First Day of Terror

OK. Not really. It wasn't that bad. They always say, "If someone has to go home crying the first day of school, it better not be the teacher!"
I didn't cry, far from it. I actually came home exhilarated.
Let me start from the beginning.
I woke up really early, even though I didn't actually have to be in school until 12:30. I spent an hour getting dressed and putting my makeup on "just so."
Funny thing is, I wasn't really that nervous. I just sat around the house most of the morning. I spent some time doing laundry, ironing, looking over my lessons, and looking at myself in the mirror.
I even went to school early!
It's a good thing I did, because as soon as I got there, the principal found me and shipped me off to the resource room where the remedial teacher was already waiting for me.
Turns out, I have a learning disabled kid in the class.
The truth is, I've spent time with learning disabled kids before, so that didn't bother me too much. They were making a big deal out of it, so I pretended to care, and listened for a bit. She was going to get a lot of tutoring this year to help her catch up to the class (or at least to bring her to a 5th or 6th grade level) but they still needed a lot of cooperation from the teachers. Wonderful! I should become a therapist for the work I'm already doing. (They get paid much more than I do!!) A therapist specializes in the field, I'm expected to do this as part of my daily routine. Someone help me.
I met up with the teachers in the teacher's room after that, but the bell rang, cutting my break short, and off I was to class.
I walked into 7b, trying hard not to show how terrified I was, holding tightly to my briefcase so that my hands wouldn't shake, and told the girls to sit down.
Instead of taking attendance, I went up and down the rows, and intimidated the girls by making them tell me their names first, and as they did, I wrote their names into a seating chart I had made.
I was only up to the second row, when a girl in the 4th row, F.F, started coughing. I looked up and saw her looking around, motioning for the other girls to start coughing with her. In less than 12 seconds I had a full fledged coughing chain on my hands.
I was shocked at the audacity of the class. On the first day of school, some kid thought she was going to test her teacher? I was not about to let that happen to me.
I slowly looked up from m desk at the girl who had started the whole thing, and said in a firm, but quiet tone, "If I have to ask you for your name on the first day of school, before I even have it on a seating chart, it's not a good sign."
The kid did not know what hit her, the class was dead quiet. I later heard that this class never had a teacher confident enough to stand up to them before.
That was all I needed, They were perfect angels for the rest of the period.
I got to know some names as we learned history and began reading a literature story, and I sort of got a feel for some of the girls.
C.S.A. seemed to be a bookworm, she had something to add to everything I said, while F.F, the coughing master, remained quiet for the rest of the day.
E.F.G. was also a real participant, always raising her hand. C.C.K. was always asking me to repeat everything I said, so that she could have it down perfectly in her notes, and L.K. also needed things repeated to her until she understood them.
Some of the girls were quieter, but it could be that they were either intimidated or shy, after all, it was the first day of school.
The bell rang for recess, and as soon as I dismissed the class, I called the coughing chain girl aside and spoke to her sharply.
I told her, "I was a student once too, and it wasn't too long ago. I want to you know, they say that the worst students make the best teachers, do you know why?" The girl looked at the floor as she shook her head. "They make the best teachers, because they've already done things you haven't thought of yet. So remember, think 100 times before doing something in my class, because I'm always two steps ahead of you!"
I almost felt bad for the girl as I watched her join her friends for recess.
The teacher's room was naturally filled with teachers discussing and dissecting their new classes, grabbing something to eat, and hurriedly preparing for after recess.
The bell rang all to soon, and I found myself walking into my next class, 7a.
I immediately learned that this class is the one that I should've taken that dental course I had seen advertised in the paper. This class made me feel like I had to pull teeth waited patiently in their seats for me to spoon-feed them information, and they never raised their hands.
I discovered that D.T, C.O, and M.L, were the only girls who ever felt like they had something to say to the teacher, because those were the only participants I had all lesson. It was so frustrating.
Like in the other class, I started off by telling them my 3 rules for the year, Maturity, Responsiblity, and Respect. (Or, like my husband says, Maturity, Responsibility, and Respectability. I think I'm getting to his brain!)
I continued with the same history lesson and literature lesson I had done in the other class.
Finally, the bell rang.
That bell is the most annoying sound in the world. It's really, really loud, and it's not one tone, it clangs. It actually sounds quite like a very loud alarm clock. I jumped a mile when that rang, but it meant that I could dismiss the class.
I hate having my life ruled by such a dumb sounding bell.
Oh well.
I gathered up my books, said good night to the teachers, and ran home to prepare supper.
I finished supper, prepared some sheets for school, reviewed for the next day's lesson, and I'm ready to go to sleep fully dressed. I'm tired, but happy and proud.
I'm not the one who came home crying the first day of school.