Flat Land is to Kansas like...

... Cockroaches are to New York City. (RIP little ... I mean Large Roach. Yes I smashed him. Yes it was a little scary. No there are no pictures of me wearing a grocery bag over my smashing foot while dancing around and squealing.) I guess there is an interesting mice issue every now and then too. Not sure if the teachers were trying to scare me, but from what they said, I do not want to leave food out or else I'll have little mice helping themselves to it. No need to get class pets, they just come with the classroom! I actually thought about naming our roach today, but then I realized how wrong it would be to name it if I just intended the smash the life out of the little creeper. (I-yi-yi. That doesn't sound pleasant.)

The classroom library is looking much better. You can't tell, but the books aren't organized. We figured we'd save that for next week just to make sure our class was ready for the kids. Plus, we still haven't the slightest idea on how to level them. We did get rave reviews from a few of our fellow co-workers.

With today being the first official day of work, I am Truly a teacher in NYC now! I have health insurance, a pay check coming (hopefully soon), and a Teacher ID in the works.

I still have no idea what I am teaching though, this is to come tomorrow during the day... Kind of stresses me out to think that I will have just a weekend to prepare (and I have plans and guests for the long weekend). I kind of wish I could have had more time, but I keep telling myself that this is the worst part, next year I'll have a better idea, and I am NOT going to fail in anyway this year... it will all go ok! Soon I'll have an idea and won't be feeling like a headless chicken trying to see my way through the chaos.

I met more teachers today, can't remember many of the names or quite what they teacher. There are 40 to 60 teachers, 15 of which are new teachers (more new teachers than the number of all the teachers in my last school). It's nice to see so many young faces and to know that there are plenty of people in the school who are in the Same exact boat as me (wondering why our curriculum is such a secret! and stressing about getting our "classroom environments" ready for the kiddos.)

Today was a roller coaster of feelings... excited, nervous, happy, confused, frustrated, anxious, excited, happy, procrastination, accomplishment, enmity (towards the cockroach), relief (that I made it home while traveling through the mass of commuters)... Overall, though, I feel pretty good, or at least good enough to get through this challenge. I know it will all look better come this time next year, and I cannot help but think about how easy the beginning of the year would be for me if I had stayed at my previous school. That's ok though, because I'm ready to be challenged, and I'm ready to start making my difference here in my new school, my new zone, my new space, with my class of 21 amazing 5th graders - yep, got a roster today, but I guarantee there will be changes in that, so no name tags on the desks yet! The question is, when will name tags go on the desk...? When will I actually know?

An Afterthought. I'm not that worried about the cockroach problem at the school. They aren't that bad of little (or big) creatures...

“There is nothing per se that is yucky about cockroaches,’’ said Dr. Zuk. “The ick factor is all psychological. Cockroaches are nice, lovely, interesting animals.” Some roaches, she noted, are even monogamous.

Ok, so they are a bit gross, but what can you do? It's New York City. It comes with the territory. The kids probably carry more germs into the classroom than those little creatures anyway. If you are worried about it, check out this question page, do a little research, and then get back to me with any cock roach information you feel is important.