It’s been ten years and I’m still nostalgic. Here is the first day of school, and I am not feeling the ecstasy of excitement at meeting new students, beginning a new school year, hopeful that the vibrancy of my teaching will make a difference in yet another 130 or so students entering my classroom. The first day is one of excitement, hope, anticipation, and yet a little bit of humble fear that maybe something is not ready, or perhaps things will not go as planned, or, for sure, never is one class like another.
As a secondary teacher, middle and high schoolers, I knew each class’s personality revealed itself about the second week of our togetherness. I could pretty much count on rapt attention the first two or three days of routine establishment, when students were unusually attentive, trying (most of them) to make a good impression. They had their new notebooks, carefully wrote down their assignments, and watched the Powerpoint presentations I had carefully prepared during the summer.
They listened to each other as we tried out discussion techniques, they may even have said please and thank you, and tried to impress not only me but the girl or guy in the next row. They listened to self-introductions, especially if there were students new to the school or community, and for the most part accepted their places, self-assigned or otherwise. And, as if driven by some immutable force, they began packing up two minutes before the bell so they could make the most of class-changing time. They couldn’t wait to leave, wondering if the next class could possibly be an improvement.
The getting to know you stage is exciting at the beginning of a school year. Parents’ expectations are generally high, so most kids will have a few more words than “OK,” or “Ah, it was a day!” when their eager parents try to eek out an inkling of how the day went. There will be probing questions, but typically, the teens will withhold as much judgment as possible in their efforts to appear in control.
Teachers begin self-assessment right away. Their inner voices say, “That could have gone better…like pulling teeth to get kids to open up…the sycophant students will try to make the good impression; most will not. Most hope to appear invisible. It’s not hostility, really, but rather self-protection in front of their peers. Soon, however, the capable teacher will break the ice and recognize it’s all a game and all the ed psych classes in the world will not change classroom climate quite so easily as the well-worn tricks of earning respect and giving the same modicum of respect back to the students. The climate will become comfortable as time goes by, but the first few days of togetherness are the days i miss most.
The first few years of retirement, I went to the beach and watched the waves and the gulls and wished I could be in a classroom again. I actually retired from teaching three times. Then, I started writing the books I’d wanted to write through those other forty years. Now, today, 2022, I’m thinking of my next one. It begins, “My name is Joey.” It will be a sequel to book 28, Cher’s Seaside Saga which I published in February.
I wish my teacher children a happy first day, and know my two granddaughters will stand tall for their first day pictures before the garage door as they eagerly begin third and sixth grades today. Paul, Mary, and Nancy are in their second decades of service to kids, and will find this a day of anticipation and at the end of the day exhaustion, knowing that they’ll make a difference in many kids’ lives as they begin the year of inspiring kids to be their best selves. And in doing so, they, as teachers, will reap the satisfaction that they have served others well.
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