The First Month of School

Here is a picture of me and James on our very first day of school---he woke up at 6:30 and as I was getting out of the shower, he opened the door and was completely dressed and singing, "Today's my first day of schoo--ool!" I just hope that he will always be this excited about school, I know that I was when I was a kid and still do, but this year was different.

I suppose that it has been long enough now that I need to face the reality of being back at school. Needless to say, it has been a rough adjustment back to work. I have never quite felt this way at the start of the school year. Normally, I relish in the back to school sales and look forward to meeting the one hundred or so 13 year olds that walk through my door. But this year was different.....I was annoyed that the sales on school supplies started at the beginning of July, a whole two months before school started. Don't get me wrong, I am still proud that I can get 100 folders for one dollar, but I just want to do that in August rather than before the fireworks of the 4th. And that was just the beginning.

I dragged myself to work the last week of August and attended my meetings, but had little motivation to put my room back together. Because we have carpet in all of our classrooms, they clean it during the summer and we have to have everything boxed up so that they can clean the floors. It is pretty obnoxious to have to pack everything up every year (perhaps it is a good thing, otherwise I would never sort through some of my junk) but this year I didn't care to put any of it back. I was overwhelmed by my class lists and couldn't imagine having enough room in my head to care about one hundred more adolescents. I also found out that I wasn't going to have the same prep period as my friends for the first time, and I know it sounds petty and childish, but I was real sad.

So now that we are a month in, I am slowly dragging myself out of my slump. I have some incredible students that are fun to teach and excited to be in my class. We have already had our Family Literacy Night and gotten Battle of the Books going and that is a huge relief for me. Something happens each and every day that reminds me why I love teaching---for me, it is all about the students. They make me laugh when they do something silly; they make me sad when I see them causing each other such heart ache; they make me proud when they accomplish something that they didn't think they were going to be able to do; and they make me cry when they share with me the hardships that no thirteen year old should ever have to deal with. I love teaching and am so grateful for the things that I learn everyday from these hormonal, drama-seeking teenagers.