First Days of School, Part 1

Well, yesterday was the first day of school and so began my 5th year as a teacher. I'm really excited to be at this stage in my career, the "Cusp" stage, where I'm no longer a newbie but not a real veteran. What that means to me is that other teachers are getting new ideas from me and I am still learning so much from them. Not only am I learning to be a better teacher but I finally feel able to apply these new strategies and activities.

OK, I'm sure you want to hear about the kids. Let me just say that they are an impressive bunch. They are at a higher skill level than last year's 8th graders. Many of them I like already! My team does have a lot of the high-profile-red-flag-get-the-bugger-out kids, but so far, so good.

Speaking of which, this is the second day of school and one of my students already got suspended so he wasn't here today.