Back to School

Today was my first day back in the classroom after a year's leave of absence. The first day of a teaching year is always a bit weird. I'm always a bit nervous about hanging out with a bunch of strangers for the day. And I'm anxious to see what kind of class I have. I can pretty much tell from the way the kids behave on the first day what my year will be like. Well behaved kids make a huge difference. It can make the year an absolute dream.

Twenty one third graders walked into the room just before 8 o'clock and seemed bright eyed and eager to get the year rolling. By lunchtime I felt optimistic about the year. The kids all seemed motivated and worked pretty independently most of the time. The last time I taught 3rd grade was 8 years ago so I'd forgotten the importance of modeling instructions as much as possible. I remembered later in the day that I needed to show more examples, and it was then that I realized what a capable group of kids I had. Cool!I have a student from Taiwan who seems to be a math wiz. To my surprise he could read and write really well. But his oral language skills are definitely lacking. I think everyone else will be fine.

I'm not thrilled to be back in the classroom. For one thing I love summer. And the start of school signals the end of summer and the approach of fall. And for another, being a teacher is such a consuming job that I feel I'm only half living when I'm teaching. And then, there are two unfinished manuscripts that I'm anxious to polish up. I find it really difficult to switch from classroom mode to writing mode.

And on a completely different topic, what did you think of Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC? I thought it was fab. She sounded so damn sincere and boy, what a speaker she is!