Rundown of Day 1

I survived.

Observations/anecdotes from the day:

- I was greeted this morning by a FAT semi-dead cockroach just chillaxing upside down on the first shelf of my little shelving unit... right where I usually keep my lunch. Props to my mentor for taking care of that problem.

- 38 kids on our homeroom roster....

consider that.

However, today only 20 showed up. The rest will probably filter in over the next several weeks. Attendance is weird for the "first 20 days," which is the time period used to determine ADA or average daily attendance-- how we receive our per-pupil funding from the district. So in a few weeks we may get to hire another teacher, or have to fire one, depending on how many kids consistently show up.

- Seventh graders are AWKWARD. Seventh grade girls are huge and scared/sullen. Seventh grade boys are tiny (mostly), goofy, and impulsive. Mostly though everyone today was pretty quiet and orderly.

- We eat lunch at 9:30. WHAT?!??!?!?!??!? Salad is inedible that early in the morning.

- We have two students who share (very unusual) names with two famous people... it is funny.

- We have class pets this year, two African dwarf frogs who live in a little self-contained habitat. We let our homeroom girls vote on names, and they named them Justin and Bieber.

Riiiiiggghhttt. We mulled it over for the rest of the day and ultimately decided there was no way on earth we would suffer through a whole year with Justin Bieber frogs. The girls probably won't even LIKE JB by May. Plus, we teacher 3 classes of boys who were all disgusted at the choice.

Overall, it was a great first day, just extremely long-- homeroom for 3+ hours (try entertaining bored & scared 7th grade girls for THREE HOUR), then a quick run through of all 6 of our classes in the afternoon... I saw more than 150 kids today. Then dismissal/helping lost kids find busses, staff meeting, 7th grade team meeting, and work in the classroom.

Welcome to grown up life, I suppose. Pictures of the classroom to come.

Oh, the most important thing I forgot to add-- this morning, when the first kids filtered into our classroom to wait for their homeroom assignment, I was standing in the doorway watching them. And I was just so overwhelmed with LOVE for them. Hopefully this feeling will stay after I get to know them (haha), but I truly to want to learn to love each one of my students with the love of Christ this year. 1 John 4 has been on my heart these past two days and thinking about the definition of real love...