Well, it started today. I got to work and saw the mess that was my office. There were several reasons for this. Over the summer, my office was spackled and painted. To do that, all my furniture was moved out or around. I was also getting a new office mate and so my huge bookshelf which was able to accommodate my books was removed and not replaced, so all my books were displaced. Finally, my desk was covered in boxes full of counseling and testing materials: Wechsler protocols, Conners protocols, the new SB5 and SB5 protocols, the social skills training program, and the SMALSI. The good news was that the psychologists got all the things we requested. The bad news what that it was occupying every useful space on my desk. Put I could live with that.
So after a little small talk with one of my coworkers, I went to work on moving the testing equipment to where we keep it. So I head to the common office area in the basement and discover that my office wasn't the only place to have work done. The basement offices got new carpet. And they needed it after the flooding from last March. So everything got moved around down there too...and all the pre-existing organization of our testing supplies was shot to hell. Sigh.
So all the new stuff got put into a pile for the moment until I can go through it and organize everything. I think I'll be starting that task tomorrow. Why me? Because I took it upon myself to do it when I came into the district.
So now it is almost time for the opening "ceremonies." A number of my coworkers are heading over to the auditorium and I meet up with one of them and head over myself. We go to the traditional area where the child study team sits during this yearly ritual and it begins. All over New Jersey, if not the United States, teachers have gone, were going, or will go through the same thing. What physical plant type stuff was done during the summer, what stuff is outstanding, who was hired, what sort of educational initiatives and goals are being targeted during the year. That sort of thing.
Then there was the obligatory address from the union presidents, especially since this is a contract negotiation year. The one thing that the union leaders didn't address, which I found interesting, was the 1.5% healthcare give back that we voted for last school year before the budget, the details of which were still being worked out when we went on summer vacation. I was for the give back because most other work place pay into their healthcare coverage and this is something that is going to happen eventually anyway and if it helped save jobs and programs last year, it is all the better.
So after this, I went back to my office and met with a paraprofessional aide to go over their duties. Then I dug around the mess that was my desk, traded witty comments (or poor attempts at) with my office mate, and went out for lunch.
After I got back from lunch, I tried to organize some of my books and actually threw two of them away because of the dated material. They were WISC-III, WAIS-III, and WPPSI-R stuff. I'm a bit of a bibliophile and throwing books out is tantamount to heresy for me but I needed the space. I have older books in my office that I keep for historical reasons, like a really early copy of the DSM back when homosexuality was considered a disorder. It is good to have a reminder of where your field has come from just to keep things in perspective and it makes a mediocre conversation piece.
While I'm organizing my books, I'm called into my supervisor's office. It is there that I'm informed that I will be moving my office sometime in the next 3 to 4 months to another building altogether. I also find out that my new office mate will be moving with me. The reason is that some temporary office space (read trailers) that have been more permanent than originally expected will be demolished. So those folks need to be moved into the building. Several of them will need to be in the building due to certain program needs. So since I'm not one of those people, I'm being moved. My office mate is excited by the prospect, saying that we are moving up in the world, joking that we are moving from an apartment to a house. I'm going to miss being around my other office mates and this looks like it is going to be a long term thing. This makes me feel that we are going to be cut off from the culture of the rest of the department. But I'll survive.
After this, I continue to go through several drawers in my office and clear out stuff that I haven't touched in two years. I help another coworker set up their computer which was dismantled when her old desk was replaced with a new desk. I meet with a coworker who has inherited my students from last year and go over the kids, pointing out which ones will need translators for their parents, and who may be more work intensive. I suddenly look up and see that it is time to go home.
Tomorrow will involve our department meeting. I hope to get in early enough that I can begin the organization of the testing supplies. There may be more computer assembly needed in the basement.
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