The New Me

Well...the first full week of school is complete. Whew! It always wears me out. The first three days of this week, I was really surprised with how much energy I had. Then...on Thursday...I hit a wall. The three day weekend ahead was what helped me push through to the end.

Last year I was so surprised at how quiet my classes were at the beginning of the school year. This year, I am enjoying the quietness/shyness/fear of these first few days! I have a great group of kids with no huge behavior issues making a presence yet. There are a few that have the potential of heading that way, but they are athletes. It is so nice when the bad ones are athletes. A quick talk to the coach and things usually turned around real quick!


I learned last year that not learning students' names really hurt me when the honeymoon period of quietness/shyness/fear ended. It took me several weeks last year to get everyone's name down. This year I made an effort to learn all of their names in the first two days of school. It has helped SO much! I love knowing their names and being able to call them out and not have to point, walk over to them, or try to make sure they know I am talking to them with my eyes.

It was so weird the first couple of days of school seeing my students (who are no longer mine) sit in someone else's classroom as 8th graders. I loved my kids from last year and am missing them this year. I'm like a proud mom in the hall when I see them and when other teachers talk about how well they're doing so far. I was trying to decide the other day if I missed them enough to really wish they were still mine. (Not that it really matters) But, I think I like just seeing them in the hall...kind of like proud grandparents...spoil them and then send them home (to their 8th grade teachers).

Ms. Hemric is what I hear in the halls as my former 7th graders, now 8th graders, walk by.  To make things easy, I worked hard to get my name changed as quickly as possible after the wedding so I could start this school year as Mrs. Snyder. That switch has been so weird for me. I'm not a fan of change and this week has been the combination of all kinds of change coming to light...I'm on a new team, in a new classroom, have new students, have a new name. I don't like it. I miss my old teammates. I miss (some) of my old students. I miss being Ms. Hemric. I respond to Mrs. Snyder because I know it's my name, but in my head it feels like that moment when someone calls you by the wrong name, but you don't want to tell them so you just go with it. Being married is AWESOME! Learning to be the new me is a little bit harder...but I'm learning!

Funny Moments
Earlier this week, one of my former students came in the room and yelled, "Hey, Ms. Hemric!"
One of my current students responded (with quite a bit of sass) "Her name is Mrs. Snyder!"
After I responded back to my former student without correcting him, my current student was very offended. He wanted to know why he called me Ms. Hemric. When I reminded him I got married this summer he said..."Ohhhh!"

I always have my students fill out an information sheet at the beginning of the year. The responses are always very interesting as you may remember from this post last year. I was surprised this year at how many of students said that the thing they are most afraid of is the dark. My favorite response was to "Who do you admire/look up to?" One of my boys responded "Me...I just do." Gotta love the honesty!

Here's to a restful and relaxing labor day weekend!

PS Wedding pics are up on my photographer's blog. Go check them out here!