First Day of School

The first day of school has come and gone and it comes as little suprise that is not without a sense of relief for students and teachers alike. For the children, meeting your new teachers can most certainly be nerve-racking and believe you me, meeting your students for the first time can also be for any teacher be they a seasoned veteran or fresh out of school. Fortunately, this teacher feels most humbled to be gifted a chance to teach the 6th grade students this year. We're only one day in but with prior experience as a substitute teacher to most of the students last year and then meeting the new faces of the 6th grade, I feel very confident that this is going to be a highly engaging, educational and entertaining (as school should also be) school year.

We spent time yesterday discussing the importance of first impressions and it's fascinating how as an adult you take knowledge such as that for granted. Already do I feel the impact of being a student within my own classroom which is inspiring.

Yesterdays poetry reading:

First Day of School

- Taylor Mali

This is it, the most important moment,

the original transgression.

If this were writing, this would be the opening line

(except you’d be able to go back

and change it if you didn’t get it right).

If this were love at first sight,

this would be the moment you bumped into each other,

the night you began your mutual confessions.

It’s time to recalibrate and revise

the rambling digression of summer eyes

and focus on a more decorous expression –

say, the red and yellow leaves of trees

that have scattered themselves all over the lawn

with abandon and indiscretion.

With abandon and indiscretion

be like early autumn air and freshen.

Because school is now in session

and you know the old expression,

you never get a second chance to make a first impression.