Today is the last day before the last weekend before the autumn term starts. This means I have several rituals to perform and lots of crap to clean.

The first ritual is to go to the school where I work and start counting days off until the end of the term. This ritual is important because the most important part of any job is figuring out when you have days off. At the beginning of the school year I go through the annual schedule, totally unofficially of course, and figure out when exams and school trips are and try to work out how many classes I have with each section. After that, at the beginning of each term, I double check, usually with the hope that I missed a day off.

Unfortunately, this term that backfired. I found a cancelled class that makes my life more difficult because it means sections in the same grade meet 23, 22 and 17 times. That right, the others get around a third more class time or about three weeks’ worth of additional classes. Since I’m in charge of this grade, I’m the one responsible for planning for the short class whilst trying to figure out how to entertain the long classes. This leads me to seriously considering keeping a couple bottles of bourbon in the bottom drawer of my desk.

(Note: For about five years, in the old building, one teacher had an unopened bottle of wine sitting above his desk in plain sight of the room and students visiting the office; therefore having bourbon around might not be so odd. I’m not saying it’s a good idea, yet, just that it’s not that odd.)  

The second ritual is writing the days on folded sheets of A3 paper. These “folders” go inside clear files and as I carry the “folders” to each class, they serve as my official notes and log for each class. I record the term and, in case of trouble, the homeroom teachers’ names. Although I also have an electronic schedule, there’s nothing as satisfying as seeing the days on the front page get crossed out, especially once we cross the halfway point. (It’s also a great chance to test pens on regular copy paper.)

There’s also satisfaction in tearing them apart at the end of the term and saving the blank half as scratch paper and shredding the front half.

The third ritual happens both at the office and at home: the cleaning of last term’s refuse. As a teacher, paper tends to accumulate both slowly and all at once. I have my notes and rough drafts and leftover handouts that never got used and mistakes that should never have been printed. Those get sorted and tossed in the recycle box. At home I’ve got more of that and all the stuff not related to school that got acquired over the summer.

For about two weeks the desks both at home and at the office are clean and well organized. Then they start getting messy again and stay that way until the next ritual.