First Day in the Trenches

Now that my name has been slapped on the door and my first two weeks worth of lesson plans have been written; my time to shine has come.

School opens for us at 8:30am. I got to work as soon as the building opened at 7am because I didn't want any last minute things to pop up. I wore my "dress to impress" outfit that also screamed "teacher" as I stood in front of the mirror in my classroom bathroom...too funny how we dress to fit the job we want or even the job we have.

At 8:30am, they came rolling in and it just took off from there. The statistical break down of my classroom goes as follows: 14 kids total: 7 Pre-K and 7 Kindergarten. 8 are ESL and 5 are special needs. It's a very "diverse" group to say the least but I always think of Mama T and her wise words: "God doesn't give me more than I can handle, I just wish he didn't trust me so much!"

The morning was alright because the kids were on their best behavior and as we approached recess at 11:30am, the fidgets became more obvious and the attention spans became less and less in length. We only had 9 today, but it felt like 30. My lead teacher and I were managing behavior as we chased one child off a table and another from playing around in the bathroom. The boy who climbed on the table also climbed on the window sill, punched me numerous times and ran out of classroom at one point. He has sensory and developmental delays so he's not always the most conscious of his physical actions. When he smiles though, it makes the bruises worth it. His toothy grin, missing one baby tooth, smack dab in the front and blob of hair stacked on top of his head combined with his laugh make his punches worth it.

One child called my lead teacher over and paused for a long time and finally piped up only to say, "Mr. McMahon, I like you." It was an old fashioned heart pat for sure.

I have another child who knows very little English. So I am practicing my Spanish with him. He cannot even name all the colors in Spanish so we're going to set goals for him as well. But by the end of the day, he realized that I was the only one who understood him, who could answer his questions and listen to him so he took to me. He hates dancing, but I am going to try to see past that...hahaha. It feels good to use my degree, to use the strategies I picked up in the ESL Ed. classes and see a child actually excited to be able to communicate with someone.

All in all, I am exhausted, my body aches and my head hurts but my heart is full. It is so full. I was nervous and apprehensive about pursuing this age group and teaching but today, despite everything, I am where I belong. I feel like I took a slight detour of exploration and self-growth and wound up back where I started; where I always knew I belonged deep down inside...these kids are going to continue to fill my heart and then break it once they graduate Kindergarten; and I am excited for that.