Where's an Expert When You Need One

I've been working in my room a bit the past week or so mainly because we get paid a stipend for spending a day outside our contract doing this, and because it takes me forever to get everything together. Every year we pack everything up so that the maintenance folks can empty our rooms, strip the floors, wax the floors, and, if needed, paint. Since I'm in the old part of the building that means I have no built-in storage units, so everything is in rolling cabinets and bookcases. So, every August, I stroll in to the building and start unpacking and sorting. The plus side is that it gives me a chance to go through everything and to get rid of stuff I don't need anymore. The downer side is that it's a bit time consuming.

When I showed up a few weeks ago I discovered that my room had become the dumping ground for this part of the building. There were tables, cabinets, chairs, and more that did not belong to me, or in my room. I found one of the janitors, explained the situation, and discovered that all that had been put in my room when they'd remodeled the speech teacher's room. That's fine, but I needed it put back in her room so I could get mine put together.

By last week, most of the extra stuff had been removed, but I still ended up putting at least ten chairs, a table, and a file cabinet out into the hallway - my subtle reminder that this stuff needs to go somewhere else.

On an aside...it is stated clearly in The Principal's end of the year letter, that we are to label everything in our room with our name and room number. Why most of this extra stuff (and I later found out it belonged to not one, but three other teachers) was not labeled is beyond me.

And then there was the tech issue. (Isn't there always a tech issue?)

Before I left for the summer, I drew a map of my classroom on my white board so any of the maintenance staff could see where things went. Everything was put into its place except for my tech stuff which was apparently set up by "experts" sent to us by the district office.

Anyone remember our "experts" from last year? Well, they were back, apparently.

Although the room map was directly in front of where they were working, they didn't bother to read it. Consequently my desk and teacher stand (that holds my document reader and computer) were not where they were supposed to be. My printer was smack in the middle of my desk (my, that would be efficient, wouldn't it?). It was supposed to be on a table in another part of the room. My phone wasn't hooked up correctly. Nothing worked.

And someone had torn off all the labels I had put on every single wire and plug and outlet and hub and put them in a nice, neat pile on my document reader.

So...Mrs. Eagle and I had to unplug and rearrange everything. Which took an extra hour since all my labels were removed.

What a waste of time. I wish they'd just let us set the tech stuff up ourselves. And leave my labels alone.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering...they managed to crash the system - again - this year.