Day One

12 hours and fifteen minutes. That's how long I was at Rocky View Elementary school.

Being a TFA teacher is like being a teacher on crack. Triple the work, triple the expectations, triple the stress, triple the duty. Totally what I signed up for, but not what I prepared myself for.

5:22 am: Woke up. It was still dark. Very sleepy.
6:34 am: Arrive at RVE. It was freeeeezing cold out.
7:17 am: Students begin to arrive. The madness begins.
7:17-8:30am: The madness goes oooooon. And oooooonn. And ooooonnn. Papers. Parents. Kids. Supplies. Lists. OTs. Specials. Breakfast. Rules. Oh my goodness. I wanted to crawl in my shell and leave the madness for someone else.
8:30-10:45 am: Oh my gosh, now I know why I wanted to do this job. And I am sooooo glad I got placed in Pre-K. I may be biased but I think it's for sure the best grade ever!
Circle time: We passed a colored cube around and said our name and favorite food. Best quote of the circle: "My favorite food is spicy chips!" We all stare at the sweet little boy who just spoke with blank expressions.... and then he clarifies "you know- Doritos!"
Draw your favorite thing about your 1st day of pre-k: My favorite quote "This is Ms. Toll." "No I wanna draw Ms. Toll, you can't copy me!" "Well I'm drawing Ms. Toll too!" "Me too!" oh and then "This is a half man half robot!" One girl drew a very, VERY good picture of her riding a unicorn, reigns and all. Legit.
Playground: A talkative little girl, who I wish didn't know my name yet because it's guaranteed that I will hear my name every 30 seconds, sings a song to me. A waaaayyy too adult song for pre-k. I wanted to stop her from continuing once she said "friggin" but I couldn't get a word in. Then there were parts about boys and booty. Uh......
Reading tree: I explain to my fabulous 4-year-olds that the tree is a place for reading and that the parrot is watching over us. "Teacher- that was blown up, I can see the place where it gets blown up at." Uh......
1st Day of pre-k certificates: Yay! They were soooo excited about these.
11:15 am: Do it alllll over again.
11:15- 2:15: Aw, they're amazing. Sweet little kids. And I love when their little voices say my name. I looooove them all.
Draw your favorite thing about your 1st day of pre-k: My favorite pictures "Ms. Toll" :)
Returning to class after playground: The line-up was AWESOME! I went down the line giving every kid a high five... ha ha, but it stopped when one little boy sneezed all over me. Of course I was wearing a skirt, so his snot was on my arms, clothes, legs, and feet. Yes, it was one of those kinds of sneezes. And of course the school only has that scratchy brown paper towel, and so I had to use that to scrape the snot off.
Reading tree: I thought I would fool this batch with the inflatable parrot from the dollar store.... uh.... nope. Another one called out again "Ms. Toll that's filled with air!" I don't get it, they believe puppets which are clearly connected to an arm but not an inflatable parrot in a 3 dimensional tree? Huh?....

Re-cap of the a.m. class: Only two kids with tears that went away very quickly. I was so proud of them. They were so brilliant and I can't wait to watch them grow up. I can't get over how incredibly cute and fun and awesome they all are!

Re-cap of the p.m. class: Only one with tears- but she cried for about an hour. Luckily mom stayed and then we played with puzzles and life was good :). Again, another stinkin' awesome batch of kids. Sooooo cute. I just wanna hug them all 100,000 times.

It was not as bad as I was anticipating. The day went fast. It was looooong.

I love my job.

I love my kids. All 40 of them. Sigh. :) Bliss.