Teacher! Teacher!

So today was the first day of school. I seem to have a really good set of kids (knock on wood) and everything went fairly smoothly. I made it through the day and never felt really overwhelmed, except when I was waiting for the kids to get through the lunch line and I just wanted lunch. It's starting out to be a great blogging year because I already have a few personalities that are going to give me some great stories...and so it begins...

"The Sleeper" - For some background, she is the sister of last year's "My Mama" blog. (I have 2 siblings from last year and she is one.) Today while I was reading aloud, apparently The Sleeper found the story boring enough to take a nap through. I can tell you that I do not read stories in monotone. I am a very expressive reader and most kids sit very attentively throughout the story. Anyway, I asked her to wake up so she could return to her desk to finish work from earlier in the day. I think she was pretending to be asleep, but in any case, she was sitting with her head down, eyes closed, and not working. I had to then play Mean Teacher (for the first time this year) and explain that sleeping in class in NOT AN OPTION. If she didn't want to wake up and work, I could easily find another room for her to go to because I do not allow sleepers. I will admit that I did this a bit louder than I usually would, just because I was setting a standard. Don't think you're going to get away with sleeping in my classroom. It can't possibly be that boring.

"The Predictor" - This is the kid who thinks he knows everything. In fact, he and his mom told me that when they stopped by to drop off his supplies yesterday during my work day. "He didn't learn anything in 3rd grade. Hopefully he'll learn something in 4th." He was the student all day who was 5 steps ahead of everyone else. He was already ready for the next thing and trying to predict what my next set of directions would be. In fact, he was so ahead of me, when I gave him directions to do specific things, he had already done them, but incorrectly. When I started counting, he started counting with me. When I was passing out folders, he was standing 2 feet away waiting for his because he thought it would be next. The only thing this type of child does it make me want to do things in opposite of what he thinks. This may be mean, but if he's so far ahead of me, why do I even need to be there for him. He will learn eventually that he doesn't know everything and that he will need to listen first, then act. Oh and on top of that, he broke one of my rulers. It's the first day of school and we didn't even use rulers, so how did one end of broken????

"Miss Goodie Two Shoes aka Teacher's Pet" - You gotta love them, because they are there to please you and themselves, but they are TOO perfect. That's all I've got for now. Maybe when I have to talk to her about bad choices, she'll be blogged about again.

"Why?" - This child has special needs and is a very large part of learning as I go. I won't give specifics, but what I will say is that part of his 'charm' is asking a gazillion questions. The main question I received OVER AND OVER again today was, "When is the last day of school?" When I passed out their student handbooks and school calendars, he immediately turned to the calendar and wrote all over May 29th that it was his last day of school. I'm not sure what he's going to be doing until June 3rd (which is our actual last day). I think we have somewhere around 170 days to figure that out.

"Teacher" - I have a student who calls me teacher. If there is one thing that bothers me more than pencil tapping and pencil sharpening, and it would be when a child calls me Teacher. I think of it this way...I learned all 20 of your names and usually call you the right one. You have one very important name to learn and you can't do it. This is the only significant development with this child, but I will update if anything comes up.

Of course, each child has their own personality, but these were the most dominate today. I will be sure to share stories as they develop and fill you in on all of my adventures. Although I did teach last year, this is my first first of the year. It's still a learning experience for me. It doesn't matter how many years you've been teaching, each year is a learning experience.

I would also like to wish any new teachers the best of luck. The best thing I recommend it talking about your stresses and 'funnies' to someone who understands.