Back to School (except I forgot that Karlee had to go too!)

I went back to work today - the first time since May 23rd! I was actually looking forward to it in some ways. I will enjoy the interaction with adults, actually with anyone other than my family who is over 4 years old. I am working part-time (half-day from 8-12) as a science teacher at a local high school. I have taught at the school since 2001 so it is a job I am familiar with. I am nervous about a couple things - we have a new principal and I have been out of the classroom for five months. Things went really well considering I had to set-up my new room (it got switched over the break), meet with my collaborative teacher, get my books from the book room, make copies, figure out all the new "housekeeping" policies and procedures, find one more desk (I know - it doesn't seem like a big deal but you would be surprised), organize my desk, clean the gum off the desks, figure out how to accommodate a wheelchair and parapro, make seating charts, hunt down my cubes for an activity I am doing tomorrow, and of course visit with co-workers I haven't seen since May who all want to know "how things are going" and when I am going to blog again (this is for you Becky & Marlana). But believe it or not, I accomplished all of that in exactly four hours and picked up Karlee from school on time. Oh yeah - that is the funny part - see I forgot Karlee had school today. Actually, I guess I didn't "forget", I just got mixed up. I assumed that her school schedule was the same as mine and this would be a teacher planning day. But when I was leaving for work and passed several school buses, I started to wonder if she had school too. I called Ken and he finally found a copy of the school calendar and sure enough, her first day was today. So, Ken had to get her up and explain to her that she was not going to get to play with Mama Sandy and Shanna but instead would go to school - she took the news well and seemed fine - she normally doesn't do well with sudden changes in the schedule at the last minute - she likes to know ahead of time. Needless to say, everybody got to school on time and all was well. Tomorrow will be my real first day - that is when I will have students so we will see how it goes!!