It may be day 4, but today is the 1st day of the new school year, Monday, August 15th. A new school year should never begin on a Monday! It just seems like bad luck and sets a general tone of grumpiness and sorrow for the entire week.

My brain hurts from today. Not a headache type of hurt, but rather a numbing, aching, ‘wanna beat my head against a wall’ kind of hurt.

I sent a handful of emails to my parents, both of my returning students and my new students, over the summer to keep in touch, share needed information and to invite them to share anything they deemed important with me through email. Only one parent was considerate enough to engage in an email exchange with me to ask questions and share pertinent information. Every other returning parent, even those parents of students who typically arrive on the bus in the morning, decided to save their news/questions/comments until the bell rang for school to start this morning. One even demanded a face-to-face meeting during recess time today for something “that just can’t wait!”

I meet my students, those who ride the bus and those who get dropped off by parents, at the same bus stop location outside the school. Imagine, student drop off time, bell has rang, every elementary student complete with picture snapping parents are buzzing all over campus trying to capture the perfect 1st day of school moment. My students are overstimulated, desperate to either go home or just get to class and several of their parents are lined up wanting a private moment to discuss “just a few quick things”. UGH! This is what email is for, not drop off time, and especially not drop of time on the first day of school! And this just set the tone for the entire day…

I don’t have sit at desks, work independently, while I lecture at the front of the classroom students. Which is great, because I don’t have that kind of teaching style either. I am more hands one, and the nature of the exceptional needs my students have, means instruction needs to be individual or in very small groups. Today, I don’t even know why I prepared a lesson plan. Using it as a fire starter would make it more useful. It seems every quiet moment of almost productivity, almost gaining the engagement of my students lead to the interruption by an adult (paraprofessionals, specialists, fellow teachers, admin) either just walking into my room already in mid-question, or calling repeatedly on the phone until its answered.

I think I might change the locks on my classroom door and give no one the key, and after that change my phone number!

10 hours on my time card today, and I still have a mountain of work to be prepared for tomorrow.