First Day of School

It is kind of hard to wrap my head around my the fact that we just finished our first day of school, in Brazil, on August 5th.  Two weeks ago we had just spent our first night in our apartment and now we just completed our first day of two years full of school days.  It turns out that this isn’t some sort of extended vacation, it’s kind of for real.  

And like any teacher anywhere, Sara and I started today with about a million more things we wish we had been able to prepare, and really no clue about what the day would ultimately hold.  And like any school, there was missing curriculum, last minute construction, and lots of meetings to make the lead up all the more fun.  But unlike any school either of us have ever been in, there is help.  And not like a little help.  I mean that Sara and I both have a full time teaching assistant, each.  My room in particular was in the building that was ready late, and my TA worked non stop for two days to get us ready.  I would have to go to meetings, and I would come back to major progress every time.  And the TAs know everything about the school and the kids, and they are native Portuguese speakers who are also fluent in English.  My TA even came in over the weekend to work with the other kinder TAs because we were so far behind.  So yeah, they are kind of amazing.

And I’ve even managed to hide my crazy from my TA so far, so she hasn’t asked for a transfer yet.  We’ll see if that continues when I start talking to my puppet Mikey the Marmot on Wednesday.  I’ll try to limit talking with Mikey to when I’m actually sitting in front of the kids for now, which can be hard because he’s actually an excellent listener as rodents go.

As far as school today, despite my extensive planning, I stuck to my “lesson plan” for a grand total of about 16 minutes before completely punting on about 50% of my day and basically winging it.  Thank goodness kindergarten here has a staggered start and I only had half of my class until noon.  And just to show off my mad teaching skills, and my miserable Portuguese skills,  I ended up with the wrong student in my room for most of the morning.   Nothing like your teaching partner poking her head in and saying, “I think you have the wrong So and So.”  Long story, fine ending, but yep, that’s why they hired me. 

The girls more than survived their first day.  They might even lean towards calling it a pretty good day.  Hannah found all her classes, Lila is starting to get to know her classmates, and no tears so far.  Hannah heads to day one of basketball practice tomorrow, so hopefully the transition continues its slow upward trajectory.   And they even like their uniforms, which is good because they will be wearing them every day.

I should be planning, but my brain is drained, and so I’m trying to remain coherent and share a bit about day one as teachers and students in Brazil.

Love to everyone!

Adam