And I pause for a big sigh of relief...

The first week of school is over! Yeah!! I'm always more at ease once the first week is over. I know most of their names (need to work on nicknames for them, for the sake of the blog though), I know the routine, I am getting the hang of planning for two different grades and everything is coming along. And I actually don't mind those huge giants they call THE 8TH GRADERS. They're bigger. That's it. They're still silly kids with bodies full of hormones and they still like to talk when they shouldn't be, and they are little whiners at times. No biggie. I've been there, done that. And my 3rd/4th period is quite pleasant. They are quiet and do their work. I know it's the first week of school, so I'm not getting too excited, but I was still impressed.

I am so darned happy to just be teaching Language Arts again. I am in my element. No more science or math or social studies. I get to make kids read and write. And there's not much you can accomplish in life if you can't do either of those things. So, I feel that my job is pretty cool and important. Yeah me! And no more grading math or social studies or any other crap that I don't care much about. I get to give journal entries, word searches and writing assignments. And next week, we start our first novel. In 7th grade, I'm really excited, because I've decided we're going to read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (it's actually a book on the 6th grade Honors list, but none of my kids read it last year). And then I plan to show the movie in class at the end. Pretty awesome. We're gonna read The Call of the Wild in the 8th grade. A good book, but not Narnia.

So, in conclusion (or as previous students of mine have written in their conclusions: "I hoped you liked my paper on..." or "This is the end of my report..." or "This is the end of my report..."), I am enjoying being a Language Arts teacher again, and I actually hope to stick around longer than a year this time...