I'm really sad today. It has suddenly hit me how lonely and useless I am going to feel in about three days. School starts then and my boys will be starting the new year with fresh, clean notebooks and finely sharpened pencils. Normally, I would be doing the same. But since I was let go from my teaching position, that won't be the case this 2010/2011 school year.
I should be frantically printing colorful nametags to affix to the 27 desktops in room 208 and labeling clear plastic shoeboxes with numbers so each student has his own extra supply container. I should have entered and saved 27 new names into my grading software, leaving extra room for any newcomers who might move into our area. The art bins should have been filled with fresh, new crayons and tightly capped gluesticks; all the scissors clearly labeled "Room 208" with masking tape stickers. "Everyday Mathematics" Reference textbooks, lined up, should stand at attention along the wall below the math and science supply cabinets. Plastic trays named "Writing," "Vocabulary," and "Math," should tower on the edge of a file cabinet called ISAT Materials. Welcome to Sixth Grade! should burst from the wall outside the room which would house my eager, earnest instruction. Positive messages should line the inside of that sanctuary, with words like, "Be the Change You Want to See in the World," and "Learning is a Treasure That Will Follow its Owner Everywhere."
On Wednesday, when another body is standing at the door of room 208, smiling and greeting all those new nervous students, I will be pondering what I can do to pick myself back up, plant myself in front of a different door to a different classroom and enrich the lives of twenty-something different children.
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