New School Year, New School Stuff

Just like last year, I am now doing my grocery shopping and eyeing the kids around me, wondering if they'll be my future students. I am poring over the pages of the teacher back-to-school catalogs that are being delivered with alarming (at least to my wallet) regularity.

But I placed two orders from two different catalogs, and I am so excited! I can't wait for the stuff to be delivered.

One of my new items:

This will be used when we're working on writing, and we'll eliminate an over-used word, and give other options we could use instead. (First to go will be fun, I think. Or cool).

Another fun thing I got is:

My school has a REALLY bad problem with dirty bathrooms, and I'm just not sure why. The janitors refuse to fill the soap dispensers, because the kids sometimes hold the soap open and allow it to pour onto the floor. I don't blame them for being annoyed, but we did not have any soap, in any bathroom, after Christmas.

This is unacceptable, and parents complained, and I'm not sure why the administration allowed it to continue. They talked about changing the soap in the boy's bathroom (since it never happened in the girl's bathroom, I'm not sure why they couldn't give them soap, plus how is it fair that only the boys would get cool, new, fancy soap when they're pigs?) to foam so they couldn't do that, but nothing was done.

But anyway, these 'passes' were on sale, and the kids take it with them to the bathroom, and then they'll have soap to wash their hands. I will make sure to never touch them, because I'm sure they don't all wash correctly, but it'll be good for the kids, I think.

And they were on sale for $.99! I got one for each of my team members. Hooray for soap!

Now, you know it's time to start back to school when teachers are celebrating soap.

I am still enjoying my time away from the kids, but I am getting a little antsy to meet my new students. I keep logging on to my attendance screen to see if I have any students in my classes yet.

(None yet, but I'll keep checking. And I do have classes scheduled! They're just empty still.)