One down...35 more to go...

Well, we are officially done with week one of the school year. Where did summer go?? 

I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous about starting school on a Monday. The past few years we've started in the middle of the week and I've been dragging by the end. I didn't know how I was going to do a full five days right from the start. But, I am happy to say that it was not as bad as I had anticipated. I had a hard time getting up Tuesday morning and was already wondering how I was going to make it until Friday. However,  after that, I didn't feel all that tired until Friday. Our classes are shorter this year so I felt really rushed trying to get introductory stuff done so I could dive into our first unit. This made the days go by really quickly.

Friday was a long day. I like to let my students choose and work in groups at some point during the first week.This lets me see who their friends are (aka who not to sit them near when I make a new seating chart) and it lets me see how well they work together. So, on Friday we had a review activity and I let them choose groups. They did really well with it. However, since I wasn't doing very much other than monitoring and observing, they day felt like it would never end. And, I may have come home and taken a 2 hour nap Friday afternoon.

Overall, I was impressed at how well I made it through the week physically. The transition back into school this year has been much easier than it was last year. My feet and legs didn't hurt that bad until late Thursday and I was able to get up on time everyday. It has been much smoother this year, thank goodness!

So far my kids are great. There are about 5...maybe? that I anticipate having trouble with. I was tough on them this week trying to get the message through that they were not going to disrupt my class. I will say that going 5 days in a row from day 1 really helped me get into a routine with my students quicker than I normally do. I hope the practice this week will set the stage for the rest of the year because they did great with everything this week!

The atmosphere and mood at school has been great and really positive so far, which is a HUGE difference from the end of last year. Our principal presented herself much more calmly (?) (I don't know if that is the best word...) than last year. Another teacher and I decided the same saying that is true for homes can be said about a school: "If mama (the principal) ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" I think she needed summer break as much as the rest of us. Her summer wasn't easy or all that relaxing, but I can tell she has come in a with a fresh and positive approach to this school year, which was much needed.

Students are always quiet the first few days back so I don't have anything too humorous to share other than this one story. I have a lot of my day camp kids this year. In one of my classes I have 3. They're doing great and working really hard to call me Mrs. Snyder even though they've called me Erin since they were 6 years old or younger. One of the boys said on Friday he was surprised he hadn't called me by my first name yet. Another student who is not one of my campers said, "You mean Erin?" The boy (my camper) got this wide eyed, shocked expression on his face and just looked at me like "OMG she just said your first name." His response would have made you think she had called me a bad word or something. I just played it off and kept going with the conversation.

Now, I'm enjoying my long weekend and getting prepared for the weeks to come!

Happy 2012-2013 school year! It's going to be a good one!