Shopping

Quick entry.  I need to go to bed so that I have the strength to run in the morning.  Yesterday I didn't run, so today was a return to my turtle trotting running style. 

As most of you already know, school is out here in NYC.  Unfortunately, I didn't follow the other teachers who were packing up during school hours, so I'm not one ... if not the only one who still has to return to school to finish packing up for the summer.  I thought I would only need the two extra days that admin is required to come in. But no, I'm still not ready.  Tuesday will be the fourth day I will be in school packing.  Why the delay?  As much as I said that I wouldn't look at any of the materials that were sent to me, I couldn't resist (for one reason or another).  So what have I been doing?  Sorting and organizing the materials.  This coming school year, I will be teaching 4th grade for the first time.  I've been teaching 3rd for the past few years.  I inherited the materials of a colleague who will be moving up to teaching 6th grade.  The problem?  She wasn't too organized in how she sent the materials to me.  She had several of her students help with the move.  Unfortunately, the timing and method of delivery was off.  One, I was trying to maintain the learning environment until the very end.  Two, I didn't really have  the room for the 4th grade materials because I still had the 3rd grade materials.  The monitors were a bit too eager to help, but they just basically made a mess.  Textbooks were mixed up.  Testing materials arrived in large trash bags.  I really can't function with disorder.  I went through the books and group them according to levels.  I went through the test prep materials and organized it.  Although I'm a bit annoyed that I'm the only one who is still packing up, I am pleased that I went through the materials and organized it.  I've observed that several teachers tend to rush to pack up for the summer, but then rush to unpack in the fall.  And then complain because they can't find anything, or don't realize what they have in terms of materials.

It is getting late.  I will continue this another time...
Next time, I'll summarize my Saturday of shopping and movie viewing.  I bought 4 new paperback novels.  A new pair of sneakers, and some teaching materials from B&N.