I’ve heard from many teachers that the first day of a school year never gets any easier. They say that even if you have been teaching for 29 years, out of all of those days, you’ve only had 29 “first-days” of school. This first day was umpteen times easier than last year, but for several reasons. 1) I have a year of school under my belt, not a lot, but more experience than I had this time last year. 2) It was only a half day of school 3) unlike last year where I was teaching third grade and had my class most of the day, this year I am teaching middle school. I have groups for 55 minutes at a time with a few breaks in between.
I am a big fan of starting the year with a half day. We started off our day by mingling with the kids dropped off at the school then, around 7:50 everyone headed over to the basketball court for an assembly. We sang some songs, had a small devotional, introduced the staff and then released everyone to start their day. We did 30 minute slots and the grade levels traveled together to the teachers they were going to have. I had my 7th and 8th grade history classes come to me. I gave them my spiel about rules and expectations and what they can expect in the class this year. I tried to learn names but was unsuccessful. I had several tricky names in my class last year and I now see that was prepping for the names in my class this year. I only mispronounced a few, score!
The school-day ended around noon and then the teachers ate lunch and went back to work in their rooms. Today was a great way to gently ease into the school year. Full day of school tomorrow though, the fun really begins!
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