>Contrary to popular belief, teachers do work weekends. On a recent Sunday, I spent two hours at my desk with a to-do list. On the top of the list: Clean Desk.

Here’s the before picture. Book box, papers, near-empty hand sanitizer bottle, file folders – you name it, it was there. I knew when I left on Friday that I had to come back; there was no chance of facing this kind of disaster on Monday morning and starting the week feeling, well, sane.

I waded through the piles on the desk, made the copies I needed, planned math lessons for the week, printed keyboarding scores, and more. I pulled out the cleaning wipes and dusted the top of the file cabinet (yuck), wiped down the desk (not so bad, really), and even dragged a wipe across the computer keyboard.

Ah. Deep sigh of relief. Now I can face Monday with a more positive attitude. The bad news, though: it won’t take long to pile up the desk again. It’s just the nature of the job.