17/Mar/2020 – Dare to Care

I am exhausted, and my eyes are crossing. I thought I would have more time to do the Slice of Life this March because school was called off on February 25. I expected to have some quiet. Unbelievably, I thought maybe some boring times. Instead, I feel I am sitting every waking minute at the computer.

Today I was reminded to turn in a report about the project my students did this year. I needed to send the rubric, the unit plan description and photos. For the life of me, I couldn’t even remember what quarter we did it (there was just 1 and 2), what the project was or if I had taken any photos. The project is 100 points and we spend a good chunk of time with it. Finally, I had to look at my year plan to remember anything about it.

That is really, really unlike me. It is time to take rest!

I went to my classroom today for the second day with only one mission in mind. To organize, file, and clean up the piles that have accumulated since September. (Actually, I had one basket I found that was from last summer that never was completed.) I have been thinking about what would happen if the Coronavirus makes even the teachers have to leave school for a while. I didn’t take a before picture, but suffice it to say, my desk area–top, bottom and sides–was a fire trap.

When I was cleaning up papers and items from many months ago, it was so much easier to be ruthless. “I’ll never use this again.” “Finished with that!” “Why did I save this?” Not only did I file and put a lot of things away in my room, I also ended up with a large pile of scratch paper and three bags of garbage. But along with that, I also for a few treasures that I thought I lost.

Why do I do this? For 25 years I have taught, and I never seem to be able to keep my room in order. However, for today, it is ready to go.