*I taught my first day of school today. It was my first first day of school as a teacher ever, and I am EXHAUSTED. I feel like my feet have swollen up like a pregnant lady’s (I’m sure never wearing those heels again in this heat!), and I needed a Dr. Pepper something awful by the end of it. But all that said, I feel like it really went pretty well–the students were (mostly) responsive and well-behaved, and I even got a couple of them to say that I’m already their favorite teacher.
*Little do they know, mwa ha ha.
*See that adorable pencil vase above? That was an awesome classroom-warming gift by my dear friend Petrice, who never ceases to amaze me with her creativity and thoughtfulness. Every day I wish I could have half of her natural artistic and creative talent–she’s amazing! (And tons of students/teachers commented on the vase, too). There’s just something so magical about having a fresh bouquet of flowers around . . . it just perks your mood right up.
*I’m seriously tempted to start treating myself to a fresh bouquet of flowers every month. I would just love that.
*I teach 5 periods total and have one prep period. Four of my classes are Language Arts classes, and my last class (an elective class) is Creative Writing.
*Funny story: several students, upon being asked to share why they signed up for Creative Writing, said that they took it because they thought it was an art class. Like calligraphy and stuff. I had more than a few students admit that they really didn’t like writing at all. I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep for them–and myself.
*Also, half of my creative writing class (no exaggeration) said that they only took the class because their friends were in it. Hmmm…
*Despite all that, I’m still way excited to teach that class. I love writing so much that I figure that some of my positive enthusiasm about it is bound to rub off on some unsuspecting teenager…
*My classroom decorating scheme is totally random because I was simply dreading having to do it. Basically it just consists of whatever I’ve gleaned off of other teachers (including Matt’s dad, who’s a religious instructor). I’m just proud of myself because I had more than one student tell me that they “really loved how I’d decorated the room.” Mission accomplished.
*I always thought I’d be a super strict teacher, but I’ve found that I have a tendency to be almost too nurturing to the point of not being challenging enough. I’ve really got to find a way to remedy that, and pronto.
*Today I talked about disclosures for over four hours. Yuck. Just yuck.
*Only a tenth of the students get my humor so far. The rest just look up at me, scared to do anything but stare.
*I find it disturbing that on numerous questionnaires that I got back today, students had written that they liked English “because it was easy” and “because they got to watch movies a lot.” Boo on that.
*Despite having the above sign outside my door, me standing outside the door and welcoming students (while saying my name), AND telling the students to double check their schedules to make sure they were in the right place at the right time, I still had about five students who were in the wrong place and had to get up and leave after roll call. Bless their hearts.
*During first hour, just as I was getting into my teaching groove, the class had a major freak-out moment when a GINORMOUS bug started scuttling across the floor. Chaos ensued as girls and boys were shrieking and getting up on their chairs. I finally requested that some brave soul kill it (cuz heaven knows that I wasn’t going to!), and I made everyone applaud for him when all was said and done. It was actually pretty ridiculous.
*My classroom was about 95 degrees by the last period today. Yuck.
*I took my creative writing class outside because of the heat so that they could do their getting-to-know-you thing out there in the shade. One particularly vocal student (whom I have for Language Arts, Creative Writing, AND Advisory) said, “So when are we going to do the fun thing?” Bless his heart.
