Surviving the first week of school in our district is a feat worthy of an award. And I'm not just talking about teachers.
Yes, teachers have a little more stress on them since they are in charge. However, our district feels it's necessary to try to kill off teachers, students and parents all at once. Elementary teachers have an open house the first "official" day back to work. High school teachers have PST on their first "official" day back to work. Middle school teachers in my building have two nights at school for PST which equals out to two 14 hour work days. One of those happens to fall on the first day of school....so add to that mix students who are still in shock from waking up before noon and parents who are sick already of being at school for meetings and we have a lethal combination. But, it appears my opinion counts little to nothing, so until the parents start throwing fits, nothing will change.
Thing 1 started 4th grade and had an incredible teacher whom she bonded with immediately and loved. Had. Three days into the week we were notified they had enough extra kids to hire an additional teacher so they were going to take her teacher (she was in a 4-5th blend) and put her at 5th grade and move the 4th graders to a new teacher. Most kids are probably fine with the switch, but Thing 1 doesn't do well with change and is freaking out. Friday night was a sob session for her as she revealed the reason she was so naughty was she didn't want to leave Mrs. Cronin. (That was half of it--the other half was she was exhausted from the week.) Anyway, Monday brings a new teacher, and by new I mean brand new out of college. Thing 1 is a teacher's dream come true, so she will be fine eventually.
Thing 2 loves her daycare and has a new playmate there so she is doing great and is still potty trained. She is however, much more vocal in her protests and also in her happiness. Screaming when happy has become the new norm. Although it's headache inducing for me, there's something rather awesome about a very happy little girl. Even if her sweet little face doesn't match her potty mouth, as exhibited by her recent, "Goodnight, Butthole" to her sister, who by the way, taught her that lovely word.
My students appear to be pretty normal 12 year olds. There's a few naughty boys who have surfaced quite quickly, and even more lazy ones who have emerged quite quickly, too. I haven't found many issues with the girls yet, but I believe they're still a little intimidated by me and will refrain from the girl drama for another week. My motto is to use whatever works to make them understand you're in charge---so intimidation works for me, at least until they figure me out a little more....which means I have about one more week of "the honeymoon" period.
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