Full House

What a day to come back to. A restless night of sleep essentially nullified all the energy I had saved up during break. As soon as I entered the auditorium I was asked to take on three 5th graders whose teacher was absent (My school rarely has enough subs so when there's a shortage they just break up the class and spread 'em throughout the school). By around 9 the last few students had trickled in late meaning I only had one student absent, a rare occurrence. Then around 9:30 a new student arrived! It's 8 months into the school year, but never too late to switch schools because of behavioral problems!

As tired as I was, the week off must have done me well. In spite of the surprises thrown at me I kept pretty cool, didn't get too agitated and just stuck to my plan for the day. I knew that the first day back might be tough so I had planned a surprise for the kids at the end of the day, on the condition that they earned it with good effort and behavior. This kept things running pretty smoothly.

Throughout the day I also made an effort to make sure The New New Kid (TNNK) felt comfortable. I guess I just didn't want to repeat the same mistakes I made with The Original New Kid. To be fair TNNK is from a public school 10 blocks away compared to TONK who moved to the Bronx from San Diego. So her transition is already bound to be a bit easier. Learning from mistakes is still good though. On my prep I took TNNK around the school and introduced her to some other teachers and then pulled some of her classmates out of the room one at a time to introduce themselves to her. When I talked to her parents tonight they said she liked her new school a lot. So at least for today that was a success.

So on a day with three extra kids in my class and a permanent addition to the class I feel like I did alright for myself. And I did it all without any help from John Stamos.

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