I never want to tie another shoe again!

Let's be honest, the first week of school is rough on most people- new and old traumatized students of all ages for all reasons, teachers, parents, etc. As far as first weeks go, mine was pretty uneventful. I didn't lose any children, I didn't have to call any parents, I didn't have any blood or tears. I do have the rowdy first grade class. They have ants in their pants. They also are little and still figuring out what school is all about and how to negotiate it all.

Oh yeah, and they all have shiny new shoes that probably don't fit them well and NEW LACES THAT DON'T STAY TIED! I have never been more of a fan of Velcro than I am right now. Aren't they supposed to learn how to tie their shoes in kindergarten? And button buttons, and do up zippers? As of yet, I have not made a tape box around my chair. That's because I stand. And they can't pet me if I keep moving. No, seriously. But we do have the most Kleenexes in one place outside of Target. Lots and lots of hand washing. No one likes influenza like illnesses, or ILIs as we call them.

Snack has been graham crackers that another teacher had leftover from summer school. Our lunch is really late, so 10:30am graham crackers doesn't curb that hunger. Lets hope the girl who is supposed to bring snack on Monday does. Please. Because we don't have enough graham crackers to get us through another week...or day.

And then there were name tags. Everyone is supposed to have a name tag so that they can be identified by any adults in the building. Also, it helps in getting to know your classmates if you can see and read their names. But I didn't find out about needing name tags until the Friday before classes started, at 3pm. Do you know who had name tags three days before classes started? No one. I went to 3 stores, called five, went to a few more. No one had plastic name tags. And today, three kids lost them and four more got wet and ruined. So much for using packing tape as makeshift until stores get things back in stock. Maybe next month. We'll see. I know their names, so I've got that.

And next week we may just have our schedules figured out. We've spend about 7 hours making and changing them, only to realize that first grade didn't have any common literacy time. So, we may have it figured out. I'll keep you posted.

And now this weekend I get to unpack all my stuff in my new house. YES!
~J