Today was my first, mandatory teacher work day of the 2016-2017 school year. WOW! was it exciting! I am just really not sure how to contain my excitement in sharing my day with you.

Day 1 consisted of an ALL DAY STAFF MEETING! I think my favorite part of staff meetings is how everyone sits in the their grade level cliques. Kindergarten teachers sit with kindergarten teachers, 1st grade with 1st grade, all the way through the 5th grade teachers. There are even 6 tables set up with corresponding chairs for the grade level teams. So where does the Special Ed team sit? Well, sometimes there are chairs on the outskirts of the room, sometimes we sit on the floor. We are so conditioned to this that we all show up with makeshift lap-desks to hold our devices in order to work and follow along during the meeting. Today was a good day; there were enough chairs for all of us and no one had to sit of the floor! Great start to the new year.

Today was also a good day because it was a shorter one for me. I started my day at 7 am, giving me time to quickly print off some materials and throw them through the laminator just before the ALL DAY STAFF MEETING started. Yes! I am one of those teachers. I bring things to work on during the staff meeting. I did get up and participate during the group, team building exercises, but so much of the agenda is solely focused on the needs of the general ed teachers that I bring something productive to do. It’s more polite then yawning or falling asleep. I clocked out at 4 pm today today too. I may regret it coming this weekend when I am cramming prep things at the last minute for Monday, but I was really ready to be home after my short 9 hour day.