School Started

Today was day 2 of the school year! This post will give an overview of the weird twilight zone I have landed in the last two days.

Yesterday I couldn’t sleep for anxiety and anticipation of the first day of school. Trust me, it’s just as bad for teachers as it is for students. If not worse. I got up. Got ready. Put on my power teacher outfit, curled my hair (even though it is still an exercise in futility due to the humidity here), ate breakfast and was out the door by 7:15. I made it to school by 7:30 and got ready to start my first day at BFS.

BFS has an interesting schedule. Basically 1st and 7th hour are fixed. They are the same class, at the same time every day. 2–6th hour rotates. So I might have US Hist 2nd hour on Monday but on Tuesday I have them 3rd hour etc. Wednesdays we had zero hour for advisory to that schedule. I am the 11th grade advisor along with one of the math teachers- Mike. The first day of school happened to be Wednesday. So we started with an advisory day just to make everything a little bit more confusing for everyone. I teach advisory, have 1st hour off, then teach straight through with a double prep at the end of the day on Wednesdays. Which is not the worst thing honestly.

For the first day of school as the kids came into school we shuffled them 1 of 2 places. Pk3-K5 went to their rooms right away with our principal and counselor on hand to help separate parents and children. 1st grade- 12th grade headed up to the gym. Once there they lined up in grade order in front of their teacher. To my everlasting shock and awe they walked in, found the teacher, and sat down. No yelling. No hitting. No screaming. Nothing. Just like super chill. Some shrieking from girls who hadn’t seen each other all summer. But overall it was chill. Then we dismissed them by grade. And they all just walked calmly out of there when it was their turn. No running to the exits. No fights. Just calm order. I literally did not know what to do with myself. When we got to the basement for advisory they all sat down and waited. Mike had me read their names so I could figure out how to pronounce them and start to put names to faces. We went over some basic housekeeping stuff and then they just chilled for 15 minutes. And again were totally fine. I honestly wanted to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.

Each of my classes did basically the same thing yesterday- Make a name plate for your desk that has 1) your name, 2) your hometown, 3) the languages you speak, 4) the class you’re in, and 5) something that describes you as a person. We then shared that plus a content related question (fav US president, fav. movie, fav place to shop etc) with a partner who in turn introduced us to the class. Then they took a pop quiz on me as a person and I shared who I am with them. Then I asked 3 philosophical questions. 1) Why are you here? 2) Why do you think you have to be in this class 3) Why are you the way that you are? They then had to share that with a classmate before we shared as a class. Only my sociology class, which has 9 kids, made it through everything. Everyone else made it through at least answering the questions themselves but not the sharing.

I have mostly 11th graders in my Soc class. Mostly 9th graders in my History Through Film class. Mostly 10th in my US History class. And mostly 12th in AP Macro. So I see all the grade levels in bits and pieces which has been kinda fun honestly. The 9th graders don’t really wanna talk. The 11th graders have some serious insights into life. The 12th graders are a bit sassy in the best way. And the 10th graders have some serious energy. Most of them thought I was funny so that was good.

We had the briefest staff meeting in the world thankfully before being turned loose. I finished adjusting my plans for today and left work at 5:30. I then zombie walked to Home Plus express grocery store, bought meatballs, tomato sauce, and hairspray before heading home. I made some actual dinner before reading a terrible romance novel for the rest of the night. It was glorious to have that introverted time and to not have to worry about school. I honestly loved it. I also fell asleep at 9:30 because I was dead tired.

Woke up multiple times last night for no discernible reason and then couldn’t wake up when my alarm went off because #life also #murphy’slaw. Getting ready was uneventful and again I made it to work by 7:30. By some grace of god I get a double prep to start my day on Thursdays. So I have a double prep at the end of Wednesday and a double prep to start Thursday :) There wasn’t *that* much for me to actually do as I have no grading yet but I found things to occupy me. My classes happened in the same order as yesterday and went just as well. The kids continued to do exactly what I asked when I asked and had some amazing insights into what we were talking about. They are where they are supposed to be during morning break and lunch even with limited adult supervision. My classroom was still mostly clean at the end of the day. I’m still pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. We didn’t get through 1/2 of what I thought we would. Which is typical. I had some amazing answers as to why they were they way they are including but not limited to “the internet” “we’re born this way #gaga” and “because this is what we have become”. Literally children are amazing.

I have already started to figure out my favorite kids. I know I shouldn’t have favorites but should love them all equally and for the most part I do. But there’s always those 1 or 2 in each class that you go “you…I like you…”. Usually for teachers it’s because you participate or have some awesome insight. Occasionally though I like the slightly dysfunctional ones who are funny but not mean and aren’t always the best at school. The nerds are also my favorite. I also had a 10th grade girl straight up hug me today… Which I am deeply unused to. The most interesting thing to me is that I have a number of Russian students but they don’t look like phenotypically Russian people as we are used to thinking of them. Instead many are ethnically Korean but are from Russia. So when Vlad came to school today he looked nothing like I thought he would. Instead of blond hair and blue eyes, he looks much like many of my native Korean students-black hair and dark eyes. It’s been a good lesson in stereotyping for me. And I am deeply looking forward to learning even more about the culture here and how all of it works.

I love teaching such small class sizes. I love teaching such engaged, polite, curious students. I am terrified that they are putting themselves under too much stress and that they need to chill. I’m hoping my room can be a place for them to do some of that chilling. I’m looking forward to doing some serious work and fun this year. So far I think I’m going to like it here. :)

Also thank you all so much for your unending support and encouragement. I’ve really appreciated the texts, facebook comments, and snapchats I’ve gotten from everyone. It helps ground me. So seriously-Thank you.