One Day Down...173 to go!

I awoke today excited and nervous all at the same time. The first day of school is different for me than regular education teachers at the elementary level because I don't actually teach on the first day. I do all the support staff stuff, such has helping before and after school, doing lunchroom duties, and anything else that may need to be done. I actually enjoy it as it opens a door for me to get to know kids in all grades, regardless of whether or not they are in my classroom. And today was GREAT.

I started the day as Hallway Monitor on my end of the building, and directed traffic. I will say it was cute to see parents taking pictures as they dropped of kids. Several escorted them to their rooms and then snapped pics. It was cute. I did my "Good Morning, welcome to SVE, I'm glad you're here" speech. It made EVERYONE smile. It was fun.

I waited about an hour and made the rounds at my classrooms to make sure everyone was okay, and if anyone needed anything. Everyone was good, so I went back to my paperwork party.

At 11:00 I went down to help with lunch room duty. I'm not on the schedule, but I wanted to help. I wound up being the worker at the Trash Station. I tell ya, the way lunch works at my new school is MUCH more complicated than my previous school. It's a good thing that there are fewer kids. :-) The cool thing about doing the trash station was that I met EVERY student at SVE. That was AWESOME! I joked and laughed with them, making them enjoy their wait in line to dump their trays. It was fun.

The highlight of my day was when CPKid walked up. I didn't see him walking around the building yet, so I didn't know who he was yet. He walked up, dumped his tray, and I knew EXACTLY who he was! I tell ya, we had a GREAT talk, and I'm going to LOVE him. His limp is a little more involved than mine, but not much. He is a really neat kid, and I can tell I'm going to love having him on my caseload!

My second favorite highlight came when I was walking down the hall in my KU jacket (it's freezing in my building!) and a kid said, "Hey, I like your jacket." I turned around and said, "Who said that?" The blonde kid said his name, and his teacher and I kind of joked with him. There is a pretty big KU versus MU rival in our building, so it's going to be fun to see how it all plays out once sports season starts. Oh, and we're allowed to wear SVE, KU, MU, Chiefs, or Royals wear on Friday with our jeans. EVERY Friday! Woop! :-)

Finally, I did give my speech several times today. My favorite time was when one of the teachers was giving her class a tour of the building and they stopped to meet me. She introduced me as "A Wonderful Teacher", which made me smile, especially since she doesn't even know me yet! Anyway, I gave the speech, and the kids were laughing because I made the joke, "I may walk goofy, but don't call me goofy!" So, at the end of the day several said, "Bye Ms. Spring." :-)

I am beginning to feel like I've found a home!

Life.
Is.
Good.