First Day of School

I'm tired.

It's not that the students wore me out, it's just that I didn't sleep well last night. First Day of School Jitters. Kids aren't the only ones who get them.

I have two Algebra I classes, mostly freshmen. They were quiet and attentive today, one of the few times all year where I can expect freshman classes to be better behaved than upperclass classes. Not that anyone was out of line; I'm lucky to teach at a school with a pretty good student population. But dang, sometimes it seems like no one ever taught many of these students about "inside voices".

I got a call during 6th period today. My son, on his first day at his new school, fell on the bars (or something boyish like that) and bloodied his nose, bit a small hole in his tongue, and loosened a tooth. Our secretary put his school's secretary though to talk to me and she asked what they should do with him. "Is he bleeding right now?" "No." "Then send him back to class." I'm such a father!

I brought home some more data entry work to do tonight. I have 41 students in one of my classes, 5 over the contract limit, and 39 in another. However, the school has a month to fix that! Guess I'd better start scrounging for desks. Last district I worked in, we were paid cash money twice a year for overages, in part because of the extra grading/data entry/attention/work involved. Not so here! So I'll be typing more student ID numbers into my grading program (I use Grade Machine) so that later in the week, after I give the first assignment, I'll have all my recordkeeping ready to go.

So, I'm off to go do my work. I'll be glad when this administrivia is taken care of!