Cooking in Someone Else's Kitchen (First Day Recap)

Today was the first day of school at my new school.

The best analogy I can come up with to describe it is I felt like a cook making a gourmet meal in someone else's kitchen.

Except, that's actually a bad analogy seeing as I don't really cook.

So it'd be more like Emeril Lagasse coming into my kitchen and trying to cook a gormet meal.

If  Emeril ever did step foot in my kitchen, this is how he would look. 

My classroom is still dominated by the previous hoarder who inhabitied it - despite HOURS of work my family (both parents and husband) have put into it along side me. It's definitely better. Much better. But I don't function well in an un-organized space, let alone one that was un-organized by someone other than me. It may look really pulled together. But it feels foreign still. And I hate that there is still oodles of stuff crammed into every hidden nook and cranny. Which makes the whole environment a little stressful to me.

Additional stressful moments in my foreign "kitchen" today....

• My computer wouldn't send my morning activity to the copier.

• My mostly non verbal kiddo didn't come in with the rest of the class and the lunch aide during lunch recess. He stayed out with the kinders instead of coming in with the class. So he was safe. But I didn't end up getting to actually eat any lunch since I was hunting for him. I wolfed down three Oreos from snack and called it good. 

• My Promethean Board wouldn't connect to the computer. So there went our first whole group math activity.

But then when I picked them up at Art (the longest we were seprated all day) I got tons of hugs because "they missed me". When I called on one girl who had her had up she declared that I was the world's best teacher. As we were getting ready to leave for the day, one of my boys gave me a huge bear hug. One of the boys who I never would have expected to be the hugging kind. And I overheard one kiddo bragging to his buddy on his way out of the building  that HIS teacher gave them Oreos for snack aaaand a cup FULL of jitter juice. 

Those moments reminded me that even though I felt out of my comfort zone, it was still an awesome first day for my new class. And ultimately, if they had a great first day then I had a great first day too!

❤

Oh- and I was a bad blogger with  no pictures to show expect for this cup of Jitter Juice I treated myself to at snack time.

Check out the bubble factor on this stuff-!! 

Anyone using Abby's Jitter Juice activity trust me when I say you do NOT want to skip the sherbert in the recipe. I almost did, because it would have been easier. But I'm SO glad I didn't. It's bubble city and the kids LOVED it!