First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school. We did self portraits. We did it by steps. We only did the head and the eyes today. -Cali
Today we took pictures outside on the playground after recess because today is the first day of school. Then we got to play a little bit more on the play structure. -Karys
We had an assembly. Mrs. Ziprick picked a video to show us. Here it is:

The message was to try again if you mess up on something. -Sofia
When we first got in our classroom, we put our stuff for computers into the brown pockets. -Mackenzie
When we got to school, we sat in a circle and shared what we did this summer. -Anna
When we got to school, we looked for our spots and took our backpacks in to look for all the stuff we need. We went to gym and played games and then we went to eat our lunch. -Nick
We had snack and recess and I loved recess because we had it four times! -Issabella
We did five laps around the gym and we did push up, sit ups, and star jumps. -Dylan W


Today was a great first day of school! This is my 10th year as a teacher and the first day is always very exciting, nerve wracking, busy, and the best kind of exhausting. I can't wait to learn more about the kids in our crew this year, and to see what kinds of amazing things they'll do. One of the reasons I love teaching, and can't imagine doing any other job, is that every year is different and new. Every year I get to start again. Every September brings the beginning of a new story, with new characters, new learning, new laughs, and a different ending. I can't wait to see how this year's story goes!

As some of you know, and others will soon find out, I am an avid reader of all kinds of books, articles, blogs, and magazines. Every year I seem to revisit one book in particular during the week leading up to the start of school. The book is called "The Last Lecture" and was written by Randy Pausch. (You may have seen him on Oprah or on Youtube, talking about his book and sharing his story.) There are a number of passages in this book that I connect to as an educator, but none more than this one (from Chapter 36 - Look for the Best in Everybody):

"This is beautiful advice that I got once from Jon Snoddy, my hero at Disney Imagineering. I just was so taken with the way he put it. "If you wait long enough," he said, "people will surprise and impress you." "

This is another reason I love my job. Young children tend to surprise and impress more quickly and more often than adults... usually on a daily basis. :)

Thanks for reading... see you tomorrow!
-Erin Clarke