"Who willingly goes into work a week earlier than you have to?" a friend recently said to me. Over-achievers, type-A personalities, control freaks? While I do think I could easily fit into all of those categories, getting a jumpstart on the year is really my way of doing more now so that I can do less next week.
Those of you who are teachers know the woes of pre-planning week. You have visions of cleaning out those cabinets, changing out bulletin boards, and implementing that latest greatest Pinterest idea that will impress parents at Open House. But it seems administration generally has forgotten this is what teachers dream of accomplishing during pre-planning. Instead, our time is generally spent in more meetings than one could possibly imagine and facing down the sudden reality that kids will be walking through that door in less than a week.
My school is particularly unique in that in addition to an abundance of meetings, we also complete reading assessments on each of our students - individualized, hour-long testing appointments that, while incredibly beneficial when creating reading groups, do take away time from the "want-tos" that sit on our to-do lists. The "have-tos" will get down even if that means late nights or weekends at school, but it's those others, the "want-tos" that re-energize me and change my attitude entirely about the year to come.
So, yes...I willingly am going into work a week earlier than I have to. And the benefits? I'm getting a jumpstart on my "have-tos", spending time dreaming about and working on my "want-tos", and in general, relishing in the peaceful yet energizing calm before next week's storm.
