My principal sat me down with the other new teacher for a little meeting. "Ladies, I have a dilemma," she announced, "and I was hoping you two could help me out."

This seemed like a bad sign since I thought the meeting was to go over some pro forma new teacher stuff and she was just trying to be uncharacteristically efficient by talking to both of us at the same time. But no.

Turned out she wants me to switch classrooms with the second grade teacher. I have quite a large room, but only 11 students. My counterpart, who is brand-new to teaching and experiencing the predictable growing pains, has a smaller room and 23 students. The second grade feels crowded. I, on the other hand, was just about to move a large, clearly optional, 'reading couch' into my room before the meeting started. My principal feels the solution is obvious.

And it is, except that it was also obvious BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED and BEFORE I SPENT THREE WEEKS SETTING UP MY ROOM!

I said this to her, minus the capital letters. Honestly.

I really don't want to move. I like my room. I spent a lot of time and effort putting it together. More importantly, I think it sends a very bad message to the parents and children--everything seems so fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants at the school and it upsets people. (Especially me.) And it will be difficult for the children. Routine, comfort, stability and safety are all very important in establishing a good classroom atmosphere. I've gotten a good start on all that and moving would set my class back. And, moving would add to my workload significantly for a week or two...and I'm at my limit already.

But I know how hard it is to go through your first year, and I want to help the new teacher, and I don't want to second-guess every single decision my so-called boss makes. Honestly. So I said that although it was very upsetting to be asked to do something so disruptive when it could have easily been prevented by a little planning, and that I really didn't appreciate being put on the spot by being asked in front of the other teacher, I would think about it, and talk to my kids about it, and we could probably do it. And then I asked when she thought would be a good time.

"Well, we have a half-day tomorrow, and I was thinking we could all just do it then."

TOMORROW?

She pointed out that the longer the second grade felt cramped, the worse the problem would get.

This is when I wanted to start speaking in capital letters. But instead I just pulled out one of my favorite quotes: "A failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part, lady." And yes, I actually said that, but not the 'lady' part.

I don't think she took this very well. And then it occurred to me that maybe it was not one of those things you're supposed to say out loud to people. So I asked if I could have an hour to think about it. She said sure, take my time, but not too much time, because she wanted to let the other teachers know that they'd all be helping me move tomorrow. As if they hadn't already made plans for their work for the afternoon.

She left, and the new teacher left, without saying a word.

And I just burst into tears.

I know it doesn't seem like the sort of thing one should cry over but I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place. If I said no, would my new colleague hold it against me? Would the staff interpret it as me being 'too good' to help out, marking me as even more of an outsider than I already am? And had I really signed on for a year with a boss who made my job harder whenever she got the chance? Too much, too much, too much.

I walked downstairs to talk to Ms. Harris, the kindergarten aide, who is very sweet and wise. She assured me that no one would think less of me if I said no, and that the principal could be infuriating at times, patted me on my head and told me 'please don't cry baby.' Mrs. Thomas, the first grade teacher, said pretty much the same thing, without the head-patting.

All this made me feel like I had the right to say no, which then made me more inclined to say yes. So I went to talk to the second-grade teacher.

"Don't think I asked her for this," she said the moment I walked into the room. "I heard about that idea when you did!"

That totally blew me away. The other teacher was not too psyched about moving rooms, either. "I just set it up!" Word, sister, word.

So we talked about whether she felt the additional space would be helpful...and she said it would, but maybe not so helpful that it was worth the effort and disruption...and we agreed that if we decided to do it, we would do it when we had time to plan.

If I have to move I will be a bit pissed off and slightly bitter but I'm confident I can make the new room work. We'll see what happens. Wish me stability...