First Day of School
August 31st, 2009First teaching nightmare of the year last night. I was with my new reading class on the first day of school. The classroom was awful- sort of a stage, science lab combination, and the kids were jammed together in chairs that were practically on top of each other. The kids wouldn’t stay in their seats and they kept talking and talking. We only got through my warm-up activity- a brief writing assignment. My navy blue bra strap was showing from under my mauve shirt (apparently I hadn’t changed out of the clothes I biked to school in) and a girl raised her hand and said, “your underwear is showing.” By the end of class I was hoarse from having yelled so much and had already given out two lunch detentions. As the kids filed out I was planning how I might attempt a rearrangement of the classroom…
i’m just still in shock that you’re mentioning underclothing on your blog!
I did hesitate to mention it, but the exchange is very expressive of one of the sorts of embarrassments I fear as a teacher. So I felt its inclusion was justified.
In a more, shall we say “school appropriate” fear, I also dreamed that the cookies I had made for the teachers didn’t matter at all because so much food had been provided for teachers that the cookies were barely noticed. I really was afraid of that happening!
were the cookies noticed?
Yes! The way to a teacher’s heart is paved with chocolate…