August 5, 2009

Help I'm trapped in a pile of books!

Today I worked in my classroom for about 4 1/2 hours. I know that's not too long, but it was my longest time there yet! While I feel like I was productive, there is SO much more to do. Way too many white walls! Thankfully my good friend Megan came to help me and took over all the tedious jobs: wipe desks inside and out, wipe cabinet doors so I can hang posters on them, put up number line, sharpen pencils, etc. Oh, and bring me lunch--perhaps the most important job of all! Thanks Meg! :)

While I had many accomplishments today, I had two big frustrations. First, the files left behind by the teacher whose room I have inherited. While many are well labeled and organized, there are many huge folders generally labeled things like "science." Needless to say, I spent my first big chunk of time today sorting through those and recycling tons of things and organizing things into files that are, ahem, a little more descriptive than just "science." Thank goodness for my three filing cabinets!

Second, I realized to my chagrin that sorting books by genre is easier said than done. Is this fantasy or science fiction? A ghost story or a fantasy? What about the ghost stories that are also historical fiction? Or the animal books that are also sports books? Aaaahhh!! I spent about two hours sorting books by genre, and needless to say that by the end a lot of books were just falling into the "fiction" umbrella genre. Yikes. When my neighbor teacher popped in and shared that she also had all her books leveled, I about had a heart attack. Hmmm who can I convince to look up the levels of my hundreds of books for me...

Funny how it seems like the more I get done, the more it seems there is to do. Hopefully the next couple days can be super productive since next week I have new teacher orientation and will have much less time in the classroom. Maybe I can leave my mom a to-do list...

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