A sneak peek into another beginning

With one meeting and one casual BBQ, another school year lurks just around the corner. This year's classroom assignments, teaching teams, and even subject assignments are coming to us much later than normal. Summer phone calls have bounced from administrators to teachers and from teachers to teachers. No secret is safe on a middle school staff and no rumor is left un-said.
So, we finally all met. Papers were passed out- classroom maps, team lists, who teaches with who (whom?). Summer pleasantries were exchanged... but none of us were really ready to face the music. A few more weeks of summer still awaits us before we jump in fully and find out what this year (it will be different than last year!! I know it!! New systems! New Students! New Ideas!! I can make it perfect THIS time around!!) will have in store.