In all likelihood, you'll be reading this post after your own first day back with the kiddies. But I'm writing it just before dinner on the eve of the first day of school. So I thought I'd reflect briefly on how I'm feeling, which is, namely...serene? Chill? Calm? They seem like very strange words to describe this particular eve. They seem inadequate. No, indeed, they seem wrong.But I am serene and chill and calm. Everything is ready. My new colleagues at TMS2 heartily complimented my classroom setup. I left school at 3:45 this afternoon, pleased to have my setup work completed. A lively lesson is ready to go for tomorrow. Copies are made. Clothes are ironed. Tomorrow night's dinner is in the Crock-Pot, even. Life is good.
I don't know, friends, maybe this is standard for you. My life is more fly-by-the-seat, if you will, so facing down the first day of school with everything under control is a slightly bizarre feeling. But I'm merely excited and glad to meet my new students tomorrow, not afraid. My new administrators seem strangely humane and reasonable, qualities which I had long assumed were outlawed in the DOE. Their enthusiasm and that of my new colleagues was infectious today. And, well, maybe I've just now, after a few solid years of teaching, been able to conceive of at least most of what can and does go wrong on the first day and plan for it.
So I'm ready. I'm sure you are too. If you're reading this in the wee hours before heading to work, good luck. And if you're reading this after putting in your first day, hope it was terrific.
[This, by the way, is my last weekly Wednesday post. For those of you who just can't get enough of Miss Eyre, rejoice: I'm back to posting twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting Tuesday, September 14. I'll also be blogging at my own place with greater frequency.]
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