It's here.

Opening ceremonies ~ tomorrow! Of course some of us (wink, wink) have already prepared our cabins for the new crop of smiling (?) passengers. Those passengers lucky enough to be in my cabin will be greeted with a 4-foot tall copy of the US Constitution. Ms. Perky’s passengers have a well organized abode waiting for them. We bought each of our travelers a composition book to use as their interactive student notebook rather than a binder. Binders are not as sturdy and take up valuable class space.

FL sent out the ‘welcome’ letter and enclosed some sleep inducing reading material that we must be ready to “discuss in our learning communities.” There was no deadline given but we all decided to be prepared to discuss tomorrow. Not a good idea to start off on FL’s bad side on day one ~ makes for an extremely long year. As I wandered in an out of the work room to laminate posters, I noticed that an awful lot of trees died for opening day ceremonies. Folders full of more ‘sleep inducing’ material ~ we were given flash drives last year with the handbook and other policies stored there so as to eliminate wasted paper and time. What gives??

This year we have 8 new staff members to replace those who retired or were otherwise STRONGLY encouraged to move on. One of those individuals persuaded to move is my bestest pal, ‘Ginger.’ She will be teaching Science at another middle school in our district since FL deemed her unworthy. Ginger was my life saver when I first arrived on campus 8 years ago and we became steadfast friends. It will not be the same during in-service as we would always go to lunch @ Wendy’s and vent our spleens. Yes, I have other colleagues with whom I can break bread but they are not Ginger.

Time to say adíos ~ the captain will be looking for us at 0730 hours! Promptness is a virtue, after all.

ttfn,
~ba~