Making Room

After hanging out at home for the last two weeks, I finally made it to school again! I worked in my high school office and with the help of a friend yesterday and made a lot of progress! I got the desk moved over to make room for another (2nd desk) to be placed behind it. I cleaned, a lot, and feel really good about that, now. I got nearly everything loaded in to the office, out of boxes and off the floor. Most things are put away, though I know that will change again. Today I spent a lot of time shredding. There was testing information all the way back to the early 90s! We only have to keep five years! Why oh why do counselors not get rid of old information? I had to do this at my previous school, too. Only there it was testing and student records both, dating back to the 80s! The head maintenance person was in and out several times today and offered to give me the grand tour of the entire campus, so I took time to do that. I'm glad I did because I learned some things about the upcoming year that I wouldn't have known ordinarily and had a great time getting to know a coworker! In the high school I won't have a bulletin board in the hallway that is just mine. There is one that I will share with newspaper clippings and other notifications. However, there is a television mounted in the hallway where every student enters and exits each day. It's right by the main office. I will be able to put informational power points on it for all to see. This will be great during testing season to put out reminders for students. Since it's a high school building I thought I'd use it to introduce myself. Nearly all the teachers are new this year, I might be able to have some join me and put slides in to introduce themselves as well. In the elementary I have two ways to introduce myself in the classrooms (a poster for older grades, Mrs. Potato Head for younger grades). I also thought the power points on the television would be great to promote silly holidays (sponge day, national bubble wrap day) and things like Red Ribbon Week, etc. I've been book shopping again. The Big Test came in for my elementary office. It is such a cute book! I also received The Organizational Skills Bootcamp and The Bully Free Classroom. I'm getting thoroughly excited about the upcoming year and I hope you are, too. Tomorrow I'll being going back to do a few more things in my high school office: cover the bulletin board with fabric, hang some things on the wall and shred, shred, shred!