Listen closely...

...and you can hear the excited murmurs of parents who have juggled bored kids all summer. Here at the Beach, school doesn't start for another three weeks for students, two weeks for staff. That means I'm starting to move from summer mode back into school mode. The child in me is screaming, "No, no, not yet!" while the adult is recognizing that the time to be lazy is over and I need to get back to earning my keep.

With that in mind, I stopped by the school this afternoon to check on my classroom, which had been used for summer school and so was just now cleaned. They informed me that the room was cleaned and ready for me to start preparing for a new school year. "Yea!" thought the adult. "Boo!" thought the child. I'm in a different room this year, so all my stuff is packed in boxes and hidden away in the closets. I stood in the middle of the room and looked around at the desks stacked against one wall and the chairs stacked against another. I thought of all the boxes in the closets. I considered going to the office to pick up the closet key. I thought about how the unpacking would be hot, sweaty, and dirty.

It'll wait until Wednesday.

I'm actually looking forward to my third year (ask me again around Christmas). Still, I've overcome the challenges that the first year brings, I'm comfortable with my style, and having a child cry after I reprimand him/her for poor behavior does not upset me anymore. One of the great things about kids.... they get over it. They may cry when you take away their free time or threaten to call their parents...but an hour later, they want to tell you a story about how their cat ran away and they found him in the neighbor's basement and he was eating a mouse and it was gross and...and....and....

Yeah. Most don't hold grudges.

Last night, I watched The Ron Clark Story on TNT. In the education world, this man is something of a hero. You know the guy. He's the author of The Essential 55, which spent a considerable amount of time on the Times' bestseller list several years ago. This man began teaching in 1994. This fall, he's opening his own academy in south Atlanta. He is the type of educator we all aspire to be, but know that we may never achieve. And that's okay. But it's something to reach for.

I think I'm ready for another year.