last day of november?!

I spent like an hour cleaning up my room at the end of the day. Every afternoon I run around, dashing between my desk and another part of the classroom, telling myself what I'm doing, and then halfway through a task remembering to start another one. It's completely crazy and I've totally lost my mind.

This afternoon my room was a big ol' mess, because I wasn't in it all day. And though it was annoying, it felt kind of cozy tidying up. I was making order out of the disorder. Putting away stray books. Piling homework together. Stacking teacher guides on my desk. Recycling the loose papers floating around. Writing my morning message (I've been lazy about that just recently and doing them in the morning).

I was able to map out most of my general plans for the entire month of December today. That feels fantastic. There is certainly plenty more work to be done to execute those plans, but to have something set relieves me to no end.

I spent a lot of time at the copier tonight too. I've also been lazy about getting things together ahead of time. We have to put in our copies to be done for us (which I think it ridiculous, but no one cares what I think), which means we have to have our shit together in advance. Sometimes this is a lot to ask of me.

But I put in copies for the next two tests I'll be giving. And for the next two weeks of social studies packets that we'll need. I have to figure out my writing stuff, which in theory should be the easiest since I've done that for the last five years, but this year I kind of hate it. It's so vague and I have so many kids who don't do anything at all and writing is the kind of thing where if you don't want to work there's really nothing to do and it's also easy to make dumb excuses to not do it or not do it well.

I want to have my kids put together a holiday thing. They actually had an awesome idea for a Thanksgiving play combining A Christmas Carol and Charlie Brown. But alas it was all practically last minute and there ended up being no time to work it out or perform it. I've kind of glossed over holidays in the past. It's much easier and kind of expected in middle school. Here in elementary land, the holidays are embraced and can take over a classroom. I feel a little resistant, but really it should be fun and easy too. (Especially with an EdHelper subscription, which has tons of holiday activities and subject work.) Since it's only three weeks away, that means we need to start planning what to do this week. I'm sure my kids will come up with a great idea.

Last Wednesday ended with me allowing Goofball to give me a hug, but then literally having to pry him away from me. This morning I was putting something somewhere and arms flew around me from behind. It startled me! But of course it was Goofball, smiling blissfully. I rolled my eyes and said hello. Really, I must start teaching that boy some manners. :)