First Day Jitters

        Anytime you start a new job, it is somewhat nerve-wracking. But imagine you have 30 people watching your every move on your first day of a new job. Late last night it really began to sink in that tomorrow was in fact the first day of school. Finally after months of theory and discussion, I would get to see a real classroom in action again after fiver years out of the secondary classroom. I got up at five o'clock this morning to shower, make-up, dress and the like, and arrived at school approximately ten minutes before the required time of 7:00 am. My cooperating teacher (from here known as my CT) was a few minutes late, so I was left with my thoughts in the office for about 20 minutes. I saw some of my classmates from the grad program come and go, and to be honest I was a little concerned that I had missed something. But all was well when my CT showed up and I was whisked off to her first period class...Advanced American Studies. Very exciting! The class was good, though much of it was housekeeping-type things, going over rules and the like. There was one activity where students had to look at a map of North America before colonization with pictures of various animals, plants, etc. and were asked to noticed what they find surprising and what was missing. Many students struggled to notice what was missing, which I was surprised about, but it could have just been that it was so absurdly early.
        The next class was an elective made up mostly of upperclassmen. There was one young man in that class that was already giving my CT a hard time. Definitely not a bad kid, I actually felt bad for him, but he just really had a chip on his shoulder and made no bones about that. She handled him really well though and by the end of class, he was actually really engaged considering where we started. The students did some group work, and after going around to talk to them, they had some very impressive ideas! With a little guidance from the teacher, they were generally thinking on a college level, which was pleasantly surprising! I really like my CT, and I think were are alike and different enough to work well together so I am very optimistic with day one under my belt.