As ready as I'm gonna be

I think I'm ready.

Well, sorta. I still need to make a zillion photocopies of the "first day of school and here's all your paperwork" stuff, but other than that, I think I'm ready.

I've got the word wall up, my posters up, file cabinet cleaned up and organized (we're talking two trash bags full of stuff I tossed), my rolling cabinets organized and cleaned out, tablecloths put out, student center organized, books on shelves, and so forth. I went to Office Depot, bought a new electric pencil sharpener (which will hopefully outlast the year), as well as colored paper for foldables and some Dixon Ticonderoga pencils. I've had it with crap pencils.

The School did give us these hard plastic monstrosities with felt on the bottom that we're supposed to put on the bottom of our chair legs so the new tile doesn't get destroyed. I did about eight chairs and decided it wasn't worth it. Putting these suckers on was hard (and included the use of a hammer), and besides, they won't fit on most of my chairs. So, I sat home and cut X's in a bunch of tennis balls and put those on the other chairs. (I knew we were supposed to get tile one of these days so the Guidance Goddess, who happens to be a tennis coach, saved some of her older tennis balls for me.) I still have nine chairs without felt or tennis balls so I'll probably pick up a can or two here and there until they're all covered.

So tomorrow we go in for the beginning of two days of meetings, and hopefully time where the team can meet and go over things. We have some changes this year. Ms. Reading has transferred to a new middle school here in town so we'll have a new Miss Reading. I've met her and she seems very bubbly and gung-ho. My original Mrs. Language, one of my dearest friends, has been moved to another team and appointed team leader. The Principal realized she needed to get someone over on that team (which will have 3 new people on it this year) with the right attitude and a heart for the kids, and she chose Mrs. Language. We're not happy about it, as our team was rock solid, but we understand the reasons behind the move. So, we have a new Mrs. Language who, like our new Miss Reading, is bubby and gung-ho and fairly young. The original Mrs. Language has a new name, along with a new team. I'll be calling her Mrs. Bunny, so hopefully we won't all get confused.

Oh boy!