'Teacher, I want Mommy' and other fun ditties

School starting Monday has been exhausting/stressful. I'm part of a founding team of a brand new school, so we've been working long hours to get systems in place and debrief EVERYTHING. I'm also brand new to teaching itself.

It's been real.

Realer than real.

I've done all this prep for differentiating work for all levels of learners...for dealing with kids with attention deficits and learning disabilities...but the shit you learn in books or secondhand from someone else just never compares to what you deal with when ur in a real live kid's face.

*Sigh

I haven't been able to quite process/articulate much of anything about it yet, but here's a first try

*Alot of kids are STILL crying for their mommies when they come in the mornings (today being day 3). But we're talking about kindergartners and first graders here, little people who don't even have their motor skills on right yet
*I used to not believe in ADHD for real until I met this kid in my class...who WILL NOT SIT STILL...
*I didn't know how I felt about the whole uniforms biz (wasn't against it, but wasn't exactly partial to it, either) but seeing them all in their burgundy and sky blue is the cuuuutest thing in the world. They're sooo little
*Well, most of them are. There's a few that make you go 'whoah are you surrre you're in the right class???'
*A beginning 'kids say the darndest things' list
-'Teacher I have diarrhea!!' -->a kindergarten boy, whilst taking a routine shit as teacher (me) stood outside about to have a heart attack
-'I like the white one, she's nice' -->multiple kids, whilst describing a bohemian white male teacher with shoulder length brown hair who they haven't quite figured out is a dude
*There are roaches in the building in the daytime...not okay. Not. Okay. And not fun when a critter disrupts a lesson on classroom management
*The first nine days of school (the days before labor day, when school starts for most kids in DOE-department of education in nyc-schools) is focused largely on routines and getting kids accustcomed to school culture. So I have to be all stern and threatening to kids so that they know how to behave in school when they're really making me melt on the inside with all their cuteness
*There are several readers in my class (that's pretty damn good for K), but one of them is far, far advanced. I almost think she could be in first grade
*Then there's another kid...who loooves getting in trouble and being on the teacher's bad side because he's starved for attention...OMG this kid drains my energy by noon. Thing is if it wasn't for his constant 'yikes! yellow' behavior (sigh...color coded behavior chart...perfect purple, good green, oh no! orange, yikes! yellow...kids start on green everyday) I could focus on his uber cuteness. he's so darn adorable
*There is exactly one white kid in the school. He's too cute. It's also too funny how much he sticks out like a sore thumb. But he doesn't quite seem to know that he's 'different.' He doesn't seem to think that he's out of place around the shitload of Black/Latino kids that make up my school.

In other news, I feel my body beginning to finally adjust to this new schedule so i'll be back on my explore nyc ish again soon i think. Yay!