Honeymoon

I don't know if I've finally figured out what I'm doing, or if the stars were just aligned right, or if someone up there just loves us, but this was the smoothest, and best, first day of school we've ever had at The School.  And this, despite the fact that PowerSchool has been very cranky as of late and was going up and down all morning long.  Our phones worked, the kids all had schedules, and everyone pretty much showed up where they were supposed to.

Now the schedule thing may not seem like a big thing to some folks, but being able to give a kid a schedule, listing classes and teacher names, is like gold.  For one thing, the parents want to see it.  And for another, it makes a kid feel important.  One of our aides had a son starting middle school across town and his schedule had his name on it, and nothing else - no one could figure out where he was supposed to go.  And from what he said about the lines in the guidance department, he was not alone.  (And he was NOT happy, either.)  Our guidance department seemed almost empty, especially compared to what a busy place it can be some days.

The two Criers that my team was bequeathed did quite well.  Both of these kids, Crying Boy and Crying Girl are painfully shy and very attached to their Mom's and Do Not Want to Be at School.  I had guidance put them both in Mrs. Reading-Mom's class because she's the warm, cuddly type (and is back from maternity leave, we missed her!) and she'd do well with them.  The good news is that neither cried today, and Crying Girl actually got up and participated in a "getting to know you" activity.  A huge accomplishment considering both these kids spent a lot of time in guidance just sobbing their eyes out.  (I actually know Crying Girl because she's in our Board Game Club - and she'd sit there and cry for whatever reason - she can never really give you one - but she'd come every week and once she got over the tears, she played games and made a few friends.)

My home room of 26 kids ended up with 24 showing up...which is pretty good.  They all seemed bright and happy to be there - none of the eye-rolling 'tude I got from my kids last year.  In fact, Mrs. Eagle and I both commented that these kids seemed more like kids, not like the twelve-year-olds going on 32 we had last year.  They were quite a bit of fun.   Chatty, but they got the message pretty quick over when to talk and when to shut up.  I actually had fun with them today, and believe me, there are years when it's almost torture to get through this first half day.

But then again, it's the honeymoon.  We'll see how they are by the end of next week.

But we can always hope, can't we?