Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

I went to my classroom today to get things ready for school next week. Imagine my surprise when I found NOTHING missing. Instead, I found that I had acquired things over the summer. That's right. I had all my stuff, plus some EXTRA. Can't beat that with a stick!

There was a perfectly good SmartBoard accompanied by a cushy rolling chair lolling about in Mrs. Hillbilly Mom's classroom! You might think this is a stroke of luck, a sign of good fortune, worthy of celebration. If that's what you thunk, you are not a teacher...for we educators know that this could mean trouble, right here in River City. Oops! That's a line from some musical. What I meant to say was that a teacher does not want to be caught with extra stuff. It looks as if you've raided the lair of a colleague.

Thinking it best to dispose of the contraband before everybody shows up for work on Monday, I sent the #1 son with the SmartBoard to the science lab. That's the last area I observed the SmartBoard in May. The rolling puffy chair is still in my room. Tomorrow, I will conduct a tour of classrooms at my end of the building, and see if I can stash it somewhere. If everybody has at least one rolly chair, I will park it in TheParkingSpaceStealer's room. She won't take any guff if somebody accuses HER of pilfering. No harm, no foul. That's what I always say. Unless I am the one being harmlessly fouled. Then I cry like a spoiled schoolgirl.

My computers were up and running. All I had to do was rearrange the furniture back to its previous configuration. The #1 son borrowed a dolly (hand truck, to those of you who are not from these parts) from a custodian, and we carted that cabinet of files back to its habitat alongside the wooden cabinets. So the boy couldn't steer very well and gouged a hunk out of the cabinet. Nobody will know. Because the file cabinet resides next to the wooden cabinet. Harm, but still no foul.

I spent over an hour taking apart my keyboard that apparently has never been cleaned. I dug enough dust bunnies out of that thingy to knit an LSUV cozy for my precious T-HOE. The hardest part was laying the key pieces from the keyboard in order so I could put them back in the right place. Oh, how she sparkles, oh, how she shines. One down and one to go. If it was just a keyboard for the students, I wouldn't bother. But these are MINE, by cracky, and I was tired of the filth. Which I suppose means the original filth came from ME, but only on one of them, since the latest one, (that I cleaned today), was taken from the computer lab last year and put in my room. I rarely let the students on my computers. There is no need. It's hard to share two computers among a classroom of students.

All in all, it was a productive morning. Tomorrow, I'm going to bring back that SmartBoard and fiddle about.