The Horrors of my first day as a real teacher

I worked frantically at the beginning of this week to get all my lessons finished and my room in working order. Wednesday night, I went over all of my kids names several times and spent some time praying for them and their families. I could barely sleep all night thinking through the next day and what I still needed to do Thursday morning. If I had known what kind of day it was going to be, I would have taken some sleeping pills to ensure a good night's rest.

8:15 the next morning came rather quickly, and before I knew it, I was staring into the blank little faces of fourteen 3 and 4 year olds. Their faces were blank because I was asking them to get in a line... I failed to remember that they were probably not going to have any idea what a line is unless they for some really odd reason walk around in a line with their families. So 80 pairs of eyes (the ENTIRE school) watched as I attempted to get my children in a line. The line lasted about 3 feet...it all fell apart when we had to go up the stairs (the school is on the second floor of the complex). At the top, we regrouped...and I put them in a line once again. The next 15 minutes were spent traveling a whole 20 yards to our classroom..stopping ever 3 or so steps to fix our line...we made it to the classroom and they found their coathooks with very little trouble.
On to the playdough..Always check materials that you may have had for a long time. The playdough turned out to be REALLY sticky (I think it was homemade). That wasn't really a problem, but then the kids all needed and wanted to wash their hands. I have a bathroom complete with a sink and one stall in my room (which is perfect). But I had to get them all in, you guessed it, a LINE in order to use the sink....of course, they all just wanted to push and shove. In the middle of all of this, one of my students (who happens to be the youth pastor's son) decided that he needed to use the restroom, but didn't close the door. Luckily I spotted him about 2 seconds before the other kids did!

Fortunately, I had no problems getting the kids to sit on their carpet squares, at least for about 3 minutes. We talked about the calendar and weather and how we should act at school all the while I had Thomas counting to 15 over and over and over. I had bought a Beta for our class pet...low maintence and easy to replace if he died. I thought it would be fun for the kids to help name him...you know, take some ownership. Well, when I asked what we should name him, one child suggested "Fishie" and yet another said "Catchfishie" (I'm not sure if this is a name or what the child was wanting to do at the moment) I suggested Harry and some others. But the real moment of truth came when one child suggested Jumpy and the rest of the children shouted in happiness...so I now have a very calm, laid back, relaxed, even shy Beta named Jumpy...what?!

Center time came next and despite the fact that we talked about what it meant to clean up, when I rang that clean up bell, the kids continued to play...although they did pause and look at me for a brief second...I moved from station to station encouraging kids to clean-up. Most did. Thomas decided that he needed to stay in the house. I would remove him and turn around to do something else, he would be right back in there. I FINALLY got the kids in a line (right) to go to recess. Recess went really well other than Thomas (you will notice that I mention him a lot). Now Thomas is real little guy...the littlest in my class, but he insists that he is big enough for the jungle gym. He gets to the top, gets scared, and yells for me to come get him down. I get him down, instruct him not to climb on it anymore, only to return 5 minutes later due to his calling out from the top of the apparatus. This cycle continues the entire recess. <

After recess is snack. The kids bring their own snack, and I supply snack for those that forget or can't supply their own. Apparently their parents didn't explain to them the difference between a snack and a lunch because before I knew it, half of the kids were eating their lunch. I was running around the room snatching food away innocent little children....they were upset, but they would have been more upset if they didn't have anything to eat for lunch. I have one child, Torey, who would eat all day if he could. I'm sure of it. The rest of the morning went smoothly...well, except for one thing...Thomas (yes, him again) came out of the bathroom with everything down around his ankles because he couldn't get his pants pulled up. In front of everyone...yep.

At 11:30, the kids get ready for lunch, and I take my four half-day kids down to meet their parents. Unfortunately they are four of the kids that listen. I missed them all afternoon. Lunch was interesting. I got the kids around the table and went child by child making sure that everything they needed was opened etc. Then I sat down and attempted to eat my own lunch MISTAKE NUMBER THREE I should just never ever try to sit down. As soon as I did about five kids needed water or to go to the bathroom or something opened. I didn't get to Thomas quickly enough so he asked Torey to help him open a little package of mustard...Thomas held the bottom while Torey tried to open the top...they got it open, but squeezed in the process and end up with mustard all over the two of them!!! I had to giggle at that one. During lunch, one of my students, John showed up. His parents had forgotten that it was the first day of school so they came at lunch time. AFter lunch was yet another recess of rescueing Thomas from the jungle gym every five minutes and then NAPTIME....yeah, I thought I might get a little breather. MISTAKE NUMBER FOUR - don't ever think that when working with 3 and 4 year olds, at least not on the first day of school. When we got back to the room after lunch, I watched in horror as my new little student John took a running start at the biggest kid in class(Kenny) and knocked him flat on his back. The result? Kenny putting John in a headlock. I separated those two and got the rest of them to lay down. I sat down in my comfy chair and just tried to breathe. BUT then I remember that there was a girl in the bathroom and she had been there a very long time...when I checked on her, I discovered another bathroom incident too disgusting to talk about...'

After rest, we had center time again during which the kids totally forgot what we had talked about center playing earlier in the day...I ended up with game pieces everywhere...the house a total disaster area....AND the Jumpy the fish loosing water. I couldn't handle my things being broken (because our school literally has no money to replace things...we don't hardly have money for the curriculum that we need) so I ended play time early and took the little tykes on a tour of the school. MISTAKE NUMBER FIVE John took out Kenny again...two of my girls ran right into the 4th grade room..while I was retrieving them, John ran into the teacher's lounge and hit buttons on our REALLY OLD AND FRAGILE copy machine.....ahhhhhh...I was loosing my mind. The principal-who is the greatest person alive right now-helped me get the kids back in a line and back down to my room. In this process, she informed me that she was expediting the aid hiring process-Praise Jesus! I somehow managed to get the kids ready for home. I had them lined up at the door and had to grab their folders off of the table. MISTAKE NUMBER SIX In the second that my back was turned, the door flew open and out flew 3 little boys....running like the wind....waaaaayyyy down the hall! Retrieved them, and took the kids in some sort of a line downstairs to meet their parents. I told Thomas's mom that he needed to listen better, and John's mom that he could not hit or wrestle at school. As my last child drove away, I looked at the 1st grade teacher and said "I don't want to be a teacher anymore." Then I went upstairs to gather my things for our meeting only to discover a plant from a very special person that sent me straight to tears...much needed tears after my day.

The last place I wanted to be was in a teacher's meeting at the end of this day, but at the beginning of the meeting, the principal decided that before we did anything, she wanted the teachers to pray for me and for the first year teacher. It was so great...I spent most of Thursday night alternatly zoning out and trying to evaluate my day. I decided that while I knew I would have to teach the children very basic things, I think I tried to introduce too many of those things in one day...especially since the structured environment was very new to them.

I replanned my Friday, and was greeted with an aid on Friday morning. The second day of teaching was AWESOME. The kids remembered quite a bit. Thomas listened better (although recess still consists of me rescueing him ever five minutes), and John only hit once. AND they walked in a line SEVERAL times. Once these kids get the routine down and understand what school is all about, I'm going to have the greatest year...I have some wonderful personalities...