First Day of School

First days are so not what they used to be. It used to be the kids were all on their best behavior, and that was the one day everyone got along. Today was one of the longest days ever! I had only 16 kids show up, but that was more than enough today! For the most part, they are good kids... but then there's boy #1 and boy #2. Boy #1 summed himself up as being a rapper... and has the personality and behavior to go with it. The only times he addressed me, it was "Hey!". Nice. You don't hear that much in Killeen, where the military influence has kids saying "Yes Maam, No Maam". Boy #2 is enough to have cracked me if I was a first year teacher - I would have been in tears by 10:00. Let's sum him up by saying that in the one hour my kids were out of the room, 6 other teachers and the assistant principal had to correct him and let me know about it. Nice. He had such an attitude! I had to call home on him on the first day! The best part is that he can't write his name. He spelled it wrong, and didn't know his last name for most of the day. Let's hope there's an IEP floating around somewhere for him! He's a Katrina evacuee, so his paperwork could be gone in the flood still... The really good news is that he's not the only one in my third grade class who can't spell his name... luckily, boy #3 is special ed and won't be taking the dreaded TAKS test. Other than those 3, and a few VERY talkative kids, I did get some wonderful kids. I am doing inclusion this year, so I've been told, so I expect some lower kids. Just thought they'd know their names by age 8...Here's to an interesting year. Low kids, misbehaviors, pregnancy hormones, swollen ankles... I'm ready for it all! One day down, 179 to go...