First Day of School!

West Contra Costa Unified School District is a difficult place for a new teacher. Not because of the students, not because of the area, and not even because of the other teachers. It's difficult because everything is organized so last-minute. I had to learn everything about my school in one day - very overwhelming to say the least - and set up my classroom in one day (I should have taken before and after pictures). Still, my classroom is a little depressing next to those of other more established teachers.

Let me just say that today was an awesome day. Especially considering the nervousness I had approaching the school this morning, and the lack of preparedness I had for the sheer number of students attending Richmond High. That being said, I learned a few things today:

1. Teachers (more than just me) get nervous on the first day of school too - perhaps even more so than students.

2. Teachers spend all lunch period gossiping about their students, already deciding which one their favorite is.

3. Teaching the same thing five periods in a row really messes with your mind.

4. To teach five periods in a row, you must equip yourself with throat lozenges - I hope this sore throat goes away by tomorrow (otherwise not only will I look young, but I will sound young too when my voice cracks all over the place).

5. Replacing a well-liked teacher like Ms. Seawright makes kids give you a hard time and have immediately higher expectations.

6. In the evening, the janitor throws away anything and everything in the hallways. Including textbooks. I found mine in the dumpster this morning (I salvaged them). The silver lining is that now I have a good relationship with the librarian (I hear this is nothing but a good thing).

In the grand scheme of things, besides demographics, RHS is not much different than any other high school. Okay, what I mean is that it feels like any other high school. The kids act like normal teenagers and apparently our soccer team got second in state. However, the structure of the school is really not like anything I've ever seen (no windows in my classroom) and the math test scores from the school are downright awful. There is a daycare in school for teenage mothers and an office for the on-site police officers, which is weird to me, not to mention the fact that the nearly 2000 students all have lunch period at once. Chaos.

The classroom walls are paper thin and every announcement on the intercom is read in both English and Spanish, so there's a few things I have to get used to. Luckily the teachers offer an amazing support system, so I'm not too worried. Only exhausted. Now I just have to figure out what I'm teaching tomorrow...