I left you on a Wednesday having soared through the air on the wings of being offered my dream job, as a first grade teacher in a classroom using a blended learning model.  Thursday, I was directed to attend a professional development session on the blended model.   Blended learning is a mixture of technology based-lessons which use adaptive technology to personalize instruction for every child, and classroom instruction which is largely offered in small groups.  The blended model is receiving national attention for its innovation and ability to help kids make huge gains in NWEA scores.  Mind spinning with ideas, I decided to take my hour lunch and head over to my new school to check out my classroom.  With only 13 days left until the start of school, I wanted to map out my attack plan for the next challenge.

I had heard lots of stories from elementary teachers about starting off without any resources.  Thinking back to my days of teaching high school, I remembered how I would put out a few hundred dollars each year to notebooks, carpets, and supplies for my students.  But surely, elementary school must be different…I thought.  Camp Literacy had been full of construction paper, glue, scissors, chart paper, kid sized furniture, bookcases, book-boxes, leveled readers.  I am going to need all of this…and more, my stomach twisted a little when I pulled in the driveway at school.  Our secretary greeted me with a warm smile and offered to take me to the room right away.  She opened the door and I walked into ….desks and chairs.  She handed me the key and turned to go…

Wait, I said, “Where’s all the stuff?  You know the kid stuff, the stuff you need to teach school?”

“This is it.  Just let the principal know if you need anything else.”

She handed me the key and I sat for a second in total stunned silence.  This is it?  In less than 2 weeks approximately 25 kids are going to be in this space and I have to be ready to teach school and I have desks and chairs and little else….whatever will I do?

“Whatever will I do?  Whatever will I do? “The thought pulsed through my brain as I walked back to my car.  White knuckled I grasped the steering wheel, whisper a silent prayer, numb with panic.  I headed back to my afternoon session of the training, where I shared my story of an empty classroom with other teachers.  Over and over again, I heard the same story repeated from the lips of teachers as they looked at my stunned face in sympathy.

“The same thing happened to me.  I had to buy, borrow, and slowly build my library of resources.”  They patted my back. “Give it time…you will get what you need.”

And herein lays the problem…my worst personal hubris.  As I typed in my 4AM email to my principal the next morning, I am passionate, but not patient.  I find it impossible to wait, and the idea of getting resources by say…October would cause me to spontaneously combust.

But I have forgotten an important lesson I learned a few years ago…when in need, ask your network.  And so the phone calls begin.  Marci opens her closets and her basement and pours out blessings of pocket charts, an alphabet banner, posters, table caddies, IKEA chairs, trips to Lakeshore, owl ribbon, etc. etc. and first day of school activities, printables and two rickety bookcases.  Mike and I lug the bookcases home and he spends a few hours in his workshop making them as good as new. Marie petitions the powers that be and two metal supply cabinets and tables arrive.

Still there are 13 hour days and tons of chores; cleaning, decorating, organizing, labeling….my children come with me to help.   Friday night many hours in for the day and too many to count in the last 72 hours, I’m exhausted and ready to run screaming back to my cushy job as a faculty member.  As we are changing the backdrop of my main bulletin board one of our last tasks for the day, Elijah stops me.  “Mom, there is a family outside the window.  Look, mom they are holding up their little girl to the window. “ I barely stop to notice so intent on finishing this last job for the night. “Mooommmm,” he whines insistently, “Look she is smiling.”

At that moment, all I can see is my son’s face as he watches the family watching me…and once again I see another classroom that will need to be made ready…his.

“Yes, son I see them.” I wave to the little girl.  Her lovely dark skin breaks in a huge grin as she waves excitedly at me.  And across the window we connect, sharing the universal truths of, “Teacher, and “School.”

The next week, my village shows up in response to my all-call text messaged plea for a classroom prep party, as six of my girlfriends, my cousin, and her new boyfriend (who drove through the night to see her) come to help my climb yet another peak.  I serve chili from my crock pot and they assemble furniture, cut laminate and level hundreds of guided reading books to correlate with Fountas and Pinnel.  In the end they take home armfuls of laminate to their children and another girlfriend who couldn’t make it.  My mom comes the next night and spends three hours painting my tree mural.

Friday is a blurry mad dash to the finish line as the last custodian is leaving at 9:00PM and I have a to do list with 25 things left.  By 8PM, I am running down the hall to return the vacuum to the custodian, and the finish line is in sight. ..my classroom is STUNNING.  And still it is a testimony to the power of a network.  As I close the door one last time, I realize truly alone I am not enough, but standing on the shoulders of my team I have more than I can even imagine.