First day of school!

So…

Today was the first day of school! I woke at about 5:15am in order to go to the gym (trying to get healthy!), ate honey nut cheerios, made a sandwich and put Doritos in a Ziploc bag, made some chai black spice tea, took my bags downstairs, and then began to blast NPR in my car—don’t worry, I jammed Outkast on the way back from work.

When I got to school, I signed the sign-in sheet and greeted my fellow teachers. I can’t lie: it was kind of weird. I was walking in as a member of the faculty. In terms of age, I looked more like the students than the teachers. In fact, I made sure to wear my employee badge all day so that students would know that I was teacher. Walking briskly through the hallways, I noticed some students looking at me quizzically when they realized that I was a teacher on a mission rather than an uber-intense new student desperately trying to find his next class (not fully knowing my way around the school, I gave some freshmen “directions” by walking them around in circles…). That employee badge and the serious “head nods” and good mornings I gave to fellow teachers helped me solidify my image as a faculty member. To be sure, I made my voice sound even deeper when I was in the classroom. I’m not sure if I look really young or if some of the students look really old, but it was definitely a little awkward.

Luckily, that was pretty much the only downfall of the day. Even so, I felt very comfortable when talking to students in the classroom, and I made my expectations clear. The faculty and staff at my school are very helpful and encouraging. I feel very fortunate to have such supportive people around me as I make this transition.

When I was not in the classroom, I spent most of my time at my desk working on math problems and preparing for future lessons. In high school, I had a teacher tell me, “you’re not bad at math, Lumumba. You just lack patience.” I think about those words a lot these days. When I was working on math problems today, I was much more patient that I had ever been. I was never motivated to really put my all into learning math until I found out that I would be teaching it. Surprisingly, I have actually begun to enjoy math, and I am looking forward to really getting into the material with the students. It truly will be a learning experience for all of us.

There is one more thing that I discovered to my dismay today: I did not bring enough food. Along with my chips and sandwich, I ate a few brownies; however, I was definitely hungry throughout the day. I will have to get some cliff bars, string cheese, teddy grams, or something else to snack on during my planning periods. I ate a hot dog, chicken nuggets, and a delicious salad (including onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, cheese, turkey ham, and carrots) for dinner once I got home. Mm mmm good!

So, today was a great day to begin the year. I am still alive, and I am ready to go back for more. Hopefully, I will start to be able to grow more facial hair soon. If not, I’ll just continue to try to make my voice deeper. Oh yeah, smiling makes you look younger ☺