Career Change: The First Day of School

This day started very early with arriving at my school at 7:00 am.  From that point until just after 4:00 pm, I was constantly on the go and moving.  Wow, it was a long, exhausting day. But I will say I have some of the most amazing kids! 

Of course, my day did not start easily.  I got to my classroom and I had a plan to show my students an great segment that was featured on Anderson Cooper about a high school student who went "From Homelessness to Harvard."  It was a good thing that I decided to test the television setup.  Turns out, I had no sound coming from the television. Naturally, I jumped on the phone to talk to the IT department but got voicemail.  ARGH!  Fortunately I had a bit of time before I needed to panic.  The television needed to be working by my 2nd period class.  Fortunately, I got through to someone during my 1st period, which is my personal planning period, and the situation got fixed.  After that, it was just back to back meeting and greeting students, giving them my big pitch on what goals we will accomplish this year and a bio about little ole me.  I lucked out when I announced my Yankees fan status that I had at least 3-4 fellow fans in every class. Whew.  That could have been disastrous!  :-)  For the most part, the students were great, although many were not thrilled to be back at school and not happy that I gave them homework on the first day.  Oh well, what can you do.  

The funniest part of my day was after I got home.  I had given my students an exit slip asking them what they wanted from me for the school year and received some really funny responses which ran the gamut from bringing in baked goods to no homework.  Um, yeah, "no homework" is not going to happen.  A lot of my students asked me to challenge them, other asked for "easy classes."  Which do you think I'll do??

In addition to this blog, I plan on documenting my first year with photos.  Check out some photos on the "My First Year of Teaching" Shutterfly site.  I'll upload more photos as I take them.