Before I fell asleep last night, I thought to myself, I will never get another first day of teaching again. No matter how things had gone today, it would always have been the one, solitary first day of teaching I would ever get to experience. No takebacks, no backsies. Just one and done. And it went well! I was pretty pleased with how smooth things were today, despite the new hybrid block schedule, the altered bell schedule, and the general antsiness of high school kids. My classes were incredibly small, which may not always be the case (there were officially 37 on my roster for one of my geometry classes!), but it was nice for the first day, at least.

I actually got to do some math review with my algebra students, because I had them for two blocks of classes, and I am feeling good about where they are. I want them to succeed in math and like math as much as I do. I can tell them 80% mastery, 80% mastery until the cows come home, but what I really want to drive home is how important math really is. I told one of my classes about Shirley Jackson today. (If you’re thinking The Lottery, you’ve got the wrong subject.) She’s going to go up on my Hall of Fame board as a role model. I wonder if I could get her to come to my class/school…

On tomorrow’s agenda: arithmetic diagnostic for the privilege of using a calculator, more rules and procedures, more talk about the Big Goal and how it’s going to help them reach their goals of becoming a football star, a pediatrician, a teacher, a lawyer, a computer scientist, etc. It’s gonna be a good week. I can feel it.