the first seven days.

Hello all!

As I write this, I can hardly believe that I have been an active head teacher for seven school days so far. I met my students on September 6th when they waltzed into the classroom full of energy and excitement. Some of them had done summer school together and some had gone to camp together, but there was still much for them to catch up on. Many kids at the school do not have friends and family that sign at home. As a result, school is a special place for them and they are always thrilled to be back at the beginning of the year.

I have four students who are each ten years old. They are all incredibly unique and different from each other which makes for a very eclectic classroom. There is never a dull moment in class 305!

One girl, A, has a cochlear implant and is my most verbal student. She is hilariously sassy, constantly saying things like "What are you doing?" or "Oh my god" the way an annoyed teenager would speak to her mother. She loves the attention, though, and when I laugh at her comments, she laughs right back.

The other girl, L, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair but is constantly determined to keep up with her friends. While there is a divide between what she can do independently and what she needs help with, she always insists on trying it herself before an adult helps her. I encourage this attitude and let her try everything herself first, even if it takes a few extra moments. She works hard in class and is sharp as a tack.

One of the boys, M, also has a cochlear implant but is not very verbal. He is obsessed with cars, shoes, and water to the point where we have to time how long he is allowed to stand at the water fountain. I have to be the strictest with him because he is constantly forgetting himself and gets easily distracted. However, he is the happiest of the bunch. You can't imagine how endearing it is to have to use your sternest facial expressions for a student who will just realize he made a mistake and fix himself, never upset with you for calling him out or trying to correct him.

And finally, the other boy, D, just moved from the Dominican Republic a year ago and had very little language but now is a beautiful ASL storyteller. He loves to read which absolutely thrills me. He also loves to be a mini-teacher, often telling the other kids what to do and sometimes even repeating exactly what I just said to the other students. I am trying to work with him on how to tell the difference between what is unnecessary for him to tell the other students and what is helpful.

All of them are emotional. I have spent so much time with kids under the age of 3 that it was easy for me to forget what 10-year-olds are like. They are old enough to have fascinating conversations with, to know most of the differences between right and wrong, and to understand that there are consequences for certain behaviors. However, they are also still very young and get upset about what color marker they were given that day, about other kids copying them, about being told to do something, and about various other things. Their lives are like soap operas! In their world, a scandal is when someone doesn't sit next to them at lunchtime.

And I am loving every minute of it.

I am still finding my groove, for sure. There is so much to plan on a constant basis - I have sticky notes of reminders and to-do lists all over my desk. On top of planning lessons, I am doing research for those lessons, writing letters home, building my class library, tracking down textbooks, organizing and reorganizing and decorating the classroom, and so much more. I know that the chaos will die down soon once I can find my footing and plan more longer-term lessons.

But here's the thing. Nick asked me one day last week how my day was and I had to hesitate before answering. My natural instinct was to say, "It was so stressful. I was running around like a madwoman and one of my kids had an emotional breakdown after lunch and I couldn't find a form that I was supposed to give to my supervisor and the whole day was just really crazy." I wanted to say that, because it was true. However, I wasn't...upset about it. I wasn't thinking to myself, "Ugh, this job is tough" or "God, this job sucks." Yes, I was stressed out and I am constantly sweating over how to handle the littlest things (like when one of my students holds up a piece of paper in front of her face because she doesn't want me to talk to her. She's deaf. Think about that), but at the end of the day, my exhaustion is a good one. I am enjoying myself. The stress is a different kind of stress - one that doesn't weigh me down or make me not look forward to the next day. For all the crazy moments, there are really sweet or enlightening moments too. I have already learned so much about myself in the past two weeks that I can't imagine what the rest of the year is going to look like. Yes, I'm sure there will be days when I can't wait to get home and wash myself clean of the chaos of the day, but for now, I am feeling so confident about my love for this job.

So there you have it, the first post about my first job. Here's to what is hopefully a successful school year!