons. When I arrived at the gym, The owner (or the wife of the owner) commented about how I had gained weight, and she wanted to know what had happened that I missed two weeks and I had been doing fine and making progress. Did I tell her the lessons were crappy, and I wasn't motivated to come? No, I just said that I was a procrastinating. As I took out my money to pay for the listed price of a one-month fee for group lesson, the lady told me, "oh no, the cost for changing from private to group lessons was about $180. With the "about $180" cost mentioned, and feeling I did not get what I paid for with private lessons, I told the lady I would think about it, but in the meantime I would clear out my locker. I should have taking my gym bag into the locker room, because coming out of the locker with my shower things and gloves, I felt like a quitter without several people stopping to see what I was carrying out. So, what did I do after? I went to Subway's restaurant; I ordered a foot-long sandwich and three macadamian cookies, with a couple of refills of soda. I came home hot sweating a tired. I fell asleep. Now, at 1am. I have to plan my lessons for tomorrow, and shower of course. Hopefully, I'll be in bed by 2am.


Post Date - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:52PM
Completion Date - Wednesday, September 3, 2008 1:02AM