3 down, 207 to go

My third day of school was the best day. The first was pure adrenaline- a smile plastered on my face while my brain was on a constant loop of “I am a total fraud!!!” I put two girls on the wrong bus that day. The second day I was exhausted. No more adrenaline, just twenty-two kids who were also exhausted. I put one girl on the wrong bus that day. Today I didn’t feel like a fraud. I put my kids on the right busses. At the after school ice cream social I joked with the parents of the misplaced children, “Oh my God! I lost your BABY!!! Ha ha ha…” They were very good natured about it. It wasn’t my fault, really. I didn’t make the lists of after school plans, I just followed them, but even so. I’m a brand new teacher and I lost THREE children in two days. Anyway, today I sorta found my rhythm. I got them to PE on time and my art and writing lessons were not disasters. I doesn’t seem like much on paper, but hot damn. I think I’ll stick it out a little while.
After school my colleague and I went out for a snack. She is also in her first year of first grade and she was feeling so low. A parent had yelled at her this morning about some kid bullying her son, “You can tell that bully that my son know karate so he better look out!!” What?! Such a terrible way to start the third day of school. I don’t know. I feel pretty lucky- my kids are generally sweet and the parents seem good natured enough. I can’t imagine what getting yelled at would do to my fragile morale right now. Ugh. I wanted to do karate on that lady, I tell you what. Chop chop, you know?
Like I said, my kids are pretty sweet. One boy doesn’t have a mom and so he holds my hand whenever we leave the classroom and he pulls his chair up to my desk to do his work whenever he can. He nearly knocked me down at the ice cream social tonight with his big hug and it just about melted my heart, not to mention my cone. Another little girl with a really loud voice called out to me on the first day, “I don’t WANT to do it!! I just want to watch TV!!………………….I mean READ!!”
I don’t know what to call the other teachers. Right now I only know first names, so when I give a kid directions to the bathroom I say things like, “It’s right across the hall from Mrs. Um, huh. What’s Nicole’s last name?!? Near the work room… Well anyway. Go upstairs, you’ll find it.” Ah, teachers. They have all the answers.
Today I was at school for eleven and a half hours. Let’s just round up to 12, shall we?
Tomorrow will be total TGIAF. (Thank God It’s A Friday, for those of you not in the know.)
My yogurt was rotten this morning. Really bummed me out at snack time. Mold on it and everything.
One of my students has a British accent and one has a Texan drawl.
One girl has braces. On her baby teeth.
I need more teacher clothes.
In only 18 days I will get my first paycheck. In 23 days my health and life will be insured. And my teeth and eyes.
I am a member of a Union.
A boy brought a big ol’ thing of hand sanitizer to school and then freaked out because other kids were “using it up” and so took it home in his backpack today. It weighs like three pounds.
Allison is gone from my home and my city and I miss her. Also it is her birthday.
Mike leaves on Sunday for a nearly 3 week road trip and I will miss him too. A lot.
I was in bed at 9:15 last night, asleep by 9:45. My friends were LITERALLY partying in my hallway and I slept right through it. Apparently Mike kept shushing them, which is cute. Apparently they wanted to come in and wake me up with kisses and hugs which is also cute. But Mike wouldn’t let them. Everyone wins at being cute!
I’m washing my hands like I have OCD, but I have a tickle in my throat. Germy jerks!!!! And so it begins….