Strange title, right? Well I don't want to start counting at Day 1 until the kids actually start their first day. Since that isn't until Wednesday, I figured I'd make today Day -1 and tomorrow Day 0. ;P
My feet hurt. I'm utterly exhausted. But my mind is still SO EXCITED. This is going to be an amazing year - I can already tell. Let me fill you in on what we did today.
We had to be there at 8:30 this morning for the first staff meeting of the year where we were all introduced and given little pins in the shapes of puzzle pieces attached to a message that more or less describes us student teachers as an integral part of the Flory family and inducted us as honorary Flory Falcons. Then we did a team building exercise where we had to build a bridge out of newspaper and it had to meet two requirements: 1) a soccer ball had to be able to roll underneath it, and 2) it had to support the weight of one dictionary. We succeeded, but we didn't make it to more than one dictionary haha.
After that we all went to lunch in a food court near school. It was nice because I just got to sit and talk with Mandy (my cooperating teacher) for a while. She's such a sweet lady, I'm so blessed to have had the cards work out in my favor. She's so energetic and funny and passionate about what she does. I couldn't have asked for a better role model in this important time in my life. It's so evident that she really cares about her students and holds them in her heart as if they were her own. That's a truly special quality to have as a teacher.
Then we came back and it was time for prep, prep, and more prep! I wrote kids names on things for hours haha. It's so funny that I'm already so familiar with their names and I haven't even seen their faces. I don't know them yet, but I already love them. No joke. All 22 of them. 22 little tinys whose parents will be dropping them off through some tearful goodbyes on Wednesday morning, trusting their most precious possessions in my hands. What a blessed job I am getting into.
After a short break and a quick pit stop to see my love and the rock who I think is going to help get me through the inevitable tough parts of this year, I was back at school for Back-to-School Night (BTSN)! There were a lot of parents, I think out of our class of 22, only three families didn't show up. What was most impressive was how many families showed up for the second session conducted for Spanish-speaking families. Our school serves a very diverse population, and with that comes a variance in socio-economic status. But putting language differences and SES aside, it was nice to see so many parents come out in support of the beginnings of their child's education. That's where it has to begin. If teachers have parents to work with that want the best for their child, they have so much more support than if they are going it alone. In Work Hard, Play Nice, I think that was a big contributor to their success - parent support gave them more freedoms in teaching and more support across the board.
With the high degree of English Language Learners and the poverty levels of families in the district, I think it will be really exciting to see how ACT strategies work in such a diverse environment. Definitely looking forward to it.
