First Day 2021

 I fell asleep last night after reading the news that one of my former schools has two classes going virtual due to COVID cases in the building. They started last week. Today was my first day. It was disquieting news to say the least. Thinking about the possibility of having a positive case in my classroom, or even building within the first two weeks of the school year was not something I wanted on my mind on the eve of my first day of school. At least I knew my classroom was ready for students to arrive.

Upon arriving at school this morning, I checked my email to find a message from a new family sent at 4:30am. They had decided not to send their child to my school after all because he had been selected to attend a "lottery school" within their home district. The mom thanked me for allowing her to observe my class via Zoom last school year and said she was impressed with the lesson she saw but they had still made the decision to try the other school.

Despite these two events, my first day was amazing. My first students didn't arrive until at least ten minutes into the staggered drop off. (Last year I had a staff member's daughter show up right as the window opened, so the extra time was a pleasant surprise today.) The class was attentive and enthusiastic. We got through ALL of my routines and procedure slides, which I hadn't thought would be possible and required me to come up with an additional activity to add to tomorrow's plans. 

My students made several comments about my classroom decorations. My personal favorite corner is the area where I put up a sunflower and a photo of Machu Picchu. I placed them side by side, high up on top of cupboards. When I glance that way I think about my grandmothers, now both deceased. One of my grandmothers was born in Kansas and loved sunflowers. The other one was born and raised in Cuzco, Peru and was a teacher herself.. She even wrote a Spanish-Quechua dictionary. These pieces of art make me feel like my grandmothers are watching over me and my students.

My students, however, are especially interested in the representations of Wonder Woman set around my room. For example:

"Mrs. Conrow, is Wonder Woman your favorite superhero?"

"Why do you like Wonder Woman so much?"

And my personal favorite, "Mrs. Conrow, you kind of look like Wonder Woman with your black hair and skin color."

I even had a student raise her hand near the end of the day to tell me she was afraid my earring was about to fall out. It was. I love that they're watching out for me!

Since our theme is Building a World of Joy, I asked students what brought them joy today as a means of spacing out their packing up process. Pretty much everyone gave an answer about lunch or recess. But the last student I asked said, "Being in your class."

Even though I wore flat sandals today I had to kick off my shoes after the kids left. I was limping barefoot around my classroom getting ready for tomorrow. I think I have blisters forming... perhaps sneakers are in order for tomorrow.