Tuesday, September 4, 2007

First Day Oranges

"Like my daddy and grandaddy on both shoulders steady chilling/ So you got to keep on living like each day is the beginning/
It's yo birthday even on your worst day/Live it like the first day..." -
AB


I'm just aiming for an opposite for "First Day Blues" so don't read into the title (I googled "opposite of blue," it's the best I got)...

Today was the first day of my second year of teaching. See post below for background.

In all, it went pretty well. Not awesome, not bad, definitely room for improvement. In the morning assembly as each teacher was going down the line and introducing themselves and what subject they taught in the mic, I got a little cheer from the kids, so that felt good :)

I'll be honest, I had a lot of butterflies leading up to today. Still kind of do, but just the regulars. Coming off a year like last, I am almost crazy to keep doing this. But I am happy I am. It's not always you can learn from your mistakes and, for at least 20 of my kids from last year (the ones from last year in my classes this year), makeup for your mistakes. The major reason I was so depressed for much of last year was because I thought I was messing up the math education of my students. This year is my chance to enhance their math education.

Middle school is tough. One of the other teachers in the 8th grade, she teaches the English and Language Arts class, cried after school today during our grade team meeting. Her kids were just being assholes - walking around, constantly talking, being disrespectful, throwing papers - basically my last year. I feel bad for her. It'll be rough, these kids are not easy to win over.

But it's an amazing feeling when you do :)

3 comments:

Mizell said...

did you help her out?

Mizell said...

so you didn't...

The DAT said...

haha.. it's hard to. she has to figure her discipline style on her own.

so no.