Teachers Are Packrats
Or at least this teacher is!!!!
Last year I moved districts after 13 years of teaching in the same, wonderful little country school. I decided it was time to move closer to my home (no more 45 minute one way commutes for me) and left feeling excited for my new adventure. That was until it was time for me to pack up all my 13 years of junk I had accumulated in my classroom. Who knew teachers were such pack rats? Obviously not me, since I happily kept everything from two different grade levels and thirteen years of teaching, and never gave it a second thought.
But pack it all up I did! My wonderful daughter and her extremely patient husband said, “Bring your stuff to our basement for the summer! It will be no problem!” So I did! I filled their 900 square foot basement with my junk!
I spent the summer cleaning it out and by August I was so proud of myself! Half of my junk had been gifted to others in need of books, games, and laminated fun things.
I started my new year, in my new school with lots of nerves and apprehension! But also with a strong sense of pride (change is not really my friend!), I had changed districts and gotten rid of half of my wonderful junk. So, the school year was moving along nicely and then the new school district (remember I took that 25 minutes off my commute each morning) announced we would be moving out of our building at the end of the year and into a temporary school for two years. The recent bond had passed and they were ready to replace our also 80 year old building and 12 portables we used to house our wonderful student body in.
But wait, that meant I had to pack again and store my stuff again! Yikes! And my wonderful daughter and son-in-law had purchased a new house which did not include a basement! So, I packed my many teacher treasures once again (mind you I started a month ago and finished yesterday on the last day of school). I gave away everything I hadn’t used in in a year (boy, was that hard!) thanks to my teaching partner Kendall! She was wonderful at keeping us all in the mind set of “if we didn’t use it this year, we don’t need it!” So, we threw away, gave away and packed up pallets galore. And in the end, I only had one car load of treasures to take to my house this time. All of it junk I couldn’t figure out how to pack in the district approved size boxes! So, now we will be housed in the districts temporary school (they move schools in and out of it as they remodel or rebuild the aging schools in our area) for two years. It is old, at least 90 years, and has no air-conditioning with high ceilings, old wood floors and huge heavy doors! It will be an adventure or at least that’s what our principal keeps trying to tell us. And my number one goal is? Not to keep anything I really, really don’t need! I have to move again in two years!
