First Week

I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged...time flies when you're having fun!

So, the first week is under my belt and today we begin week two. I am having a BLAST! I love being a teacher. I don't know if it's having a (truly) captive audience, holding all that power in my hot little hands, or just getting paid to talk all day. Just kidding! I love the kids. And I love seeing them get excited and having fun with Social Studies. I love to see them thinking.

I'm teaching a mix of ages. I have everyone but 8th graders in my classes. I must admit, the 7th graders scared me at first...that is my last class of the day and it includes 16 boys and 4 girls. I wouldn't want to teach middle school all the time, but (so far) they have been a lot of fun. My seniors barely fit in the desks and here are the 7th graders with their legs dangling. And turns out they are all drummers! (That's when I could really use a sedative.) They are constantly drumming or pecking something. It really gets maddening at times. I'm trying to quit smoking and by that time of the day the eyes are already starting to roll from the lack of nicotene...add to that 20 kids all drumming different beats...it's not pretty.

Zack is fitting in and has made new friends already. I keep hearing from his other teachers what a great kid he is. It was pretty weird that first day when he entered my classroom and sat down. Neither one of us really knew quite how to act. Every time I made a joke (which is quite often those first couple of days), he would cover his face with his hands. Must admit, that put me a little on edge...I think I'm pretty funny, for the most part. However, he did tell me later that he was covering his face to laugh...he got the jokes and didn't want everyone to think he was on crack. I think that was meant to be a compliment.

Speaking of crack...that's how the ice was broken in his class. I was asking geography trivia questions and one question was about "gauchos". No one knew the answer so I explained to them that gauchos are cowboys from Argentina. Then I added that they were also an 80's fashion that were not meant for short girls with big butts. When a teacher acknowledges that her posterior may be a little on the large side...students never really know how to react...so there were just questioning looks coming my way. Then I read the next question..."Where is the largest crack on earth, so large it can be seen from space?" I don't remember the answer, just know that at that point everyone started laughing out loud....augh, 9th grade humor!