Day One, Second Time Around

All right, day one is complete at the new school. It was a first day that was much more mild than my first, first day, but alas full of excitement as is usual in a high school. I had students introduce themselves and give me one piece of information about them - either interesting or what they like or what they did over break if it was exciting. Whatever they wanted to say, basically. I gave an example and in one class I said, "My great-uncle Eddie was in the mafia." They were like, "Whoa, is that true?!" And I said, "Yeah," in a 'duh!' sort of tone. After a few comments regarding that statement from the class and myself, including me threatening every student to watch out if they bother me, I said, "Oh, no I couldn't hurt a fly. Do I look like I could hurt a fly?" Their responses: "Um, yeah. You do. Yeah, you could hurt someone. Look at you in all black. And you just said your great-uncle Eddie was in the mafia. I'm scared!" To which I said, "You don't like my power suit?" And one guy said, "No! You look scary!"

Hahaha, this is going to be so easy. They're already scared of me! How awesome is this?! If I told that story at da Hill (and I should have) and then asked if they were scared of me, they would have thought I was crazy for even thinking I might be scary. What a change.

Speaking of changes, I have many I could list, but I don't want to list them all (the list would be long). First of all, I was quite early for school - over two hours not knowing any such thing about a delay. However, I went down to the office about 45 min prior to the first bell and what did I see? Teachers and students galore! Why would students come so early the day after break? That I do not know, but I was quite impressed. Speaking of impressed, I asked how many students did their homework from the Thursday before break and nearly all of them had! Certainly some of them lied, but I couldn't pay my former students to give me that kind of a turnout over a long break.

Okay, gotta get ready for Day Two. Oh, but before I forget. Awaiting me in the mailroom was a fortune cookie that reads, "Recognize and deal with reality, no matter how unpleasant it may be." A fortune? No. Helpful? Yes. Especially when I was 2-3 hours early and missing former students and familiar places.