Silence of the Laminates

As you know, we teachers have a scavenger’s quality. Plus, the end of year is the time when things get left behind. One of the hotbeds of scrap gathering is in the library where teachers have things laminated. As part of the closing down for the summer process, the librarian stops laminating stuff for teachers a few weeks before the last day of school. It’s kind of an unwritten rule that with a couple of weeks left that any laminated item left in the librarian’s completion box that hasn’t been claimed is then consider up for grabs.

It’s crazy. Just this morning two chemistry teachers were fighting over a periodic table. It was very Lord of the Flies-ish. Other teachers encircled the two for a makeshift ring while screaming for blood and generating an internal desire that both battlers will perish in hopes of getting the periodic table for themselves.

Others are a bit more civil, though. There are trade agreements. Motivational posters are bartered for Spanish vocab bingo cards and maps are given in exchange for pages from a 2008 calendar. 2008! What someone would want with a 2008 calendar, I have no idea.