The first day of school

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Hi, all.

Well, I woke up every half hour last night, afraid I might sleep too long. Ended up getting out of bed at 4:04. My only clean pair of pants that a) doesn't have a hole in the crotch or b) doesn't look way overdressed is in San Francisco (of course).

I put on a dirty pair, but immediately smelled like I had just escaped a 40.45-acre wildfire.

So I decided to go with the hole in the crotch, which meant I blew a lot of morning looking for a safety pin.

Anyway, I drove to Bedrock, which takes over an hour, was falling asleep on the way (it's only the first day!), but arrived on time.

I have first period prep, allelujah, so I spent that time getting keys and textbooks for my 9th and 10th grade classes.

Now, I don't have a classroom, so each of my classes takes place in another teacher's classroom on their period off.

I'm happy to say the kids were glad to finally have a regular teacher. Though, behaviorally, they obviously have been inflicted with muy subs. One class has watched Forrest Gump over and over the past two weeks. Others have been watching the Ring 2. So educationally at least they're fine. Just behaviorally....

I had the classes write about their previous English classes, what worked and what didn't, and what they wanted out of this class. And most of them expressed a desire to work and to learn. So that was good. Now I just have to deliver.

Third period, I showed up and the class had miraculously changed from freshmen to juniors.

So now I need to go get more textbooks. (For me.) I still haven't had a chance to even look at them. And it kills my wrist to have, literally, probably 12 or 15 pounds of books per class.

Don't tell my students, but I have no idea what I we'll do tomorrow. But it had better be good....

Anyway, time for me to either leave or try and find out some more basic information (eg, can I have a class roster?).

And then, with any luck, I'll stay awake the entire drive home.