first day down

I admit, this is kind of how I felt this morning at the 5:30am wake up call!! Summer is officially officially gone and my lucky life of sleeping in is over. Back to teaching uncaring teenagers about external text features, connotation, and making inferences. Back to grading, calling for class attention, and standing in line to make copies.

In all actuality, today went by quickly and without many problems. With a new bell schedule this year, the biggest issue for me was the longer length of class, which shouldn't seem like much, but really does. Surprisingly, it was a little weird to be in one place all day instead of running around room to room pushing a cart.

By 5th period and lunch, my feet hurt (duh! for wearing my high platform shoes!) and I was ready for my a nap. As no surprise, 6th ad 7th period students were pretty much really CRAZY and I can already tell that they will be my "challenge" classes.

I went through some class procedures, had the students play a little get to know you activity, introduced myself with some of my favorites, pictures of my family AND a nerdy picture of me in 8th grade. Students learned about their in-class folders and I got a pretty good start on learning names.

All in all, a great first day.

I hate to think, though: in between 6th and 7th period, a man who works at WL walked by and said, "Just think, one more period then you're done and only 179 days to go!"