first days

The end of the summer found me even more bittersweet than usual to start school. I was sad to be leaving a job that I absolutely loved, and yet excited to start an entirely new journey in life---student teaching. When classes ended in May I was excited to student teach, but my excitement had waned slowly all summer as I had gotten increasingly wrapped up in "living history." So when Tuesday the 10th rolled around and I showed up for my first ever day of teacher in services, I was on the mediocre side of excited you could say. Not to mention that even though I had been waking up at 6:45 AM all summer, being at school by 7:30 AM was rough.

Hello, future! Nice to meet you, I promise I'm excited but give me a couple of hours and a few cups of coffee.

Ha! A couple of hours... you silly girl! By 7:45 I was sitting in a middle school gymnasium with my CT listening to a welcome back speech from the principal who went straight into discussing a new grading curriculum (that only a handful of veteran teachers understood in the slightest). Many of them were having it explained to them for maybe the second time, some of them the first.

Future? Is that you? Is this what you will look like?

After lunch (which came an hour early for a girl had grown accustomed to eating a large dinner at noon during the summer), I learned that not only was the traditional grading system I had known and used all of my life being tossed into Boston Harbor right along with the tea, but the district was completely revamping the Social Studies curriculum. Ok, I thought, I didn't know the original curriculum so this shouldn't be a big deal!

Future? Is that you? Wait....it's never that easy?

Silly girl! The 8th grade curriculum isn't completed yet! That's ok, it's Tuesday and school doesn't start until Monday. We'll be fine, right?

And so began my first day. The rest of the week was filled with district curriculum meetings, staff meetings, and general planning. I had worked in the heat and done labor all summer, but I was more tired every day last week than I had been the past three months. In services are tiring business, I tell you! I left school every day last week thinking, THIS IS MY FUTURE!

Today was the first day for students. We had schedule changes that messed up carefully planned seating arrangements, lost students, stuck lockers, freaked out 7th graders, and one boy that already fell asleep and almost missed lunch. I still don't fully understand how I am supposed to grade my students, am not sure how I feel about parts of the curriculum, love other parts of it, and can already pin point certain students who might be a bit challenging.

I'll be entirely honest with you, I left school today thinking...THIS IS MY FUTURE! And so far, I have loved every minute of it. Headaches and all.

"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." -----Mark Twain