It was a GREAT start!

Aside from having to get up at the "butt crack of dawn" as my good friend and colleague Misty says, today has been really great.

My first block class is English 11. I guess they were still more asleep than awake at 7:38 this morning because they were SO quiet! I know it isn't because they've heard horror stories about me being the teacher from he**. :) In school, we were always told not to ever, EVER smile before Christmas. I cannot for the life of me do that. No matter how hard I try, I cannot be a mean teacher. I do have my class expectations, and I do expect my students to follow them, and they do, so that blows the whole never smile theory. Anyway, first block was awesome.

Second block is my planning. Third block, my seniors, was a completely different story from first block. By 11:30, they were wide awake. lol I did have to explain that I refuse to talk over anyone. After that, they were fine. The nice thing about teaching seniors is that they know that they have to pass English to graduate, so they aren't willing to horse around very much.

Fourth block was back to juniors. They were quieter than third block, but not as quiet as first. By the end of the day, they are exhausted and are ready for the day to end (as am I.)

I would say that about a 1/4 of my students I have had in classes in the last two years, so they know me and I know them. That's usually a pretty good thing. I can honestly say that I've never had a student with whom I've had a conflict which would affect the teacher/student relationship.

The time is now 5:30, and I'm still at the school. My legs are aching horribly bad from having walked on concrete floors for 8 hours for the first time since May, and I am SOOOOO tired. (Getting old sucks--sorry if that word offends you--but getting old is better than the alternative!) I desperately need to go to Wal-Mart for a couple more odd and end things, and someone told me The Home Depot has small fridges for about $55. I want one for my room, but I just can't decide if I want to go now. I probably should because I know I'll have papers to grade tomorrow night. Oh well.

I guess this is about it for my first day back update. It really was a great day, achy legs and all. :)