Details, Details, Details....

When I was completing my Teacher Work Sample I asked my husband to review it. After he did he said, "I'm glad I'm not a teacher - too many details!" At the time I laughed and said, "It's nothing," because to me and my instruction it wasn't too bad.

Now that I'm teaching the complications are building up. It's things like... How do I put my desks so all students can see? Where can I put /my/ desk? What do I do with extra furniture (chairs, shelving, etc)? What is the best use of my space? How many surge protectors do I need? How do I extend the cord from my phone to the wall hook?

All the details (outside of instruction)
Whiteboard Placement
Lack of Image Projectors
Dirty Floors
Ants
An inoperative PW on the printer/copier
An inoperative printer
Too small of room
Girls Bathroom leading into my room (NOISE!)
Boxes of reference/textbook material to catalogue and organize.
Organizing wall space
Meetings before and after school
coming home too late to unwind...
Leaving school at the door

New teachers - beware of the small details. College will have prepared you to teach and instruct, but all of these other things are important also. You'll have to do what I'm doing right now. Stepping back, letting some things slide while making everything else take precedence. What always comes first? a) Student instruction. That's the most important. If the details are taking precedence over that - there is a problem.

To round out this very exhaustive post I want to post a tip I received from a mentor when having a rough time.

It's called a "Finger Friend." Sometimes it's nice to see a smiling face. A finger friend looks like this:

It's literally a small smiley face you draw on your index finger. No one but you knows it's there. And you'll be richer for it - especially on a really terrible day.