Wanted: A Classroom to Call My Own

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!

This year I’m at “the bottom of the totem pole” and therefore do not have my own classroom.  And while it’s nice to not have to spend hundreds of dollars decorating and organizing a room, it’s very strange to not have a place to call my own.  I feel like a drifter, roaming the hall ways, with bags and bags of things, unsure of where I can put my things down and get to work.  Sometimes I’m in one room putting up a bulletin board.  Other times in another room making a calendar.  And still other times I’m just running back and forth between my car and the nearest empty space.

There are a lot of nice teachers who keep telling me that they are more than willing to let me use their room, but I feel like such a mooch!  I just want a my own classroom.  Is it too much to ask for?  Really, is it?

Whatev, I guess until the end of the year, I’ll just have to be a rolling stone, and where I lay my hat’s my home.