First day of school

So on Wednesday, September 6th, I embarked on a brand new journey: REAL teaching. It was hard for me to sleep the night before, not because I was nervous about the kids, but because I was worried that I didn't have enough planned for us to do for a whole day!

Things you don't learn in university #1: Where to find some good non-curriculuar activities that take up time.

Anyway, I wanted to head out early enough that I wasn't going to be late (obviously), and right on the corner of Pembina and Stafford, a long line of cars stopped suddenly. There was a crunch. I was surprised. I was even more surprised to see that it was ME who had crunched someone else! A CAR ACCIDENT ON THE FIRST DAY!!!!!!!! We pulled over to the nearby bus loop and got out to assess the damage. A guy and a girl were in the other car and when the girl stepped out, I realized that I knew of her from jr. high and high school. We both immediately recognized each other, and after I hastily apologized for what had happened, I told them that it would be great if we could just quickly exchange info because I was a teacher heading to the first day of school. To which Kristin replied "I'm heading to my first day of teaching too!!"

So my day was actually really good- I have a really good group of kids and as it turns out, I DID have enough to do that day.

Things you don't learn in university #2: How to have enough to do every day for the whole year!

The staff at my school are so friendly! On the first day I was invited out for a walk, I was invited to sit at someone else's table at lunch time and both my principal and vice principal checked up on me all day. Even though I bombard the secretaries with questions all the time, they always respond to me with a big smile. I'm feeling good about this job and this place. The best part about it is that it is permanent! That means that, God willing, I will have years to settle in here and make my classroom my own space.

Oh yeah, my classroom. It's Swedish. What I mean is that the teacher before me had put up blue and yellow paper to cover the walls, so when you walk in (especially after having just returned from Sweden), you get an overwhelming sense of Scandinavian patriotism. This is why I have integrated some Pippi Longstocking stories. The class even voted on the name Pippi for our class bunny (don't worry, it's not real). What I don't like about my classroom is that I feel it is too small for 24 kids. And there isn't enough storage.

Things you don't learn in university #3: How not to look like a slob when you don't have enough shelf space.

So, back to the first day of school. When I returned home (with a big headache), Kristin called. I assumed it was about the cars, however, she had something else to talk about. Apparently when she arrived at school that day, her principal asked her if she'd be willing to do an interview on CJOB with John Wells as part of a bit he was doing on what the first day of school is like for new teachers. She agreed to do it. When she was talking to Mr. Wells off the air, she mentioned how her day had started (remember the accident?), and he thought that the story was so "cute" (2 first year teachers running into each other on the first day), that he wanted to know if I would be part of the interview as well. So at 6pm when I got home and Kristin called, I had literally 2 minutes to decide. So I put down my purse and bags and said ok. 5 minutes later I was up in my room waiting for Mr. Wells to call.
The interview was fun, I have never been on the radio before. He only briefly mentioned the accident but was more interested in how we felt about the day and how the kids were.

And as Mr. Wells said, it will be a first day of school that I will not forget.