The First Day of School

So today was the first day of school. How many teacher blogs start like that?

Really though, in my case, this was the fake first day of school. Today was a simple Round Robin Get to Know the Faculty and Staff day. Our Alternative School is small and has a very intimate setting, so we spent most of the day letting the students get to know us.

Tomorrow is the first real day. Tomorrow we have real schedules and students will actually go to their assigned classes. Tomorrow I will start to lay down the law.

Well, most of the law. See...I think I get to be a different kind of teacher in this situation. In Mississippi I had to be hard nosed almost all the time. Yeah, I smiled. Yeah, my kids knew I cared, but I always had to be serious.

This situation is very different. As I met my students today for the first time, I knew why they were there. Each of them had filled out an application to be there. Each of them had gone through an interview process to be accepted. Each of them has reasons why they truly want to be in this school and involved in the project. They know that this is a second chance for them, and for most of them, they want to be there.

There will always be a couple of kids who won't take this type of school seriously, but as I looked into the eyes of my new students, I could tell that minus those few, these kids really want to be in this school.

How exciting is that?

I never had that in Mississippi. I had the occasional student who wanted to be there, but for the most part, they all hated school. They didn't see the value of learning...I had to try and teach them that along with everything else.

But these kids at this new school have already messed up once. They realize that without help, they won't graduate. They want to graduate and they are excited that someone cares enough to help them.

So tomorrow, I will really get to teach my class. I will start getting to know my kids, and we'll see how things go from there.