For Real

Thursday is the first day of school. For real. I have changed my plans since last year, when I started with the required safety unit and test. All students have to pass it before they are allowed to perform lab activities. They don't remember anything from the first week of school, unfortunately. And class rosters change daily until equilibrium is reached around 7 school days into the year. So much for checking out books. I do that in number order. Then, when some Good Samaritan hauls me a heavy book that has been found abandoned, I can tell by the number which class it belongs to. That's better than going through a hundred randomly assigned book numbers. Especially when that book might not even belong to my freshman physics student, but to a sophomore chemistry student. We use the same text, different sections. That's because you get a better deal when you buy mass quantities. My books start at #100 and go up. It's a great feeling to look at one of those 15-pound behemoths and declare, "Nope. Not my book. Try down the hall." The kids never write their names in them as instructed. I suppose so they can abandon their books, or swipe one from a nearby locker when theirs is missing.

We're going to have four emergency evacuation drills in the first three days. That kind of puts the kibosh on the safety quiz. I found that out last year. Arch Nemesis is all set to hand out her books and dive right into some End of Course objectives. I'm saving that for a week or two. It's best to build up gradually, after the chaos subsides. Different strokes for different folks. My nerves can't take the interruptions. I plan to start with a Science World magazine, do assignments from the SW materials, and then do the safety unit. After that, I'll check out books. We should have five grades in the computer before my books go out. AND we'll know how to exit the building safely in an emergency.

Once we get into the middle of September, it will be smooth sailing. We'll be on the long downhill slide to the end of the school year.