1 down, 179 more to go

That first day back always wipes me out. I met my students today. All 223 of them. Actually, I've lost count because they keep on adding them to my classes.

Overall, things went pretty well. Here's my day, in summary:

good thing: My Sign II and III kids knew exactly what to do. They came in expecting to sign, and I didn't have to tell anyone to stop talking and sign.
bad thing: The bell rang 5 minutes early for first period. I don't mind having shorter classes, but I like to know about it first.
good thing: By the end of the day, I figured out that they were ringing ALL of the bells 5 minutes early, and had adjusted for it. Either that, or my clock is fast--which I doubt. Sometimes they have a hard time getting the bells timed correctly on weird days like today. I KNEW there was a reason we shouldn't have had an 8 period day.
good thing: All of my students came today.
bad thing: All of them showed up--even in the class that has 41 kids on the roster.
good thing: I didn't use my voice once during Sign I, but the students seemed (for the most part) to get what was going on.
good thing: I heard after school got out that I've scared some of my Sign I kids because I didn't use English. (I did have some pretty cool visuals though, and didn't leave them helpless.) Maybe my class with 41 students won't be a big on Wednesday...
good thing: A student in my Sign I class was able to communicate to me (in Sign!) that the "V" and "W" handshapes on my wall were in the wrong order. Sure enough, in my haste last week to get my room set up (after being threatened to be kicked out of the building in 20 minutes--I could rant on how lame it is to kick teachers out of a school building when you've cut three days from the preparation time before school starts, but I'll refrain), I had switched the letters "V" and "W" by mistake. Clever kid! Doesn't mean I've had time to climb up on a stool and fix it.

It's always interesting to see how students react to things on the first day. I've learned not to write off anyone as a flake, because I've been pleasantly surprised on a few occasions. However, the "Hermione Granger" students can be spotted on day one, and generally stay that way for the duration. Example: I'm frantically updating my school website with my disclosure statement after school, thinking that I will have enough time to get my website updated before the kids get home from school and try to access and print it. Hermione comes in my room about 5 minutes after the bell has rung to ask my why the 2007-2008 disclosure is still up, and not the current one. Bless her overachieving soul.