Monday, Not Funday

Its 18:25 and I am finally home. I got up at 7, was at work before 8, and never had a moment to breathe. 


What makes Monday such a terrible day? It is really just a day like any other, right?


Wrong.


My Mondays slam me like a semi truck on an icy road. I can see them coming but I am helpless to do anything. All Sunday I work furiously to get enough work done to be ready for my Monday, but no matter how much I do, something always goes wrong. I must have been quite worried about this Monday because my jaw hurt this morning. Clenching my jaw all night on my sleep to Monday is not a good sign.


Monday is by far my longest day - I have back-to-back classes (with a lunch break) from 8:10-4:40. That means I must be 100% ready for each and every class. I make all my preparations, leave them carefully in my classrooms and folders, and hope for the best. 


So what happened today, you might ask? Everything was going smoothly (well as smoothly as being a zookeeper in a monkey cage) and my third graders were far too wound up to be studying science. They had their science test first, then we moved on to English lessons. I gave them the photocopies I had made weeks and weeks ago.... and after taking the pretest I realized I had been testing them on 4th grade words! So we recycled all those papers, and I didn't have time to make more, so we scratched next week's test. Isn't the day off to a great start?


Then it was lunch time. I tried to make new copies of the 3rd grade spelling words to give on Wednesday. We have a new printer system at Champittet that makes it as difficult as possible to make copies. You send your file to the printer system, go to a printer of your choice, and then wait in the massive line behind all the other teachers waiting to put in their code and print out their documents (it used to just print automatically!) So I got on the one free computer in the school and sent the document to the printer. I found the line for the printer in the primary building 5 teachers long, so I ran across to the "big building" to print. I chose the quick printer, put in my code, clicked "secure print" and chose my document. When you print a job, it automatically deletes it. So it deleted my job, but didn't print anything. I ran back to the primary building to find all the computers taken. I went back to the big building to look for a free computer. In the third room I found one computer, logged in, and tried to print the document. Unfortunately, THIS computer was not set up to print to the new Secure Print system. Frustrated after 25 minutes of trying to print ONE piece of paper I gave up. I'll just do it tomorrow.


At this point it was 12:45 and I thought... it's time for some wine! But no, that's not right, I still have 4 more classes to teach. I clawed my way through the rest of my classes, including my 3rd grade history class that is currently using the computer lab to look up information about dinosaurs. Although this sounds fun, I must log in each student using my own username and password (eu\elizabeth.szczypka with an equally long password 17 times) because the kids don't have one. Then find the right information site for each one, then answer their questions, teach them how to copy and paste pictures, explain, reexplain, and deal with constant interruption. Wow, what fun! Once class is over, and the kids have gone home, I got to spend another 20 minutes trying to save each document to a place where it wouldn't get deleted (like it was last time). Are we having fun yet? Can you see why I hate Mondays?


I hate to be a moaner. I think your perspective and attitude in life can really change how you feel about it. But no matter how positive I try to start a Monday, they always end up, well, like this. Frustrating, exhausting, and I get home needing wine. How can I change that? Can a positive attitude really make me like these terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days? 


Luckily, next Monday I will be in ski chalet in Tignes, France, not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It will be the first Monday in a long time that I will enjoy.