Saturday, August 2, 2014

ARE YOU READY FOR THE FIRST DAY?

If you're anything like me, the anticipation of the first day of kinder, is beginning to keep you awake at night, and consume your thoughts during the day!

How will you ever be ready in time! What needs to be done for the first day and what can wait until the following week!

What materials do I need for the kids to survive, but more importantly what materials do I need for me to survive?  

After 38 years of teaching, you would think that I would be calm and have everything ready for a great first day! But I never do! Not once, not ever!

I'm so nervous on the first day of school, that  just before I open the door to meet the new kids, I'm feeling queasy and a little bit light-headed. 

Let's face it, over the years there's been a variety of precious children walk through my door. If I had to pick the most challenging, it would be the screamers and the extra loud criers. There have been times when I can't hear myself talking over the screams! 

And then, there's the year that one little boy ran home during recess but I never even noticed. Mom brought him back and told me to keep a better eye on him!  Are you kidding me, with 33 little kids, I wish he had taken a friend home with him! I would have been down to 31!

But, the most heart breaking .. are the little ones that come on the bus, on the first day, ALONE. No mommy, no siblings, no english. Just a tiny name tag with a name. One year, a little boy with a "Luis" name tag walked through the door. I tried to get his attention all day, but he never responded.  I discovered later that he's never been called Luis in his short life. He's Jorge. But mommy thought she should write his "BIRTH" name on the tag. 

And every year, there's usually one parent that CRIES as she's SQUEEZING her little one IN A DEATH GRIP, and telling her that everything will be all right. "Mommy loves you so much! I know you can be a big girl and stay here ALONE. I'll be back when YOUR TIME is over!"

So is it any wonder, that I'm a nervous wreck just before I open the door and see the whites of their eyes!  The lyrics from Disney's Aladdin sums it up, " It's a brand new world just waiting to happen..."

AND IT DOES HAPPEN: I begin to TEACH. The kids begin to LEARN. We BOND. We TRUST. We LAUGH. We EXPLORE. We create a COMMUNITY of LEARNERS. We CARE DEEPLY. We LOVE.

And just when everything is seemingly PERFECT, we say GOOD-BYE... until the new year begins again ..IN JUST A FEW WEEKS!
This is my First Day of Kindergarten Letter! My Countdown to Kindergarten packet on TPT has more ideas!

2 comments:

  1. I Love your new header so fun! Congratulations! Kim

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  2. Love your products. You inspire me to be a teacher!

    ReplyDelete