As we were walking up to the school, I saw one of the students waiting to be let in and I just wanted to turn around and go back home. Don't get me wrong, I love my students and my school, but it was a nice break last week and I hadn't spent the time to mentally prepare for another seven weeks with students who are used to you and know how to push your buttons.
At the Umana, the students didn't quite get City Year, so in their eyes, we had just as much power as the other teacher. Ms. Moulton gives me a lot of responsibility in the classroom, but ultimately, she is the one planning the lessons and teaching the class. The students see the hierarchy and use it to their advantage at NHCS., which can be frustrating. It made the little bit behavior management we had to do last week very simple.
I wasn't looking forward to today because I know how the students can be. After a week of sleeping in, staying up late, basically no schedule, and usually having to deal with some sort of rough family situation, the students are far from pleasurable the Monday after a break. To my surprise, though, things went pretty smoothly besides one major meltdown. First graders are usually in a post-break comatose, which actually makes things a little bit easier. I'm not sure how much they retain the day after a break, but they are usually pretty well behaved. This was true today as no one had clip changes or any sort of major issue. Well, no one except KC.
We were having a great morning and besides a few reminders to not yell out. Then we got to recess, which is always KC's hardest part of the day. Something happened when I was looking and KC pushed or was pushed by a girl. KC got super upset and started screaming. I sent him to the fence to cool down, which just caused this huge temper tantrum that lasted all of recess and then some. He wasn't even really in trouble, but he was so upset that he couldn't listen to what I was saying. It was woooooooonderful. Welcome back!!
All the while, Monica, who served at NHCS last year in the fifth grade and is a Senior Corps Member working at the office this year was watching. She has come to help out twice a week on Monday and Tuesday for the rest of the year since we're so short staffed. She's going to be in second grade, so she'll be at lunch and recess duty with me. It's kind of exciting and all of the kids know her. When MO saw her (who had her in his class last year), he just goes "Which one is this?" not even realizing it was her! She and I both laughed and then gave him a really hard time for the rest of the day.
Overall, it was a great day back. Most of the kids were well behaved (including JA who decided to come!) and as much as I was dreading it, I was glad to see all of the crazies!
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