Brave

Today I had my kids create a person crest to introduce themselves to one another. And of course, being the good teacher I try to be, I created my own and explained it all to them. One of the spaces asked you to fill in descriptions of yourself and I put the word brave among others. I explained to the kids that I think I am brave for being a 7th grade teacher and in turn, I think they are brave for coming to 7th grade ready to learn. I am not sure if this affected them at all but it got me thinking. For me, this is pretty brave. When I graduated college I never imagined in a million years I'd be teaching 90 preteens to read and write. I continually amaze myself, and not that I am all that or anything but just at where I am now. I wonder sometimes how I got here.

It was a good day, a 10 hour day, but a good day nonetheless. I met a lot of kids, remember none of their names, and even got through their first spelling list. I made some jokes, taught them what the word sarcasm means, and helped them find their classes. What made my day was one girl who came up to me on a break to tell me that she thinks I am an awesome teacher. Mind you, today was the first day of school. She went on and on about how we like to do the same things (from the crest) and how she can't wait to read the book I'm writing. She was so earnest and excited it was sweet.

And our kids were all in a uniform-look today. They had to have plain colored shirts with colors or crew necks; khaki, navy or blue jean pants and be tucked in. It was great - they all looked so good. I think I'd like to teach in a school with real uniforms, like Hogwarts!

There were snafus and there will be all week but all in all it was a good first day. Tomorrow my kids will get lockers and more lectures, they'll do some writing and we'll read "A Bad Case of Stripes" about fears and how they eat you up inside. And to top it all off, Ms. Knapp gets a root canal tomorrow afternoon - woohoo (no really, I am excited! Maybe then the pain of this abscessed tooth will subside!).