one down

oof.  wow.  yikes.  sigh.  as some might say, "holy underwear, batman." first day done, and it was a doozy.

a teacher once told me that the definition of a successful first day is when you send home the same number of kids that arrived.  so, today was a success.  basically.  though one kid ended up on the wrong bus.  long story.

the good things: i got a good sense of each of my students.  i have begun to develop relationships with each of them, and they all seem comfortable with me.  we completed a couple of art projects (ie: coloring).  we read some books.  we all ate food at one point or another.  we made it to gym class for at least 5 minutes.  nobody got lost in the school.  no band-aids were required.

the bad things: i discovered i have two screamers.  one screamer is also a biter, scratcher, runner, and spitter.  intense.  the other one spent basically the entire first half hour screaming at the top of his lungs.  ouch.  some of my kids cannot really verbally communicate.  some of my kids cannot really use scissors, nor do they know how to properly hold a crayon.  some of my kids, meanwhile, can add, subtract, engage in pretend play, and tell stories (this should be listed in the "good things," really, but i leave it here in contrast.  it's the contrast that makes things tricky).

moral of the story: it's going to be a long year.  a learning experience.  exhausting and overwhelming but (hopefully) also rewarding.

bracing myself for day two.