First Day of School

No matter what job you have, there are always days when you Just. Can't. Take. It. There are always times when you want to quit. So I am writing this post for those days- which I know will come- as a reminder for myself: I really do actually love my job. I enjoy what I do. I'm good at what I do. And not everyone has that privilege. 

It was a good first day of school. I have tremendous colleagues. Seriously. None of them are allowed to leave or transfer to other departments because our 6th grade team rocks. And we had multiple awesome people jump in and help us this morning as we taught roughly 100 eleven year olds how to open a combination lock. In humid 90 degree weather. In outdoor hallways. That's a lot of little sweaty hands. 

And I have amazing students. I had one 6th grader assigned to helping some new students navigate their first week at ICS. She wrote to me today about how she might be talking in class a little bit but that I should not be concerned- she would be helping her "ambassidees" (she being their 'ambassador'). And sure enough, every time I saw them today they were a little trio. Others treaded through their first day in the midst of last minute schedule changes or broken lockers or extra long lunch lines. My 7th grade Spanish class followed along and got the gist of things and even laughed and smiled as I started off their introductory level class with some language immersion. One of my former students, now an 11th grader (have I really been here that long?) spent part of her summer watering my plants. She stopped by today to give me my keys and chat for a bit- and I love it when my old "kids" stop in. 

I love how new school years give all of us a fresh start. Even when I get behavior reports or academic scores for a kid, if I haven't met them they still get to make a first impression. But it goes the other way too. I get a fresh start with the students I haven't taught before. I get to find better ways to relate to them, better strategies for teaching them, better ideas for supporting them. 

So first day of school, thank you. Thanks for reminding me of why I do this and what I love about it. But also, you are a bit exhausting, so thank for being over too.