My least favorite day of the year

That would be the first day of school. Is there any teacher who actually LIKES being a teacher on day one of the new year? It’s like, the last time I had a classroom full of kids, they were perfectly trained and knew exactly what to do. I knew their personalities and they knew mine. The day flowed smoothly. And now? Here we go, starting all over again. Where to put your backpack, where to sit, where to find the morning work assignment on the board, what to do with your supplies…and that’s just the first 2 minutes of the kids walking in the room! Whew. Exhausting and just not fun. Plus there’s the stress of not knowing what you’re gonna get. You take whichever kids are assigned to your room and pray none of them turn out to be total lunatics.

My first three years of teaching, I thought I was going to die on the first day of school. It was HeadStart (three and four year olds). I don’t think I need to elaborate about what the first day of school is like for preschool teachers…but multiply that stress by two, because it was a half day program! Yes, that’s TWO first days of school in one! So instead of repeating yourself six hundred times, you’re actually saying everything twelve hundred times. And it takes twice as long for the kids to get into the routines because they’re in school for such a short period of time. I kept thinking to myself, didn’t I TELL him not to tap me on my hip when he needs me? Oh, yeah, that was the morning kid, this is the afternoon kid. I just explained to eighteen children not to tap me, and now, I get to explain it to another eighteen kids! Oh, boy! I wonder if that’s what it’s like to be a specials teacher (music, art, P.E.), etc…

But honestly, this was probably my lowest-stress first day of school ever. I actually left at 3:00. That’s never happened! And I even had energy after school–my fiancee and I went down to South Beach and had dinner at one of the cafes and then walked around for a bit. We planned that the night before and I found that having something fun to look forward to at the end of a big day really helped when I was kind of worn out while teaching. I just thought to myself, hey, in a few hours, I’ll be sitting under the palm trees with a cup of coffee and piece of tiramasu. Woo-hoo, I can do this!

So, how was YOUR first day?