Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A wand no longer needed for the Knight bus.

I am absolutely convinced, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that J.K. Rowling took a trip on one of the busses going from Estril to Sintra Portugal before writing about the Knight bus in her Harry Potter series. These busses careen around narrow corners, hurtle through tiny streets lined with parked cars, and somehow manage to miss just about everything on the road. It's really miraculous, or magical if you want to take Rowling's side.

Other than that realization which occured yesterday things are going well. I'm pretty happy with the way my classroom looks now. I've got plenty of things up on the walls to show parents who come tomorrow yet there is lots of space for student work. I've been meeting a lot of the new teachers and they all seem wonderfully helpful, which is really nice.

Saturday we're having people over to my apartment for food, drinks, and hanging out. It should be fun. I want lots of people to come but don't know how many my place can hold so it could be an interesting social experiment. If it isn't too windy (which I'm not betting on at all) then we could take the chairs and tables up to the rooftop terrace where there is plenty of room. However if things continue as they are if we tried such a manuever everything would blow off the top including the people, so we'll see.

I'm feeling much more prepared than normal at the beginning of the year. I think that I've spent a lot of time reflecting on past years and trying to figure out what worked and what didn't. It could just be blissfull ignorance and next week is going to hit me like a ton of bricks. Or I could be realizing that stressing out and running around doesn't really help matters, that ten minute breaks to update a blog actually helps to refocus the mind, and that things can only be so ready for Monday morning. After that it's all about flexibility and rolling with the punches. So we will see.

Random thoughts...
(There is no space in my mind right now for random thoughts, I'm pretty focussed on school right now...)

1 comment:

Jessica said...

Gracious.....I SO know what you mean about traffic in general in Europe. Drivers there......well, they're a rare breed.

If I don't write before then, good luck on Monday! You'll be great.

And, um, good luck with your social experiment. I'd hate to read of your new friends doing a Mary Poppins off your roof.