My 29th First Day

Tomorrow will be my 29th first day of school as a teacher, and I am nervous.

You would think that anything you've done 28 times before would be almost automatic.

It isn't.

Not for me, at least.

When I was young and cocky, I wouldn't even bother making much of a plan for the first day.  I knew that I was going to go over rules, and my course overview. Maybe I would give out textbooks and talk about expectations. And maybe, if time allowed, do a little artificial getting to know you activity of some sort.

Tomorrow, I won't be doing any of that.
Tomorrow will be the first of the short 180 days that I will have with my students this year.
Tomorrow will mark the beginning of every students' one experience with eleventh grade, or twelfth.
Tomorrow is my one chance to create the first impression I want them to have of the year they can expect.

Going over rules doesn't do that.  (In fact, I think going over rules says "I expect you to be bad, and here's what I am going to do about that." Exactly the opposite of the tone I want to create.)

Going over content and a course overview doesn't do it either. (I think that what that says is, "This stuff matters more than you do.")

As I sit here, mulling over what, exactly I am going to do tomorrow on the first day, nervous as if it were my first time, I am looking at a card that I received last year on the last day.  Most of the most meaningful feedback I get as a teacher, and as a person, comes from my students.  What this card tells me is that you never know how what you stay will impact people. And that while the content of your course is important, the connections you make as a person matter so much more.

The outside of the card is covered with joyful pictures of 4 beautiful friends who were my students. And inside:

Thank you for being there
when we don't have to ask.
Thank you for listening when
you've had a long day.
Thanks for getting to know us
and allowing us to know you.

I know that no year can be the same as the one that came before.  But tomorrow is my chance to start living up to that.

Wish me luck.

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