Friday, August 21, 2009

First Day of School

Thursday the 21st was the first day of school for Cait. 4th Grade! I cannot believe it. I don't leave for work until after she gets on the bus, I'm late for work, but I work for some great people. So I get to watch her. We took pictures outside, talked and you could see the anxiety. I think she was more nervous this year than any other.
Alot of her friends are not in the same class, so that has stressed her. So she will hopefully make new friends. Its so hard to watch your child struggle with anything, no matter how small it may seem. The constant urge to protect and shelter to not let anything hurt them, but you cannot go to school with them. So when she comes home and tells you that her best friend is mad at her for being friends with someone else (who is in her class) it's frustrating, and girls can really be petty. She seemed okay though. Time will tell. She has a new teacher, I'm old cuz her teacher looks like a high school teachers aide. I believe that new teachers are a good thing. They have lots of ideas and ambition, and love to teach. Now nothing against Teachers who have been doing this a long time, but sometimes, they do the minimum and seem to have given up on all the fun and creative learning ideas, to just make sure the state standards are met. I will not go into the State or Federal standards, because that just fires me up and I start getting angry. Anyway, there are some Teachers who have been doing this a long time and still strive to be creative and fun, which is awesome, but a Teaching certificate is not based on your creativity. New Teachers are like the new car, everything is shiny and smells good and no problems ahead. I like that. They are as excited as the kids, which is awesome. We have a great elementary school, still big, but some great people. The principal is so dedicated to these kids its amazing. The kids adore him, if they see him outside of school they still go running up to him like he is Santa. My frustrations are the size of our school. Its BETTER than it has since the newest new school opened. Down from a student population of 1042 to 637. Thats good, but the class size for the 4th and 5th grades are still on the high side. We are still in the top five for size in our state. Last year we had the number 1 spot, something we are glad to give up.
The first day is fun with all the new stuff, hopefully it will last.

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