here we go, for real

Second day of school! It was the first REAL day though, as in, teachers were actually teaching and wearing clothes that were not college sweatshirts. It was a really, really productive day. I sat in on a class, I talked to a ton of students, I met people I was supposed to meet - things happened and I felt good about that.

It's striking how much respect can distinguish me from students. I realized pretty soon into the day that most school staff in the halls were aware of the fact that I'm not a student, which was surprising given that I don't have a staff ID yet. Later on, I realized that the reason they knew is because I smile at them walking in the hallways. I make eye contact. I acknowledge them, I am happy to see them, and I guess this just isn't a response they typically get from the students on such an overt level.

There was one moment today when I was talking to one of the students and it was going so smoothly and it occurred to me that I am good at this. It was shocking and made me happy because I really like this, and I'm not usually the best at things I really like. It felt natural and awesome to be working with students, talking to them, teaching them and learning from them.

I am also going to teach an SAT prep class starting next week. I hate standardized testing so much, so in a weird twist of events, I'm going to try and get a bunch of kids prepared to kick standardized testing's ass. Yeah... that'll happen.

Here is a picture of the cat in the guidance office. I was stoked to see it survived spring break.

meow

And because it looked really good and tasted really healthy, here is a picture of Jamie cooks herself dinner, day two. And I made too much pasta because what are measurements so now maybe tomorrow for lunch I can have macaroni and something. Yum.

Pasta topped with carrots, broccoli, celery, and red pepper stir-fried in some random but delicious spicy sauce, topped with shredded Cabot and then some goat cheese when I got tired of shredding the Cabot. And Lactaid milk of course. 

Cool. It is way too late for me to be up because I've decided that 6:30 will be my wake-up time for the term. Tomorrow, get at me.