And thus the year commences

Wow...what a day. Seriously, teaching is hard work. I crashed at the end of the day. My feet and legs hurt (not used to standing). Sheesh...

Anyway, I woke up very early...and since there is no drive-thru coffee place on the way to work I operated without caffeine. I was very pleased with my classes. I was nervous until they came in and then...I dunno, it's like you're a performer and the director says, "Action!" You're in full swing! I screwed up my lessons for Foundations today, but I guess it's ok. It is hard to teach a lesson you haven't written. It was neat to have 1-3 because last year at the end of 3rd period I had only taught one class...this time, by that time of day I'm more than half-way done!

Gov went well...I think I sounded cheesy and I might have repeated myself. Basically, I was a ham because I love this class so much, but you know what...who cares? At least they know that I like what I do. The Freshmen are so different from the seniors though, it's weird. The seniors are already testing me. So far, so good.

Interesting points: I was greeted and hugged by many of my former students from US History who were excited to see me (which was weird, because if you remember...I had a very hard time with them last year).

I have a name for myself. 3 students came in to my class today to bemoan the fact that they wanted to have me as a teacher but that they were in the other AP Gov classes (the ones Tim now teaches). One was so funny. I felt like a celebrity. He comes in, grinning, and walks straight up to me and says, "I would like to introduce myself." I shook his hand and he continued, "I wanted so badly to be in your class this year. I tried too, but they won't let me switch. But, I just wanted to introduce myself since I can't be in your class." He proceeded to tell me who had recommended me (which, itself, was somewhat surprising...since I thought that student hated the way I taught last year) and asked if I supervised a club, haha.

I had a great conversation with two students after school today. Apparently they were testing me, but I must have passed the test. One informed me that last year Mr. Heftner had hated him. We talked about why, and about the actions he took with his class, and basically established that I'm not going to judge him by his past if he shows me he's willing to work. He seemed ready to accept that, and expressed how interested he was in government--which made the difference between how he was last year and how he's planning to be this year. We talked about government for at least 10 minutes. It was so interesting that he let me work all this stuff out beforehand. I was in the hall later and Nate (Mr. Heftner) told me that he had a student drop by who had been a pain in his class last year--he said hi, and told him, "Ms. Burdick. She's alright." Nate said, "Yeah, he was testing you. He's not like your AP kids." I responded, "Nate, he's in my AP class!" Nate was shocked...he barely passed regular US last year...but I dunno, I'm looking forward to how this student takes to my class.

One last story. Kyle. He had to suffer through my US History class. I talked to him once about taking AP Gov next year. His response was sad. He said that he wasn't even sure if he could go to college, so there was no reason for him to take the AP classes. I thought about that and talked to him later after class. I told him that it doesn't matter whether he ends up going to college or not--the AP class is to challenge you, would most likely interest you more, and besides...you might as well get the best education you can while it's free. Kyle was in my class today. I asked him why he decided to switch. He said it was because he wanted to have me as a teacher again. I was so touched. I told him that this class would be nothing like US History and a lot more work. He said it was worth it. He could tell that I loved this class and that if I liked it so much then it would be worth the work.

I wish all my students had that kind of attitude.

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