Tuesday, September 4, 2018

SCHOOL'S IN

      As most of you know I was a teacher  for 37 years all at the middle school level. I retired in 1997...21 years ago.

      Today public schools opened for business and welcomed all the customers.

      Do I feel a pang of excitement or loss at this time? Not really. The first year it seemed funny to be not going back.

      However , I do have memories of school opening time. As a student the first day of school was always exciting. We got to go back and play with kids. I'm not sure where the education part came in. I don't remember my first day of school. I had been to the school many times as  preschoolers  were invited for different days. Church and Sunday School were held in the school.



    My kids on a school starting day

One of my new gr 7 classes.

      Now the first day of school was much different when you were a teacher. I went back to the school for the last ten days of August to get ready for the year. You know...get the room set up, find the text books, make up unit plans, make up a yearly plan plan with other staff. This took time out of my summer but I always thought it was well worth it to be ready at the first day of school opening.

 I told you getting textbooks sorted out

     Now the first day of school was always exciting as the kids came back and they were swinging from the lights. I don't think it was excitement about seeing me or getting an education. They were excited about seeing each other and comparing all the classes they were in to see who they were with. Then they started to scheme and go to the office to get classes changed so they could be with their friends.

      The complete home home.

     Well another school opening has come and gone and I'm not really missing it.

     We live on a street that leads directly to the school. Usually there is a lot of traffic in the morning and afternoon when kids go to school. This morning there wasn't much for traffic. I wondered why? Later it hit me. There's road construction and the parents had to take a detour so they couldn't drive down my street.