Work undone

I have put at least 15 hours into getting my classroom ready so far. The first several hours were used by going through the boxes that were left by the last teacher. Most of the stuff was really great and I was so excited to be using it this school year. Some of the things were of no use to me and were in bad shape so they were thrown away. The boxes were taken apart and sent away as well. I took everything out of the closet and shelves and rearranged it by subject so it everything would be very easy to use. I did a really great job and took my time and things were starting to look very good.

I spent a large chunk of time today integrating my school supplies into the existing room. I have a large collection of children's books that students borrow in the classroom. My own personal classroom library. I put together a book shelve from these wire rack thingys and it looks really great. I even got to start the never ending job of cleaning my desk.

I had lunch with one of my new friends and we talked to some of the other teachers while we talked about being poor. (I had cheerios, string cheese and a bag of unpopped popcorn in my lunch box today. She beat me with a ham sandwich and a fruit cup.) The other teachers were telling very interesting stories about racism that they have experienced in the area. White against black, Latino against white and Cuban against white. It was very enlightening.

I returned to my classroom and an announcement. No tape is to be used on the walls. This was after I had spent several hours taping things to the walls and they had to be pulled down. Frustrating but I can deal.

I had a meeting with my team and the reading coach. It was great because she gave us lots of stuff for our classrooms. During the meeting a woman sticks her head in. It's the teacher that had been in my classroom last year. She is here to pick up her boxes.

Pick up her boxes.

What boxes?

You know that ones that I have gone through. The ones that I have carefully spent hours organizing in the closet. The very same ones that have had some thing thrown away and the boxes themselves are almost all gone.

Those boxes.

I had talked to the principals secretary before I did anything in the classroom. I asked permission to unload the boxes and set up the room. I didn't need to do even that but I thought that I should check. She told me that I could use anything in the room. I was paid the last two days to work in my room by the school district. There are no boxes left.

She spent the next couple hours repacking boxes with her things. She wasn't very happy with the situtation but we were very civil to each other. She told me that she was frustrated but not at me. Good because I did nothing wrong.

I wasn't angry that she was taking her stuff. Honestly, I'm not because it's really her stuff. I am very frustrated and somewhat angry because she wasted hours of my time. She knew that I would be working in the room and she didn't come and get her stuff or even call the school to let them know. She assumed that I would just work around the boxes that were all over the room. She has been at the beach.

I felt like she undid most of the work that I have accomplished in the last few days. I am not sure what is left besides my own things. I will have to take at least another hour going through everything and finding out what was left behind and what was taken that I wanted to use.

It's frustrating.