First Two Days of School

Day 3: Sunday, September 11, 2011 – My First Day of School and the 10 Year Anniversary of 9/11

I was up at 4 am, showered, packed my lunch and was on the bus by 5:15. Yes, AM. I was thinking that everyone I knew was still up for the previous day, and there I was starting my day at an amazingly early hour.

It was really interesting meeting my students. Many of them looked at me and said, “Are you Miss Johnson?” and stared. This would be because I’m blonde. It’s fascinating the difference hair color can make! The students were really good. I told them that it would take me awhile to learn all of their names, and that they needed to correct me if I said them wrong. They seemed okay with that. And believe me, they were correcting me right off the bat!

I told them I knew they had done an introductory exercise the previous week, but I would like them to do another one to help me learn their names. They had to write the answer to the following statements:

1. My name is:____________________
2. I prefer to be called:_________________________ (many students have a shortened form of their name)
3. Something I am good at / like to do is: _________________
4. One thing I am worried about in this class is: _____________

I went first in all 3 classes. My name is Miss Johnson. I prefer to be called Miss Johnson, or Miss J, or anything that we agree on that is not derogatory (some giggles, whew!). I can say the alphabet backwards. One thing I am worried about in this class is learning all of your names!

Would you believe that not one class asked me to say the alphabet backwards??? I think they were a little shy. Not anymore!

Then we went over the vocabulary from “Harrison Bergeron” by Vonnegut. That took up almost all of the class time.

I have two classes and a prep before lunch, then another class after lunch. I was exhausted by lunch. I went home on the 3 o’clock bus. I fell asleep on my couch by 4, woke up at 7, ate some toast and was in bed by 8:30.

Day 4: Monday, September 12, 2011

Day 2 of school. Honestly, I have no idea what we did that day. I met with my CPT group. This is a meeting that occurs every other day for the 3 9th grade teachers. It happens during our prep period. We introduced ourselves, and discussed the plan for the rest of the week. I felt a lot better about that! You all know that I like to know things in advance!