One down—170 or so to go . . .
The first day of school has come and gone for another year. I got there earlier than anyone else on my team (6:36 a.m.), and stayed later (4:30 p.m.).
In between, I made copies of adjusted class period schedules for all of our teachers, worked with everyone else to coordinate getting our students to the right classes, checked in on everyone during my planning period to make sure everything was running smoothly (relatively speaking, of course), took away two cell phones after making clear that I did not even want to SEE them in my classroom, called the parents of those students on those cell phones (with the students’ permission—they wanted those damn things back) to make it clear that next time the parent would have to come up to the school to retrieve said cell phone, and took away one Mp3 player from a student who was too busy listening to music to hear my warning about not using personal electronic devices during class time. The ironic part? He wasn’t even supposed to be in my class at that time. Had he simply read his schedule better, he might have avoided losing his Mp3 player. I was willing to call his home to explain the rules to his sister (who he said looks after him) but he didn’t want that, so his Mp3 player is locked away in my file cabinet, and will remain there until his caretaker comes and gets it.
I sweated so much my brand-new tie was soaked through where it was touching the shirt that was touching the back of my neck. Needless to say, the shirt was soaked, too. And the wicking T-shirt underneath. It’s why I switched to more expensive wicking undergarments (even my socks) from cheaper but more creep-uppy-when-sweaty cotton. It gets hot on the third floor in an old building with no air conditioning (because the wiring can’t handle the power requirements without extensive capital improvements, apparently).
Thankfully, traffic was light on the way home (relatively speaking, of course), with the only major slowdown being to rubberneck at a nasty-looking accident in the southbound lanes of the Day Ryan. That traffic didn’t look like it was going to go anywhere anytime soon.
I got home, did 10 minutes of tai chi, did 30 minutes on my ski machine (a hand-me-down from Lisa, who told me I could have it if I just took the thing out of her apartment), ate a stylish dinner of PB&J sandwiches and chicken tenders, washed down with a can of Vernors, that ambrosial ginger ale of the Midwest, and sat down to blog.
It’s already past my bedtime (the alarm is set for 4:30 a.m.), and I still have to make up some seating charts and plan some kind of class for tomorrow. I held off from any actual teaching today because about half of my students just didn’t show up. It’s hard to get a regular classroom flow going when students pop in like fireflies and fade away just as quickly.
I got through the first day of school. Now I just have to get through about 170 more.
In between, I made copies of adjusted class period schedules for all of our teachers, worked with everyone else to coordinate getting our students to the right classes, checked in on everyone during my planning period to make sure everything was running smoothly (relatively speaking, of course), took away two cell phones after making clear that I did not even want to SEE them in my classroom, called the parents of those students on those cell phones (with the students’ permission—they wanted those damn things back) to make it clear that next time the parent would have to come up to the school to retrieve said cell phone, and took away one Mp3 player from a student who was too busy listening to music to hear my warning about not using personal electronic devices during class time. The ironic part? He wasn’t even supposed to be in my class at that time. Had he simply read his schedule better, he might have avoided losing his Mp3 player. I was willing to call his home to explain the rules to his sister (who he said looks after him) but he didn’t want that, so his Mp3 player is locked away in my file cabinet, and will remain there until his caretaker comes and gets it.
I sweated so much my brand-new tie was soaked through where it was touching the shirt that was touching the back of my neck. Needless to say, the shirt was soaked, too. And the wicking T-shirt underneath. It’s why I switched to more expensive wicking undergarments (even my socks) from cheaper but more creep-uppy-when-sweaty cotton. It gets hot on the third floor in an old building with no air conditioning (because the wiring can’t handle the power requirements without extensive capital improvements, apparently).
Thankfully, traffic was light on the way home (relatively speaking, of course), with the only major slowdown being to rubberneck at a nasty-looking accident in the southbound lanes of the Day Ryan. That traffic didn’t look like it was going to go anywhere anytime soon.
I got home, did 10 minutes of tai chi, did 30 minutes on my ski machine (a hand-me-down from Lisa, who told me I could have it if I just took the thing out of her apartment), ate a stylish dinner of PB&J sandwiches and chicken tenders, washed down with a can of Vernors, that ambrosial ginger ale of the Midwest, and sat down to blog.
It’s already past my bedtime (the alarm is set for 4:30 a.m.), and I still have to make up some seating charts and plan some kind of class for tomorrow. I held off from any actual teaching today because about half of my students just didn’t show up. It’s hard to get a regular classroom flow going when students pop in like fireflies and fade away just as quickly.
I got through the first day of school. Now I just have to get through about 170 more.
posted by Christopher at
9:09 PM
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