Houston, We Have Launched

First day of school has come and gone. This followed by quite a restless night, in which I don't know if I slept for more than three or four hours, although I was in bed for hours more. Funny how the excitement of the first day can be similar for teachers as well as students.

Home room began with a bang. After giving out seating assignments to the wide eyed and bushy tailed freshman (amzing how quiet they were, but I guess first day of school in a new environment at that age will do that to you), I asked students who hadn't had their names called to come and see me. I looked up from my desk in surprise to see about ten or twelve students gathered around. Hello? What's up with this? Turns out administration had done away with a freshman homeroom, but hadn't adjusted student schedules accordingly, so all of the freshman homeroom assignments were way out of kilter. They were told they were supposed to be there, but my roster didn't have any of their names. But that's just another day in the life of a school prone to such administration issues, so I and all the other teachers went with it.

In each of my classes I introduced myself, and gave a fair amount of biographical information. This included the startling revelation that I'm not gay. I figured I'd get that out there right away, since last year someone started a rumor to the contrary, which had some rather unpleasant results. I also confessed to my rabid attraction to the Sox and Pats, and my worries over the starting pitching. I am teaching four U.S. History classes for college bound students, and one World History class for students less motivated than to set their sights on college. In my U.S. classes I gave them a sheet of student comments generated from an end of the year survey, in which my past U.S. History students put comments/gave advice like "study very hard," "do all your homework," "this class is very hard," and "don't mess with the teacher." In short, it was a scare tactic employed to make sure that students who are too lazy to work will find a slot in a lower level class. But I also told them they needed to take this class if they were going to/thinking about college, and I mixed it up with plenty of enthusiasm and smiles, as well as the confession that I took an insanity test this summer and scored two points away from being declared insane. (Call it throwing them a bone, if you will. Gotta keep the masses entertained, even while scaring them!) I have yet to see how many will actually come back tomorrow... However, I sense that some of them are real gamers when it comes to working and being motivated, which is encouraging. One girl actually asked for clarification of the first assignment. This is a good sign for the first day. Most students tend to do what they think they hear, whether it's right or not, then worry about the consequences later.

One of the girls in a U.S. class was the same one I had convinced in the cafeteria during my lunch duty last year that I had fourteen children. This was a story I told to a lunch table group, comprised mostly of juniors, who also happened to think they were the coolest things in the world and were above obeying rules like no throwing trash at each other, cleaning it up if you throw something on the floor, etc. She didn't seem to fit into this category of "jerkish," although she hung out with them. Anyway, I had her really going after this group asked me my kids' names, and I was then able to repeat them when asked again. I was able to do this by using the simple tactic of rattling off many of the twelve tribes of Israel, and then repeating them, adding some modern names for good measure. While others insisted on expressing incredulity over my family size, she said she believed me. Anyway, she brought this up today, and I was able to assure her that I don't have fourteen kids. I asked her if she had really believed me, and she was like, "Well, you were able to say all those names, like Reuben, and Aphrodite." I assured her that I did not include the name of a Greek goddess among my children's names. Now I just hope that I can really convince her that the Civil War was fought between the North and South, or that Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860...