Chores at the school I'd better do

I can save myself a ton of time later on in the year if I go ahead and start copying my spelling lessons now, before the rest of the teachers start in on the copier. Year before last when I completed all the copying in January, it made for a much more relaxed spring. I still had tons of papers to copy for other assignments, but at least the spelling was done.

I didn't get a chance to do that for myself this year because I spent so much time copying papers for the "new" teachers on my hall. I was trying to be nice, but it cost me so much in terms of time. It seemed like I was never finished. I should have just left them with the materials notebook I copied for them. Oh well.... spilled milk and all that.

There are still some activity books that I need to turn into masters for the copier. I think that my idea last year to do that so that I could just stack a set into the document feeder and hit copy for the ISS kids was pretty useful. The only downside to it was that I only had two of the books set up. There never were many opportunities at the end of the year for me to work on that project, but I think I'll have a few uninterrupted hours to get going on that task, if I head over there to work on it this week.

Now, it's my perception that I have a lot of "stuff" for lack of a better word, stuffed into various boxes in my classroom. I do that when I'm rushed to pack up and leave at the end of the year, thinking "I'll get back to that later." I threw a lot of junk away this year, but not nearly enough.

I also discovered that my room has become a haven for brown recluse spiders - I know I killed about 10 of them that came out of various cardboard boxes I shifted around. Would you believe that my boss is incredulous about the spiders? He doesn't believe that we have a problem. Maybe I should bring him a little collection of their dead bodies. It took 3 complaints last year to have something done about the ant problem in my classroom. I don't think that was so much him, as it was a lousy pest-control person. They would come in, say they didn't see anything, and leave without spraying. Meanwhile, the ants were still traipsing in underneath my exterior door, along with all the water bugs.

I suspect that a custodian merely came in with a spray can of Raid to take care of the problem. Maybe that's what I need to do - spray the openings of the room myself when they give me that ineffectual song and dance.

Add to back-to-school shopping list:
1 can of Raid
1 bottle of 409 cleaner (since mine was stolen)
1 refill bottle of 409
1 broom, handle decorated gorgeously for ID
more scissors
1 tall director's chair (available at amazon for $20 if I don't wait too long)
colored copy paper for restroom passes and lots of other stuff

I was thinking that maybe I should unload all of those boxes on the floor and then I'd be able to condense the contents. Actually, it would probably feel a lot better to see how much of it I can just throw away and then think about organizing all that stuff.

I do wish that I could think of something more interesting-looking for the first day desk packets than my usual large piece of construction paper turned into a folder. There's no way I'm going to spend money on folders to just give them, and then expect them to bring folders to class. That's just goofy, and a waste of a lot of money. I've tried doing those as "reusable" folders, but they never return them. Kids don't believe in borrowing anything and returning it.... they believe that anything they want is theirs for the taking, without permission or apology. I just simplify things with the fold-overs and I don't care if they return them or not.