I am through the first week of school, and just like the end of a really hard bike ride, or hike, I’m exhausted, and sore all-over. But…there is a big smile on my face.

This was the week where I would finally meet my students and all my plans and preparation would come to fruition. I was very curious about what my new students would be like.  There like most of the kids I’ve taught in that they are energetic, easily distracted, curious, and chatty.  What’s missing is not the ADD and ADHD kids, but the defiant ones. This is not surprising, as most of my defiant students were that way for a reason. In about every case it had to do with what adults were doing and not doing in their lives, and not what they had done. As expected, that seems to be less of a issue with the increase in income level at the school. Even though the low-income percentage the year before was 45% they don’t seem to be as desperately poor as some of my prior students’ families have been (Bruce Baker has some ideas on that as well that are worth reading), but I’m stilling getting to know students, and the neighborhood so this may change.

I’m happy with the kids not being “perfect” as I find that to be an over-rated quality. They’re kids, and they seem pretty happy to be in school, and in my class, so I’ll take that. I will not being “phoning it in” with this class, but then that’s not my job.

Some accomplishments from the week:

• Getting into table groups and out of rows;
• Going through our first class meeting and giving compliments to each other;
• Finishing up a class survey and doing activities using the school mobile Macbook lab;
• Holding two very enthusiastic class discussions. We’re still working on not shouting out of turn, but we’re all eager to share;

Was it perfect? No, there are things I need to work on, and they will need to work on, but on the whole, I’m pretty pleased.