first day of school

Days upon days of rain. It rained so hard on Saturday that I cancelled my lazy-enough plans of going to the movies and simply went to sleep.

Today was my first official day back at wor..."back to school"... and the sun was shining brightly. The sky was a perfect blue and clouds were scattered across the sky. I was stuck in a classroom with a bunch of 13 year olds. Either they've already gotten the puberty-is-hitting-and-you-need-deodorant discussion OR the humidity was low... no rancid body odor smell in the room, even at the end of the day. This was one of the day's highlights!

I wonder how many official first days of school I have had... kindergarten through 12th grade [13], college [4, 8 if you are counting in terms of semesters vs years]... I recall a first day in middle school. I got this pajama ensemble at Macey's. It "looked like" a normal outfit though, or so I thought at the time. I remember blue stripes... horizontal? I must've looked a mess.

The first day went pretty well... I am so comfortable with speaking in front of classes now but I remember when I started teaching, how reserved I was. I can only imagine what I looked like from a student's perspective... my voice was probably soft...I remember I used to convert my sentences into questions, ending with "Okay?," as if I was seeking the class's approval of what I was saying. I probably had my hands curled under, or held behind my back, or in some other weak position. My hair was probably covering my face... some idiotic theory that a curtain of hair covering the face will protect me from the wrath of badly behaved students.

Screw that now. I'm nowhere near being a "master teacher," but I definitely feel comfortable.
I even feel comfortable with acting like a crazy person in front of the students. If I am reading aloud, I can yell, show fear, maniacally laugh, weep, and so on. Because when it comes down to it, it's just a room full of 13 year olds. I can survive:)

Speaking of surviving, it would be hilarious if they had a Survivor-esque show where they pull people out of their regular jobs and have them teach for a day...