Surviving the First Day... Accomplished!

Well, we did it... or I did, at least. I made it through the first day. Hooray!

And I almost want to go back to school tomorrow!

Now, it was nothing like last year, with all the classes being unbalanced, and 47 in one class (with just 30 desks, so some kids had to sit on the floor).

Nor was it bad because of the schedules being messed up completely because of SMS. SMS is a computer program the county purchased to do all the clerical-type school tasks, like attendance, discipline (keeping track of referrals, detention, etc), gradebook, and scheduling. Instead of having to use different programs for each of these things, SMS was supposed to do it all. This way, you wouldn't have to enter the information multiple times.

Of course, with the millions that was spent on the program, it should work, right? They had tested it, used it in a few pilot schools, and everyone just sang it's praises...

It didn't work. At all.

If you used the gradebook portion, you would enter your grades, but it would lose them, or even change them completely. You could never trust the gradebook, so you had to keep multiple copies.

And the guidance counselors had attempted to use the automatic scheduler that the company had praised... and the class of 47 resulted.

But I digress.

It wasn't like it was last year today.

In face, I had tiny classes. My advanced class was large, but manageable. But one of my co-taught classes is so small it's unmanageable. In Language Arts, you need to have more than just a few students to get good discussions going. Just hearing from a few kids doesn't work as well.

PLUS this tiny class is co-taught! (It's for exceptional education kids (ESE), where they essentially have learning disabilities and need extra support to be successful, so there are two teachers in the room with them... the main teacher and an ESE teacher who just helps out in each class).

The number of kids in this class, you wonder? 6.

Yes, it will grow as they balance the classes. But still. 6!?

How did that get past the people making the schedules?

Oh, well. It is much better than 47, I will admit.

Another thing about last year was we had all of the thugs that were in 6th grade, with only a few minor exceptions. The other teams had some of them, but truly, we had almost all of them.

Today I was keeping my eye out for our new thugs, or kids to replace those type kids from last year. Granted, this was just the first day, and I do realize that. As we were waiting this morning to be dismissed to our first class, I couldn't even get them to talk at all (and I know that will change quickly). I know they'll loosen up and the misbehavior will start,

And I did spot some I know will cause problems. But overall, I am happy about the apparent quality of these kids.

I do think it is rather amazing how you can spot these kids right off. You know immediately the ones you'll have to keep an eye on. And then you talk to the other teachers on your team, and they marked the same ones...

Like the kid who had gum. TODAY. And she was wearing a tiny skirt, a tube top, and a tiny jacket. What mom would really let her out the door like that?

Or the kid who provided me with a sound effect the entire time I was talking.

Or even the little girl who rolled her eyes. At me. On the first day! Just because I mispronounced her name. I'm sorry, but her parents made up her name! How would I know how to pronounce her name, especially since it's not like they even followed the sounds you normally find in the English language!

And on that topic, this year I have the most amazingly crazy names. What's wrong with names like Mary, Elizabeth, Laura, Rachel, or those lovely names? I don't have a single one of those names! Not even one.

Oh, well. I guess parents want their kids to be more and more unique. Whatever.

Today, we had lots of things we were supposed to do (as teachers, like going over the dress code rules) with each period) and I did almost all of them... I did forget to walk my kids to lunch... but in my defense, our lunch period is at 2:11, and I had no chance to use the restroom, and I really needed to, so I wasn't really thinking properly.

So... after this first day, I am mostly excited about this year... it's still a little weird, since I don't know these kids, and I miss some of my darlings from last year, and a little tiring because it is stressful, but I see great things for this year.

Lots of great things. I hope.