2 days down, 178 to go!

The first two days have gone well, but an astute coworker deemed this the honeymoon period.  Especially with freshmen, kids are scoping things out for the first few days and personalities haven't come out yet.  But, so far, so good.

I am meeting some of my goals so far - I called 21 parents on Friday to introduce myself, choosing the kids from each class who won our tower building contest in class to start with.  Parents seemed really receptive to hearing good news about their kid and some offered some tidbits of information about their kids.  It felt better than calling about bad news, for sure.  So hopefully I manage to continue the practice of calling for good reasons and make myself allies with families this year.  I hate talking on the phone, even personal calls, but every teacher I know says it's worth the time and effort.

There are a few kids that I'm wary of.  D in my homeroom who is already faking sleep in class and writing one word responses when I asked for two sentences.  J in second period whom I taught for the second half of last year and seems to be alternating between being determined to do better this year and resistant.  The table of boys in third period who loudly protested my announcement that uniforms would be strictly enforced with detention but then proudly won the tower building contest with the brilliant idea to flip the table on its side to get extra height.  And of course I am automatically wary of anyone who has not showed up yet for the first two days, since that's usually not a sign of a model student.

I also already have some favorites.  D in second period who drew hilarious stick-figure pictures of his hobbies and concluded his Wrap-Up writing with "Thanks for the class today, Ms. Pippi."  J who is apparently repeating the 9th grade from another school but has an amazingly positive attitude, urging her group along when they resist getting started.  M who fixes his gaze on me so intently that I don't know what to think of him.  And strangely enough, those third period boys who flipped the table to build a 210 cm tower are also tentative favorites, since they have the potential to literally turn class upside down in a good way or a bad way.  It's up to me to find a way to channel them into greatness.  Wow, that sounds corny.  But I do believe it.

It's going to be a fun year.