Those ducks are queued up.

Had my first day of school. I usually hate the first day, but today wasn't really a big deal. I saw my three 10th grade honors classes today. I can tell they're going to be awesome. They are so uptight already--one kid asked what to do when an AR quiz is "wrong," as in, the default answers are incorrect.

I said that's probably rare. And he was like, "No, there's a bunch." And I said "Well, then you take another test." Then he said, "What if it makes you fail?" I just had to laugh and tell him, "We'll deal with that if and when it happens, how about that?"

And then there was this character...this boy had a question, but then he stopped and said: "Okay, well, I'm trying to see how I want to word this..."

"Just ask me," I said.

"Well, okay, but...so how is the flow of this class going to go?" he wondered. So professional sounding, like he was about to write this on a clipboard.

I had to smile (again). "I don't know, I guess we'll find out on Monday. I don't know you guys yet."


I'm feeling nothing but gratitude right now for my schedule, my classroom, and my seemingly wonderful students. I guess I'm a little surprised.

Most of all, I'm surprised that I'm just so damn calm right now. Maybe the third year really is the charm. I might have some minor freakouts next week when I discover what it's like to really teach two preps, but for now I'm just glad that I had a calm, smooth day. I didn't get that tunnel vision feeling of hearing my own voice faraway.

I'm still insecure about planning and thinking about things long term, but I feel pretty confident about my short term teaching-in-the-classroom abilities.

Now, once I'm at a place where my school pants aren't feeling quite so snug, we'll be back in business fa real.