28.8.07

First Day Part Deux

I had a good first day. My kids were all sweet and nice and tried to pay attention. Some of them cracked me up. One kid was very cordial. When I went to get my homeroom class, he ended up at the front of the line. As we walked down that walkway, he said, “How has your morning been Ms. Baeza.”

There was also the kid who told our principal we’d been making collages. She walked in just to see how the kids were doing. She was impressed that they said they’d been having a great day. They were right though. It was a great day—if only I could find shoes that feel like clouds and all will be well.

One of the best things about the first day of school is seeing all the older students. Seventh graders are the best because they’re the ones that always come back. All of my former students, who I refer to as old sixth graders, wanted to come by to say hello and see the new sixth graders. Half of the ones that came by wanted to be back in my class. It’s nice to be able to turn them away because they deserve to be in a 7th grade class.

27.8.07

First Day

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I was a little nervous this whole weekend, and then I met one of my students today. She’s the younger sister of one of the 8th graders. She came by with her dad and her brother. I told her she’d be in my homeroom and talked to her dad a bit. He saw my poster of Cesar Chavez and told me about having met him in California. It was really cool.

I have to constantly remind myself that this isn’t my first year of teaching and I know a lot more now. My biggest fear is having students like the ones I had my first year—some classes are more challenging than others. But if I make it about building relationships before completely focusing on instruction, I think it will make all the difference. At least that’s what I learned last year.

I’m sure that once I get into super star mode tomorrow all will be great.