Miss Music has a Dream

Last night I had a dream that it was the beginning of next school year. I am in opening school meetings, but the weird thing is that the meetings are in our building which is not our building. It is not a building that I have been in before, but it is extremely reminiscent of the building in which I went to middle and high school.

Anyway... I am done with some meetings and I am on my way to my classroom for the first time in the new year. I reach my classroom, and it doesn't have my name on it. Nope my name is on the door of a classroom that is a few doors down from my classroom. All of my stuff is missing. I have normal desks in my room instead of carpet and chairs. There are student computers upside down on the floor. My desk is about a foot and a half shorter than my old desk was, and there is an Indian style cushion for me to sit cross legged on. Oh yes, and my desk is in the middle of the room, rather than in the corner where I prefer it. There is a green black board on a stand that is teetering crookedly on its last good leg, and at the front of the room there is either an antique overhead projector, or a reel to reel projector running something black and white and fuzzy on the cracked screen at the front of the classroom.

I check my name on the door, and underneath it says First Grade. I bolt down the hallway and catch Tina coming out of our meeting. I ask her, "What am I teaching this year?" "First grade." she says calmly in her authoritative tone. "First Grade? Am I certified to teach first grade?" "No, but we thought that you would do a good job, and one of our other teachers backed out at the last minute." She responds matter-of-fact-ly. "Who is teaching music?" I ask keeping my cool (because if she asks me to do both at the same time, I am going to walk out of that building forever) "Oh, we got a long term sub to do that." She replies adding, "The kids will be here in an hour, so go look at your lesson plans. You will be fine."

I walked down to my room and the student computers, which were upside on the floor are now upside down on a low desk with itty bitty chairs in front of them. I start to go about straightening my room, but then I can't decide whether to do that or work on lesson plans... After a short debate I go about finding my curriculum. My first few students are coming into the room. I know some of them from the previous year. They immediately sit down on the floor and begin tracing the alphabet in the thick layer of dust that covers my entire classroom.

This is a health hazard. I walk back down the hall and ask Tina, "Did the maintenance men get to my room over the summer?" "Well of course they did." She replies looking at me as if I am loosing my mind." "They couldn't have, because there is so much grime and dust in my room that my students are writing the alphabet on the floor, the student computers are upside down, someone has sawed the desk legs off of my desk, my white board is missing and the replacement green chalk board is almost ready to fall over, and I can't find my science curriculum." She looks at me steadily and says, "I will have Jeremy come down and look at it."

"Ok," I say and turn and go back to my room, where there are students and parents waiting to meet me. The children rush to hug me, and their parents shake my hand. No one seems to notice the fact that my classroom is falling apart. There is even a student typing something on one of the upside down computers.

I can't remember much after that part of the dream. I guess that I must have waken up for a little while after it, because I remember it all so well. I do know that I did wake up this morning teaching a first grade class the song, "Going Over The See."

Maybe I need to see a therapist, or at least never eat a peanutbuster parfait before bed ever again.