I've officially survived my first week as a teacher...

It wasn't easy. There were good moments and bad, nice ones and ugly ones, and loud ones and...louder ones. Five days, many tantrums, four more vomits from Atilla (his count was six times in two days), a lot of pee, and so much snot on my pants, I am still alive and officially finished with my first week in the classroom. And I knew all of their names by 9 am on Sunday because I was yelling them so frequently.

Of the 28, most are fairly settled. One has missed the entire first week, one showed up yesterday and threw the tantrum to end all tantrums when her father walked away. As in when I picked her up to put her in her seat, both of her legs started flailing around on the floor, stomping away. Which of course started all of the other ones crying. However, I have two little boys who have cried, literally non-stop, since Sunday morning at 7 am. For five days. Not just crying. Screaming. But there have been fun moments too. Probably mostly fun for them because they involve me running around like an absolute absurdity. I feel like I'm no longer fully human. Take Tuesday, the worst morning by far for screaming. I'm standing in the middle of the room, trying everything I can think of to make them stop screaming because I'm ready to run out of the classroom myself. Finally I hit on the Hokey Pokey, but most of them are still screaming and as I'm saying "and you turn yourself about," I turn around and make eye contact with the aforementioned highly attractive Mr. Abdulkadir watching from the hallway, smiling away, as I simultaneously make a fool of myself and somehow induce them to scream louder.

There is also a boy who is an absolute bull. He must weigh 55 pounds and will not remain in his seat for longer than 45 seconds. And has not a word of English. So I must pick him up, carry him to his seat, and put him down. I take three steps and he is out like a shot again. Today I was teaching "Phonics" (A-A- APPLE! A-A-APRICOT!) and I actually had to stand in front of him so that when he stood up, I could put him back in his seat. So much for needing a gym membership. One day he WILL knock me over as he tears around the classroom "looking for tissues," as is his new ploy to make me think he has a legitimate reason for running about the place.

I was really surprised at how naturally some things came to me this week...but then I was observed by my department supervisor and of course it was at a moment of utter chaos. I had two children SCREAMING, the bull tearing about, and we were trying to color in a worksheet that was 'color the apple red' with 9 red colored pencils. Nine. For 28 three year olds. We are so undersupplied in KG it's ridiculous. I actually had only 5 and I had to borrow from the class next door. So of course there was chaos because I could only have two tables coloring at a time. Shocking. So when I finally got that under control, I decided to redeem myself with their favorite game - find the red. (One red circle is basically our math lesson for September.) And all week they loved to yell "RED!!!! Teacher! Teacher! It is RED!!!!!!" whenever I ask, "Is this red?!" Yet this time, when I hold up a red paddle and say "Is this red?" don't the little demons yell out "NO!!!" It is like they knew.

I had a great moment today though...a child called me Miss Bat. All week it has been variants of "Teacher!" or "Miss!" or tugging at my skirt or even "Hey!" from one boy. (Which I put a stop to very quickly.) But all of a sudden I hear a tiny voice going "Miss Bat" this afternoon. I looked down and the smallest little thing looking up at me, smiling. I look down and said, "Did you say Miss Bat?" He nods. "Who is Miss Bat?" And he smiles, points at me and goes "You!"

I knew there would be difficulty with my name and knew Miss Bat (or Miss Batty) would be the result since B is the standard pronunciation for all words beginning with P (e.g. the "Tenants only- No Barking" sign outside my building). What I didn't know was how much I would like it.

Exhausted, but looking forward to fully fulfilling the role of Miss Batty and all that it implies.