a day in the life...

so today . . . i went back to work.

it started off pretty good. i didn't have too much trouble waking up--i only hit the snooze button once! I had everything ready to go, so i was up and out the door in about half an hour. but before i could even get out of our neighborhood, i had to turn around. i had my computer bag, my books, and my lunch... but i forgot to grab something for my breakfast. i would have loved to just swing by 7-11 and snag a brownie, but i am trying to eat better now that i am getting back to work. so i turned around, went back home, and found a hard boiled egg and a cheese stick in the refrigerator and headed back out, confident that now i wouldn't starve...

it took me longer than i anticipated to get to work. even though i still live just a mile and a half away, now i have to go through four stop lights instead of two... and one of those is a left turn... and i am driving on much busier streets, which means more cars sitting at those lights, which means there is a risk that i won't get through on the first green. and then there was construction (although, it was going the opposite way i was going, but still...)

i got to school and went to clock in, but i couldn't find my time card. which was really unfortunate, because for the first time in a long time, i wasn't late. in fact, i was about 7 minutes early, and i wanted it documented!! but my time card was not at the bottom of the rack where it usually is.

my time card position is a bit of an issue for me. i have worked at this particular school for 8 years, but my time card is always at the bottom! other people have been hired since me, but my time card is still always at the bottom. my time card never seems to be able to work it's way up the ladder, because i don't work in the summer. occasionally during the school year, it will manage to go up one or two spaces, only to lose that coveted ground in july when i don't show up for work for two months. then in september, there i am, back at the bottom. this seems so unfair, but i have finally resigned myself to the situation and have tried to embrace it with the thought that at least it is always quick and easy for me to find my time card. which is especially important on those days when i am playing "beat the clock." but since my card wasn't there in it's usual spot at the bottom, i just thought maybe they had forgotten i was coming back today. after all, i am three weeks late starting school, and we have someone new working in the office, so maybe she forgot...

as it turns out, she didn't forget. she promoted me! because there i was, in time card slot #3! yes, i am now #3!!! i cannot even tell you how awesome this is... and i know, you are all sitting there thinking, "this girl needs to get a life! who cares what slot their time card resides in?!?" well, clearly i do! AND not only was my time card now in slot #3, but i clocked in EARLY.

and no, the world didn't end at 7:56 this morning.

my day was off to a pretty good start. then i walked into my classroom...

let me just say here, that i had an awesome substitute while i was gone. really. there are only a couple of people that i would have felt comfortable leaving with my brand new class for the first three weeks of school, and i got one of them. but she hadn't been in the classroom since friday afternoon, and i think gremlins had gotten in...

the tables were moved. there were work papers everywhere. i am pretty sure that on friday afternoon, those work papers were organized, but by this morning, let's just say they were somewhat more randomly arranged. i started trying to make sense of it all and find the things i needed to get through the day. but i also had a room full of preschoolers that hadn't had play time in my room yet, so they were somewhat exuberant in their explorations and needed some supervision.

i continued to move furniture and plow through papers. and then i realized it was time for music...

i love music. i hate leading music time at school. ms. martha and i have finally figured out a schedule that makes us both hate it just a little bit less, but that schedule has me doing music on mondays. and today was monday. which meant i was going to be leading music today. ok, i thought, this won't be so bad. i haven't led music all summer. maybe it will even be fun to do some of the songs i like. so i put a cd in the player and got started. but all of these children are new to our classes. they don't know our songs yet. and as much as i hate leading music, try leading a bunch of kids who don't know the songs yet, while one of them continually runs around swinging his arms, hitting as many kids as he can. yes, my day was going downhill fast...

--the new table arrangement for the pre-k kids was not working out.
--the bathroom light was burned out, and the janitor doesn't come in on mondays.
--we had wheat thins for snack. (i love wheat thins. four and five year olds do not.)

and then it was time for language class. this is one of my schedule changes this year. the kindergarteners go to the same language class as the pre-k kids, which means that on monday, wednesday, and friday i have a 45 minute planning time. YIPPEE!!! i sure needed it today! i spent 15 minutes at the copy machine, 20 minutes moving tables in and out of the room (because something HAD to be done with those pre-k kids,) and ten more minutes looking for the top of my desk under all those papers. but at least i was alone in my room, and it was quiet. briefly.

actually, it was quiet longer than i expected. because usually the kids come back from their language classes at 11:15. but today they didn't come back. and i didn't go looking for them! i just said, "thank you Jesus," and kept shuffling papers. and then suddenly, there they were, all lined up in the hallway and ready to go outside.

some things had apparently changed in the last three weeks...

it was cloudy today, which made for a nice time outside. until i saw a little girl take a nosedive over the front of her scooter and plant her face on the sidewalk. she cried. and bled. and bled and bled and bled. thankfully none of her teeth fell out, but i couldn't tell that immediately because of all the blood! i don't do well when kids are bleeding from their heads. i was the first teacher to reach her, but i quickly handed her off to ms. jessica (my friend who bumped me up to time card slot #3.) ms. jessica is fearless and can handle anything! she saved my bacon more than once today. because later in the day, our toilet (in the bathroom with no light) clogged and overflowed. i don't do well with bathroom incidents either. (i know what you are thinking--why do i teach in a preschool when i can't handle blood and bathroom issues. my answer is, usually i teach kindergarten where we have very few of those issues. but add four year olds to the mix and things are quite different...)

the day did have a few bright spots.
--my lunch time was changed to 12:00-1:00. not only did i get a whole hour (instead of my usual half hour,) but i got it during the kid's lunch time! which means i didn't have to serve lunch. or try to convince them to eat their veggies. or put them down for their naps. ms. jessica got to do all of that :)
--i didn't call anyone by the wrong name. of course, sometimes i avoided using a name if i wasn't sure... but the point is, i didn't call anyone by the wrong name!!
--i got the homework out on time and only had to ask one parent to wait for it. and that only happened because they were early.
--i found the top of my desk. it took me until 5:15, but i found it.
--i have a class full of cute kids. they aren't going to be easy, but they are going to be fun. i think.

and let's not forget that no matter what happened today, or what happens tomorrow, my time card is in slot #3!

i am now just two slots away from being #1...

hehehe...