First Day of School

Here it was: my first day of my 5th year teaching and I wasn't nervous at all. It was a half day and I had more than enough planned (always overplan!) so I felt confident. I got up early so it was a bit dark, put on my go-to first day of school outfit (black suit jacket, black silk shirt with gold pattern, black trousers, black shoes with gold and pink embroidery) and headed out the door.

I decided to treat myself to a bakery breakfast so I went to Ihle's Bakery which I like to frequent, mostly because I met the owner, Willie Ihle, on my walk with Cathie at the Kuhsee and he was a really nice guy. Had no idea he owned half the bakeries in Bavaria, but there you go. They had a new Apfelstrudel thingy that I just had to try. I went to the tram, had a seat and started eating my Applegoodness.

I got a bit of powdered sugar on my trousers so I was brushing it off when I realized once again why dressing in the dark is not a good idea. I was not wearing my black trousers, I was wearing my navy blue trousers. In the natural light, they completely clashed with the rest of my outfit. I was mortified and seriously considered hopping off the tram and going home to change. Unfortunately, if I did that, I wouldn't make it to school in time.

Now I was nervous. The parents of my students are fairly well-to-do (world-class cellist, politician or two, doctors, hockey players, local celebrities, etc.) so the fact that I would be meeting them in my horribly mismatched outfit made me sad.

I got to school and tried to put it out of my mind by doing some last minute preparations and what not.

God is so good! Not only did parents not notice, but they complimented me and later commented to my principal how "professional and put together" I looked. So far, only one weirdo parent, but I had been warned ahead of time about this particular parental unit so I put on my plastic smile and nodded, inwardly going, "Oh. My. Gosh."

The kids themselves are just fine. I have 10 boys and 4 girls. Yes, only 14 kids this year! Heaven! Two of my boys are considered hyperactive, but compared to what I've dealt with before they will be no problem. In fact, I think I overwhelmed one of the boy's mothers with all the intervention strategies I had for his particular situation. She was the one who immediately found my principal and went on and on about how "wonderful" I was. Hooray!

We had a half day so it went super fast. We played games, getting to know you activities, a little lesson on notetaking, a few routines and then they were gone.

Tomorrow, they have German lesson and PE so I'll have a good 2 hours off! I love this schedule!

Here are a few visuals of the school and my classroom.

First two windows on the second floor to the left of the tree are my classroom's!

Beautiful new staffroom. Behind is the full kitchen.

Right outside the door of my classroom

My classroom