As I shared a few months ago, I moved from the Edmonds School District (my home for the last 18 years) to the Snohomish School District. I was hired to teach a second grade classroom for the 2014-15 school year in a small school in Snohomish.  I spent many years in a second grade classroom in Edmonds, so I felt totally comfortable with the idea, but my passion is teaching kindergarten.  I hoped that, eventually, a kindergarten spot would open up and I’d be able to move back to teaching the little guys. 

The first day back, for teachers, was Wednesday.  There were meetings, time to work in our rooms, and time to do a little planning with grade level partners.  I didn’t have too much to do in my room (organizing, moving furniture, or creating bulletin boards) because I had spent many, many, many hours over the past few weeks in my classroom.

If you are my friend on Facebook, you saw this picture that my friend Ceres posted about my gigantic mess.  You see, teachers hoard have a lot of stuff – 12 bookshelves and hundreds of boxes to be exact.

That pile wasn’t even ALL of my teacher stuff. I’d already moved a ton of things to my three car garage, where it would wait patiently all summer long.  

Back to Wednesday…

We finished our meetings and I was just packing up for the day when our principal let me know that she was 99% sure that I would be able to make a move to kindergarten.  The previous teacher had moved to a new school.  We needed to hire a new 1st grade teacher to reduce class sizes.  The current first grade teacher (who formerly taught kindergarten) was ok staying in first grade, and this all meant that I could have my dream job!  My principal checked, again, with human resources, and by 6:30 on Wednesday night it was a done deal.

Here’s the catch:

The kindergarten class had to be on the other side of the building.  Hours and hours of work setting up a second grade classroom, and I was going to need to magically transfer my things to a new room and set it up with the needs of kindergarten students in mind.  

Thursday consisted of meetings in the morning, a full half day of cleaning out the room I was planning to move into, Meet the Teacher at 4pm, and then moving an entire classroom after that.  I called in The Help (my family and my friend who totally gets “family status” now).  It took 6 kids and 6 (very strong and helpful) kids – between 4 and 5 hours to complete the move, but my kindergarten class is reading for learning! I can’t even believe it!  I would have taken a picture of the new room, but I was too exhausted to even lift my phone.  My kids rolled into bed close to 11pm and they are really hoping that Mom never moves again. Moving and setting up a classroom is like moving and setting up a small home.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate all of the help.  I could NEVER have done it alone!

Happy Back To School Time!!!