Oh wow!
I have a FULL classroom!
As of last night, I had 19 students on my roster and 5 from the SED class. I arranged my room with 24 desks – four rows of six. I walk in this morning, grab the mail and stuff from my mail bin, and what do I see? An added student. I have another student! That puts me at 20.
On Monday I found that I had another student added, but I gave her to Kathy cuz of my already full class. Well, I should have just kept her. Dagnabit. My new girl’s mom actually circled “yes” to “My child has behavior problems at school.” Wonderful. When a parent actually admits to their child having behavior issues, you know it’s going to be . . . interesting.
I also had a revised class list, and I was missing one of my students. Apparently, a family had moved out of the school zone thingie. I was still at 19 students. The classroom was just fine. I just had to take of Rachel’s nametag and make a new one for the new girl.
After making sure I have all my activity sheets and classroom rules all set, I start receiving students into the room. I meet some of the parents and reassure them with a big, bright smile that their children are in good hands.
The bell rings.
School has officially begun.
Ten or fifteen minutes into the morning, the school secretary walks in with another young man that will be joining my class. Yep, that puts me up to 20 +5! That doesn’t seem like a big number to some, but my classroom isn’t that big. It’s interesting to see it all filled up.
The kids had such big smiles of eager anticipation etched onto their little faces. Their eyes were bright with wonder, and most of them were on their best behavior for me. That would be a short-lived phenomenon, though.
Not all of my students showed up on the first day. This is not a big surprise considering the fact that we start before Labor Day, and some parents refuse to admit that their vacation is over! We have a large number of people who choose their first day to be the Tuesday following Labor Day. That, at least, afforded me an extra desk for the boy who was added this morning. Heh!
The first couple of days are always a bit awkward for me. I am used to having the day planned with activities that fill the students’ time. Sure, there are times when students finish work, and there’s a gap between lessons. However, the first week of school, which is only three days, always makes it difficult, if not useless, to begin any *real* lessons. Therefore, we do a lot of get-to-know-each-other activities. Ice breakers, if you will. It makes the days even longer, if you ask me. Maybe next year I will just throw all caution to the wind and actually dive into real work right away!
Nah . . .
P.E. is on Wednesdays this year. Today was Wednesday. Our regular time will be first thing in the morning, but we switched it (just for today) to later in the morning. I think it’s more important to have the students with me first thing when we begin school. There has to be a teacher-student relationship established, and it’s hard to do that if they aren’t with you! The morning went really well. They listened so nicely as I was going through all of the rules and routines that we would be practicing this year – the calendar, the posters on the wall, the class library, where the paper is found, and so much more!
After P.E., though, all was lost. Concentration was a foreign concept, and it became clear very quickly that I was going to have to practice the rule, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” That means that I am going to have to be really firm and exact with my expectations. I tend to be more lenient, but this year that is just not going to cut it!
The good news is that I think that the kids that I have this year are really likeable. They seem like good eggs. One or two of them will have to grow on me, but I think I am going to have fun with them. Some of them would even fit into the category of ultra-sweet! Each year they seem to get smaller and younger! Heh. They come in and are such little second graders. Then they’ll leave at the end of the year as fourth graders. (I am not being literal here, by the way!) It’s an amazing thing. I am so absolutely excited to see the progress that these kids are going to make.
And I am completely and utterly determined to prove last year’s teachers wrong! These kids will NOT be the bane of my existence, as suggested by them. They will not make me miserable. And I will get through to them. They will learn.
I am teacher, hear me roar!
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