Red Alert! Teacher on Overload!

Oh, Spot! You have no idea what awaits you when you return to the classroom on Wednesday! I have one hundred eighty days to teach you all sorts of things, but you know what ranks highest on the priority list?

You guessed it: Swine Flu! (Didn't we just end the school year talking about this?)

The teachers had their "big talk"/convocation today, and you know...the big story was how to wash those paws of yours! For example, when you lick those paws, do you slide your tongue in between your toes? Do you rub them side to side for a full five minutes? Do you dry them properly on the pre-approved towels? Well, I hope you do...because those swine/H1N1 2009 Fall Flu germs can last from anywhere between two to eight hours! So...that was my inspiration for today. It's gonna get me lickin' and scratchin' and watchin' you for the first signs of any malady whatsoever.

Here are some of the other topics discussed on your behalf today: global awareness, twenty-first century skills, strategic learning, differentiated instruction, positive behavioral systems, teaching core values, how to handle birthdays, how not to handle birthdays, approved snacks, how we're already behind China, but India is right there too, changes in technology that we have to plan for but don't know anything about yet, and changes in how children are raised that we're planning for but don't know anything about yet too. If that wasn't enough, we were able to come back and learn about power schools, global curriculum changes that we probably won't have time to teach and scheduling so that all learners can and will learn well...pretty darn well, we hope! I'm a little confused, Spot, if you can't already tell. But I will have it all together come Wednesday. And you know what, Spot? I will not do to you what was done to me today...because even though everyone was very well-intended and polite, they fried my brain on the very first day! We're gonna move a little more slowly there pup, so don't you worry. SCHOOL IS FUN...and we're gonna have a great time this year!

In Your Face!

Okay, Spot...it's coming, there's no denying that. I am starting to get the nervous-nelly-nightmares, my mind is starting to imagine myself crammed into the classroom with all twenty-four of you.

And today? Well...while you were out jumping in the pool, chasing a toad, and skipping around the neighborhood (doubt that, it was 100 degrees in the shade!), I was in school setting up the classroom.

And guess what! Promise not to tell?

I was excited!! I felt like that little kid that used to play school in the barn across the street. I pulled out the pencils, plastered a few posters up and spruced up the display case outside our room! Am I crazy? Well, of course.

I'm good to go until the masses make their way down the hall and the rumbling feet start to sound on the stairways. It's THEN that I really get the nervous-nellies...cuz then? Then I have to do something with all of you to prevent mass anarchy!!

So, get out there and buy all those shiny new school supplies! And hurry-up and finish your summer book (You ARE reading, right?). And I'll see you front and center in just 13 more days. (AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!) I'll have had a nightmare or two at LEAST before then, I'm sure!