Day 2

So I thought that an exciting start to day 2 would be to wake up 45 minutes late. Oops!!!!

Things went much better today. We did an assignment on why studying history is important, and the kids were much more familiar with current and past events than I was expecting. For example, all of my classes (except one) not only knew who Hitler was, they knew what country he had been in charge of, what political party he led, what war he started, and they knew about the Holocaust. Not only that, they knew that the Holocaust involved more than just the Jews! Some of my classes also could identify Darfur, Rwanda, and Nigeria as places where genocide is taking place, and could identify Muslim women and what issues many Muslim women deal with today. It was pretty cool. In addition, with the exception of one class, they had great discussions. I feel so much better about this year than I did yesterday.

There is an exception to every rule, of course, and my 5th period is that exception. It is right after lunch, which last year meant that the kids were all late and hyper. This year, it is the complete opposite. 5th period is like the morgue period. No one talks or interacts with me or each other. It will be interesting.

Another cool thing is that the junior teachers this year, who have my kids from last year, keep talking to the sophomore teachers about how awesome this group of kids are, how they know how to take notes and they are respectful and have retained quite a bit of knowledge from last year. It definitely makes me proud to hear that. I didn't have a lot to do with it, but I had a little to do with it!! Yea!!!

And then.....on the way home, I realized that I was missing my debit card, and I suddenly realized that I had not picked up my debit card from the ATM when I stopped for cash yesterday - that I had taken my money and my receipt but not picked up my card. I immediately panicked and went straight to the bank. I asked them if I had left it and the guy went and found it, and then told me that I was quite lucky because he is supposed to shred the left-behind cards at 3:30 and he hadn't gotten around to it today. So I got my card back unscathed!!!! Woo hoo for WaMu!!!!