1st Day with Students

Today was the first day with students--a good first day, although, I had no voice by the end of it.

Meggie was very nice and made me a breakfast sandwich this morning before I left for school. I got there a little earlier, to make sure I had enough time to make sure everything was set-up. Then, the kids came in, and the day started.

I taught 5 classes today, and had some extra prep time, since the pull-out instrument lesson program won't start till Tuesday. I used this extra time to finish my seating charts, hand in forms I had to fill out, make some more copies, and make copies of my band handbook (Joan got it back to me first thing in the morning--she approved all of my changes... YAY, I have administrative support!). The rest of my day was spent teaching.

I had a 5th grade, a 6th grade, a 3rd grade, and two 4th grades to teach today. All of the students I had were good, and many seemed happy to see me again. It makes you feel good when a student sees you and says "Hey, Mr. !!! How was your summer?" The neat thing about the beginning of the year, is that you forget that all of the kids have been promoted. And the general rule of thumb (for me, anyway), is you have more behavior problems as the kids get older. For example, I had a 6th grade class today. When I think "6th grade," I think of last year's 6th graders, some of who were a big pain by the end of last year. So, that's who I was thinking off when planning this class. When a class walked in, I saw them as the 5th graders I had last year, which are a lot less threatening. This same psychology applies basically to all of my classes. The only classes which are a challenge now are 3rd grade, because these kids are all new to me, which means about 60 names to learn. I'll get them all by the end of the year!

After school, I was nowhere near as busy, and felt like I have had my first break from school since the in-services started. I still had quite a project--I had to fill out this form indicating when the student's band lesson would be (60 of these!), and attach each one to the band handbook. I will give these to the homeroom teachers tomorrow so they can distribute them to the previous year's band students. I really hope I don't have too many quit. I have this bad feeling for some reason that I am going to lose a lot of students. I hope I'm wrong.

Well, it's bedtime. I gotta back up my stuff, and get ready for bed. Hey, you known what's cool? Tomorrow's FRIDAY! (which means I get to wear jeans!!)