The First, First Day

In order to unwind and reflect on the day’s happenings, and before I begin planning for tomorrow, I thought I’d write a bit about my first day of school. I woke up before 6 am, even before the sun came up in the great city of New York. I boarded the bus at 86th Street and York, along with 20+ other Upper-East Side commuters. I picked out at least eight teachers on their way to school and actually knew three of them by name (fellow TFAers). I was one of the first to arrive at the Stitt Complex (the large building in which my school is housed along with two others) and I got right to work with organizing papers and checking over plans.
The students seemed to descend on the school in masse, crowding around the corners and struggling to mount the stairs as a herd, they entered the classroom of their homeroom with more than a little confusion. Mr. Holt and I conducted a fairly effective yet dry homeroom, passing out mandatory administrative items and then playing a name game that some students found difficult, but still struggled through it. They had to say their name and something they like that started with the same first letter {Ms. Petersen – pineapple}, but the hardest part was remembering what all of their classmates had already said. I told them my homework would be to memorize all their names and likes and then recite it tomorrow – wish me luck.
I then hiked up to 331 and introduced myself to the bilingual sixth grade class. I received a few blank stares, but for the most part this short 43 minute class period went well. I had all the students participate in a formulaic name game. I had a beautiful poster made that said “My name is ________ and my birthday is in _________” with great pictures. I also had all of the months listed with illustrations for most (a sun for June, a Christmas tree for December, etc.). Most of the students did exactly as I had asked and appropriately filled in the blanks. On the other hand, five students simply said, “Yo no sé ingles” {I don’t know English}. This is going to be more work than I ever imagined.
I spent the middle part of my day collecting myself and completing paperwork, hiding out in the auditorium and on the stairwell to stay out of the way (there’s no teacher work room or lounge, so you just have to find an empty spot – very hard to do – when you have a prep period or lunch). Oh, I forgot to mention that when I was finished with the first ESL period I was supposed to take the girls to the gym. I took all the students there and the gym teacher barked, “Boys get out. You’re not supposed to be in here.” So, I led them back into the classroom and started again with names. Soon thereafter, Mr. Estrella walked in and announced that the boys were to be in the gym and that I should take them there with him. I followed and acted like that was exactly what was supposed to happen the whole time (I think they knew I had no clue, nonetheless). Later I found out that no one had known what the gym procedure was for the day, not even the gym teacher, so the same thing would have happened to a 10-year veteran teacher.
For the last two periods of school, I had class with 622, beginning ESL/bilingual. Let’s just say it wasn’t all I had imagined. Towards the end the kids would not stop talking. I’ve already had to yell and it’s just the first day! A bit frustrating, but I shall prevail. I’m already formulating an attack plan for tomorrow. I big part of the problem is that their room is too small. I the kids can hardly fit and I have no room to walk around and answer questions or monitor what is going on. The other big issue is that several of them have just arrived in America and speak absolutely no English. This means that as soon as they can’t understand or get bored they simply start speaking in Spanish to their neighbors. I am the only teacher they have everyday that teaches in English and, although they do want to learn the language, they do not like speaking it because it’s difficult. I totally understand their frustrations as second language students, but that doesn’t mean I can let them talk over me when I am trying to teach. I fear that tomorrow ugly Ms. Petersen will have to emerge for this class to learn anything this year.
After school I debriefed with many of the other teachers. Some had much more horrible days than mine, and others, Mr. Holt namely, had fantastic classes all day. Friday’s lessons will include more rule and procedure talk and, hopefully, some more engaging and interactive stuff. If I were I middle schooler, I wouldn’t like the first day of school that much either.