It’s been four days of teacher in-service, and I’m already exhausted.  My body hasn’t adjusted just yet to the schedule I used to keep last year.  The schedule of waking up early, running out the door with a half empty stomach, standing on my feet all day running around from here to there, coming home only to find more work waiting for me, and finally crashing into my bed at a time that is not nearly early enough for me to be refreshed the next morning.

I was thinking back to my first few days working in Michigan, and how stressed out I was.  The first time I went into my classroom it was a dumping grounds for other teachers’ misplaced and unwanted things.  I was moving boxes from here to there and trying to get all my things in order.  Meanwhile the air conditioning was having mood swings and turning on and off as it pleased.  I was a mess at the end of each day, and found myself not only physically and mentally exhausted, but emotionally defeated.

In hind sight, however, I realize I had one thing going for me that made all of that commotion a little bit easier:  I had my own classroom!

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