Today was my first day as a middle school teacher. It was Anders’s first day of 8th grade. It was Annika’s first day in E2 – 4th grade. It was both an easy and hard day all at once: a full day with very little sleep, but it was planned and there wasn’t a lot of hard work. No homework, no grading.

I think it’s a great sign that both kids wanted to talk about their days, particularly seeing their friends. Annika is laying next to me talking about how tall each of her friends are now as compared to last time they saw each other. She grew a lot this summer, so she is excited to be getting taller than some of her (shorter) friends. She told me all about their class, how there are FOUR people who “WALK AROUND ALL OVER THE ROOM.” Two of them are 4th graders and two are 5th graders. There are 32 kids in her class, which is way bigger than I expected it would be; I’m kind of disappointed in that. Still, she has friends in her class and she’s excited.

I’d write more about Anders, but I think he prefers that I don’t write a lot about him. I want to respect that. It’s hard because I’m so excited for him and proud of him, but it’s fair. I’m only writing this part so no one thinks I’m just leaving him out!

I didn’t have my older high school kids today, so it wasn’t a full day so I don’t know how it’s going to go. I was sort of dreading traveling between schools because I don’t do especially well staying focused when there are transitions during work. However, I kind of liked the little break and being outside for just a little while in the middle of the day. It seemed to make the day feel shorter. I’m worried I’m going to get behind on the paperwork/email as time goes on, at least this trimester when I have more classes than a full load.

Anyhow, so far so good. Hopefully it stays like this.