First Week of School

The first week (well, the first three days) of school are over, and I am proud to say that I survived! Actually, I can honestly say that this was the best start I have ever had. For whatever reason, the chemistry just seems to be there with this class, and we clicked pretty well right off the bat. I also came to an interesting realization about this group of kids. For the first time, I have the younger siblings of kids from every year I have been at this school (this is my fourth year there)! I have two girls whose sisters were in my class last year, a girl whose older brother was in my class two years ago, and two girls whose older siblings were in my class three years ago. So that makes six sets of parents who I already know and (fortunately) have good relationships with. Add to that the eight or so GATE students that I have, and that's even more parents that I already knew well (as the GATE Program Coordinator at my school, I've known each of these kids since the day they qualified for the program). It really makes such a huge difference, knowing half the kids and their parents already! On the first day, instead of doing the whole meet-and-greet thing with the parents before school, it was like social hour in my classroom. They all just wanted to talk about the baby (and not about maternity leave, either- just the baby)!! It was such a great way to start the day, and I found that I was almost hyper when the kids first came in. Kori and I actually sat down this year and planned the heck out of the first three days, making sure that we alternated fun activities with the usual rules-and-expectations stuff. I just can't believe how well it went. I even got a couple of emails from parents telling me how their kids had come home so excited about this year, and that was a great feeling. I think I will definitely be able to make it to October with this group! :)