First Day of School

Well, after a summer break that sometimes felt too long, school has started once again. I successfully navigated the chaos and awkwardness of the first day, and now that that's over, I have the rest of the year to look forward to! Once again, I'll be teaching 9th grade Geometry, 10th grade Algebra 2, 11th grade Pre-Calculus, and 12th grade Calculus.

Some things I realized today.
- There is exactly one graduating senior who has been at this school since Kindergarten.
- I have more students this year than ever before.
- The current seniors were in 5th grade when I came to this school.
- I have taught math to my AP Calculus students for FIVE consecutive years (since 8th grade Algebra 1), which means that I have taught them longer than any other teacher at this school.

When I was introducing myself to my 9th grade Geometry class today, I told them that I hope they like me, because I might be the only math teacher they have for the rest of high school!

One teacher related thing that I absolutely hate doing is coming up with creative bulletin boards. That stuff is for elementary teachers. Unfortunately, I have one bulletin board in my classroom that I can't just leave blank all year. It would be an eyesore. So I made a tree trunk out of burlap, and I cut out tons of leaves from scraps of origami paper, scrapbook paper, and wrapping paper that I found laying around my house. And I passed them out, one to each student, in every class today. I asked them to write something encouraging on it. I said they could write whatever they wanted as long as someone else could read it and be encouraged by it. Things they wrote include:

"Jesus loves you more than you could ever imagine!!"
"Remember the important things in life. Like chocolate."
"I know you can do it."
"Smile."
"Don't worry, math is hard for the rest of us too..."
"You are not alone."
"Mon cher ami... Je suis contente d'avoir un ami comme toi."
"Let's not fail. Let's pass."
"You're awesome."
"Don't worry, there are uglier people out there."
"Keep on truckin!!!"
"Do not EVER date in high school."
"Shine bright like a diamond."
"If Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Melark can survive the hunger games twice, then you can pass this class!"
"Always love each other."
"To those who are bombarded with the workload and find it hard to be positive: God regards you a worthy servant to handle this. Don't let Him down."

I love doing bulletin boards this way because I get to see a little bit of each student's personality, right from the beginning. It also saves me from having to make something super creative. And I can leave it up all year long. It's our little encouragement tree. Here's the finished product...

So that's the end of my first day of school update. Now I'm going to go home and sleep til tomorrow.