First Day

Today was my first day of teaching. As I walked to the L stop in the dark at 5:40 this morning, sipping coffee from my sorority travel mug and contemplating the last time I was out of my house that early (still out from the night before), I felt decidedly unqualified to teach anyone anything.

Getting to school involves a 45 minute train ride followed by a 10 minute bus ride. This is not exactly the most convenient method of transportation, and my coworkers have politely suggested that (a) riding the bus with my students will be hella awkward and (b) I will get shot. Nevertheless, I mostly enjoy the commute. The train ride is good for reading or grading papers (or, more realistically, napping). And the bus conveniently drives past the school where I taught this summer--a nice reminder that if I can survive Institute, I should be able to survive anything my school throws at me.

Today I managed to deal with the lack of copy paper; my inability to log into the computers or access the attendance system; the students strolling into class 35 minutes late; the class with 8 people not on my roster and about 15 more students than chairs; even the teacherless chemistry class that I was compelled to spontaneously take over (yay OTBF!). The one thing TFA did a crappy job preparing me for? Being on my feet for four and a half hours. It's hard to imagine how I'm going to do this for 10 more months. At this point, I'm less concerned with teaching and more concerned with the possibility of passing out from exhaustion in the middle of class one day.

Hopefully things will settle down by the end of the week. Maybe by then I'll be able to make copies,  stop getting to school before 7 in the morning to prepare things, and squeeze in more than 4 hours of sleep. In the meantime... wish me luck for day 2!