The First Day of School!

The long-awaited day has finally come! After years of waiting . . . After months of anxious anticipation . . . After weeks of impatience . . . I have finally started a blog. (oh, and my first-ever-first-day-of-school-and-I'm-going-to-be-the-teacher-for-the-rest-of-the-year was today, too!) How do you fit into just a few paragraphs all the excitement and adventure crammed into one 7-hour school day?? I'll see if I can hit some of the highlights.


I got there extra early -- I guess so I would have more time to think of all the things I hadn't gotten done.


At this point I feel it necessary to insert a "historical account" of the past week. I arrived at the school last Monday to be greeted by the 12-year accumulation of "stuff" the previous teacher didn't want to lug to her new home in the midwest. Not that it was all bad -- I found some useful stuff (amid the useless, of course!). I decided at that point how I wanted to decorate my room, only to discover the following day that 90% of my decorations were Missing-in-Action! The remainder of the week was spent preparing for orientation on Thursday night - thanks to the wonderful assistance from some new friends. They were willing to give up their time (which I'm sure doesn't come easily) to help me get my room in order. They loaned me a calendar, decorations, posters, helper charts, and I'm sure a lot more that I can't think of right now. In the end, my room ended up looking something like this (minus the chairs on the desks):



View from the back door View from the front door


My Desk!!!!! 90% borrowed bulletin board



Organization!!!



Anyway, back to today! My 25 students (one is on vacation) were fairly well-behaved today. They kept talking, but what 3rd graders aren't?? We finished all our work today, and some even listed me as their favorite teacher when I gave them an "about me" paper to fill out. I'm not quite sure how I could be their favorite teacher since I've only actually been their teacher for one day (maybe that's why -- they don't know me yet!)

Another first of the day was the first tooth lost in my class! One little girl lost her tooth sometime in the afternoon -- I guess it can't get much earlier in the year than that!

Other than that, the day was hopefully as close to "normal" and "routine" as it gets (pipe dreams for a new teacher, I know, but, please - give me my moment!!)

I guess that's all for now -- please post a comment so I know at least someone's reading it. (first-timers, you can post with your name without entering an e-mail address)

Until tomorrow . . .