Everyone just needs a cookie...

So, I started back at school on Tuesday. However, we have TONS of professional development, and we have LOTS of special education meetings. Needless to say, I haven't had much time in my room.

Tuesday was convocation and we had an interesting speaker. He ran the entire thing like a Southern Baptist Church meeting, which totally reminded me that I'm in the South. In the afternoon we had a very long faculty meeting, which in turn resulted in use scheduling more meetings.

Wednesday I actually had a full day in my room. However, I spent the morning being useless. As Vanessa says, I was "moving deck chairs on the Titanic." Around lunch time I finally got myself into gear and worked for about three hours late unpacking my classroom and setting it up. I asked one of the custodians if there was an extra bookcase and he went on a mission to find one. He couldn't find one, but he did show up with a filing cabinet, which I will never turn down! (Teachers never turn down free furniture!) I did come across a bookcase later in the day and because our librarian was cleaning out old books, have now totally filled it up! (I'll post a picture on Monday) 

Yesterday was spent in our "welcome back" special education meeting. We killed several trees and got all kinds of new paperwork. The fifth grade team sat down to plan, but we're not sure what our schedule is yet (we're waiting on another meeting, of course) so that wasn't very productive.

Today we had another professional development speaker, who was interesting, but it was a very long day. I did get all my posters up during lunch though, so that was good. I brought tons of work home to organize because next week I have meetings and professional development all day Monday and Tuesday. We have open house on Wednesday too, so hopefully I'll meet some of my students.

Last night I started my classes at William and Mary. I had two classes – Human Resource Administration and Assessment. I go from 4:30-9:45 with three 15-minute breaks. Needless to say, it’s a long night.

My first class has six students. Yup… six. I had more people in my Greek class at Hofstra! One of the students is an international student as well. Five of us are Masters students and the other is a Ph.D. student. The professor is very nice and has a very soothing voice. We have several projects. But, we’re not meeting at all in November – the professor is going to China. That’s a good reason not to hold class.

My second class is about Assessment. Being a special education teacher I have TONS of training in assessment – including several classes with my first Masters. The professor was quite interested in the fact that I had taken previous assessment courses and that I was the only one in the class who had (I am also the only special education teacher). The class is very rigorous, but it does seem like I will learn a lot that I can really apply.  There are also only nine students in this class. Clearly, William and Mary are not over packing all their classes.

It’s only about 45 minutes to get there from school, but it takes about an hour and a half to get home at night. Leaving at 9:45PM, Thursday will be a very late night. Fridays are going to be very long days. But, I will be spending this weekend doing homework and organizing for the upcoming week.  I clearly know how to have a good time.