Works For Me!

My Aunt Bev tagged me today. I cannot tell if she is making fun of me, or being serious, but since she hasn't actually seen my apartment (or car), I am going to assume she was serious and humor her.

Here's the deal. I got to school this morning, and my mentor teacher asked me where I was last night. After a moment lost in deep thought, I realized she was refering to the teacher-inductee meeting. The last one of the year. The one I forgot about. A while later I went to pay for some lunch tickets, opened my checkbook, and guess what? No checks! It took me three trips from the library to my classroom in order to be fully prepared for today's after school meetings. My apartment is a disaster, my car is worse, and it took me 20 minutes to find the check replacements when I got home. To make a short story long, I am not organized. Not one bit.

I do, however, have one of the most organized classrooms in the building. There is a slight chance that this is because I am a first year teacher, have not lost my sanity quite yet, and I have less stuff. I prefer to think that it is because at least one area of my life is organized. I do realize that not everyone reading this post has a classroom, and therefore this will probably be useless chatter to many. I am, however, going to talk about it anyway, if only to make myself feel a little bit better.

In the morning, when my students walk in the door, there is an assignment on the board. They mark their lunches by putting a pink or blue push pin by their name on the bulletin board, and get right to work. This gives me a few minutes to go through their homework and parent folders, which they placed on the back counter upon arrival. When they are finished with their work, they will go to the hanging files on the counter, and place it within the file for whatever subject we are doing. If they need any sort of supply, they will go to the borrowing bins, which I somehow manage to keep fully stocked with paper, pencils, markers, scissors, etc. etc. If they need to sharpen a pencil, they know to do it before we start reading block, or they will use a dull pencil all day. If they happen to need to use the restroom at any point in the day, they will go and get both boys passes or both girls passes. One of them they will place on their desk, so that if I look for them, I know where they are. The other they will take with them so that the hallway police do not arrest them. (a little joke I share with my class) When they walk in to the room after recess, they will immediately grab a barrier (folder to hide paper), and get ready for the multiplication minute drill. When I say stop, they will pass their papers, get out their math notebooks and be ready for the problem of the day. When this is done, they will get out their math textbooks. This is because we do the same routine daily. At about 2:45 when I suddenly start calling out names, they will grab their mail, collect their homework, get their parent folder from me, and put it in their backpack, no questions asked. At 3:05 when the bus riders leave, the car riders and walkers will busy themselves with whatever classroom jobs need to be done until 3:15 when it is their turn to go. At this point, I am left with a sparkly clean and organized room, all ready for the next day.

You may be wondering, what the big deal is. It is a BIG deal to psychological well-being. I do not have to spend half my morning trying to locate homework that may or may not be completed. I do not have to rally my students to sit down after every single transition. I do not have kids freak out when they lose a pencil, or need a piece of paper. I do not have to listen to the constant dynn of a pencil sharperner grinding away all day. I am not asked a million times a day "can I go the the bathroom?", "where do I turn this in?", or "what do I do now?" When I call out a student's name, "what?" is never the response. I have seen these things happen. I have experienced these things. It is not pretty.

Okay guys, so I realize I am totally pushing it with this one. I apologize, but when I realized that the mere thought of actually responding to a tag about organization was completely ridiculous, I developed somewhat of a complex. I had to brag about something. There are seven days of school left. When it is done, I promise I will talk about something else. I also promise to make my first big project (after hybernation) organizing my apartment.

So, one more thing to share. I already mentioned completely missing the meeting last night. (I was probably off somewhere blogging.) Did I also mention that I double booked our class auction and the third grade movie? Did I mention that my stack of grading is now taller than I am, and report cards are due Monday? How about the fact that I still have not gotten cable, and can't imagine being able to relax in front of it anyway. Sometimes dinner is forgotten, until I wake up the next morning starving. I am consistently a minute or two late getting my class to every special, and occasionally a few minutes late to recess duty. Oh, and I forgot about my bus duty last Thursday. Are you sensing the pattern?

So, now it is my turn to tag. I need some major help with time management. I am clueless. I try, I really do, but I can't seem to figure it out on my own. So, I am officially tagging my Aunt Bev, my cousin Sarah, my mom Barb, my Grandma Judy, Brenda, and anyone else who would care to share.

Is that all I do? I just say "tag you're it", and the game begins? Or have I done way to many playground duties this year? Do I have to pick a title? I can't do that! I guess I'll find out.