It was bound to happen. The bloggy has been a little neglected these past 2 weeks as I've been a busy bee attending countless meetings and trainings, meeting my kiddos, and tackling my new mess of a classroom. I swear...moving into 3 classrooms in 3 years is zero percent fun. And, the only pictures I have are from after I'd been working in there for a good week, so I'm afraid they won't even show the half of what I've been through...yikers!
Add grad school into the mix and you've got one exhausted and stressed teacher. But I am pleased to report that I made it through my first two days of school fairly unscathed and actually pleasantly surprised. Trust me, after everything I'd heard about some of my students, I didn't know what kind of classroom I'd be walking into! And, when my bathroom sign that Kyle made got ruined before the first day of school from a curious student with wet hands, I was having extreme panic! But, so far so good! They seem like a really sweet class with lots of energy!
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| Please imagine wet fingers sliding down the page...should've laminated! |
The first days of school always leave me with mixed feelings. I LOVE meeting the kids and learning about them. I HATE going over routines, procedures, and rules. It is all kinds of boring. No matter what I do to try to jazz it up...it's the same thing they hear and do every year...and even by 3rd grade they're done with it! And, I talk so much those first couple of days that I always start to lose my voice! If we could just find some way to skip all that mumbo jumbo and still be able to function nicely and do things the way I want them done, I'd be ecstatic. Luckily we play some super fun games to break up the monotony! And, this year, we're doing a class blog to keep our parents in the loop, so we wrote our first post yesterday! Super fun!
It's also hard because I find myself missing my old class a ton! They'll pop into my head at random times, like during the random earthquake this week which made me think of my student who is obsessed with weather and terrified of earthquakes! And I'm constantly comparing my new class to them...which is hilarious because I remember the same thing happening the year before! But come November there's always this switch that happens and I'm completely in love with my new class and spend the rest of the year dreading them leaving me. The good news is that I've been really lucky to carry over so many of my relationships with former students! And, I secretly feel like a rockstar when I walk through the cafeteria and my oldies scream out my name and come running up to hug me. It will never get old!
But, what really made my first 2 days special was an email from a parent yesterday thanking me. They had just moved back to our area and her student was new to school and had a pretty miserable first day because of things being different and not making friends. That same student got really upset two times yesterday morning. But, with lots of TLC and some strategic conversations with other students in the class, we sent that student home all smiles yesterday and the momma was so thrilled and expressed her gratitude in the sweetest email that got my weekend off to a wonderful start! Because at the end of the day, I just want my babies to be happy!
So this weekend I am trying to get some sleep, get my life organized, and get ready for the first FULL week of school! I'm hoping that this will be the only weekend I have to go into school to work...but we all know that won't happen!
Enjoy your weekends and stay out of Hurricane Irene's way!
Ha - My neighbor (a retired kindergarten teacher) always tells me that she never liked her "new" class as much as she liked her "old" class, but that she always came around after a little while. :) I've been missing my babies from last year, too, but I'm excited to meet my newbies!
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