Ups and Downs of this Job . . .

Not even 9:15 on a Monday morning and I feel as though I've been through the wringer.

One LA teacher emailed in a panic for books I didn't even know we owned. (She needed them right away this morning, naturally.) I searched in all the logical places, then asked the teacher who had apparently taught the novel last year. She bought them out of pocket and thought she had probably brought them home when she moved rooms. She is willing to run home and check during fifth hour. I emailed the other two middle schools and asked if they had copies. One does, but needs to check with her LA teachers to see if they are available to loan to us.

Meanwhile, another teacher (who is as sweet as the day is long) was nearly in tears because the VHS videotape she was going to show the kids today had a tangle in it. I had tried to buy these (David Attenborough's Nature or Life or some science-y thing) in DVD a few years ago, but they weren't available. "Digitizing worthwhile VHS content" is on one of my to-do lists, but it hasn't happened yet. She didn't have a first hour class, so I had a window of 45 minutes to try to solve that problem. Having watched my son Alex work his magic on these, I got a screwdriver, a helpful eighth grader, a couple good pages online, and we fixed the videotape. I got it to her in working order at the start of second hour.

We had a new student start at our school this morning! Surprise! He is from another state and I did the log-on spiel, password info, welcome to our school thing. Poor kid. This place is like a madhouse.

And the History Day projects are being brought upstairs for judging. Whew. I need to dive back in!