First Day

It was nothing and everything like I expected.  Even riding the bus, I was impressed with the sheer numbers of students on the way to my high school. And I followed them, figuring they must know that the road that was blocked the other day must now be open. They were right. I checked in at the main office after navigating my way past the hordes of students going through metal detectors, learning the room number for the world lit teacher, Mrs. Moore (as stated previously, all names have been changed to protect identities). She gave me a short list of books to obtain from the English department head, Mr. Stevens—I just had to track him down. Mrs. Moore let me know I’d be working with her 2nd and 7th periods.

Mr. Stevens was not in the English office, nor in the adjoining journalism lab. I had seen someone who I thought had to be Mr. Stevens at the student teacher orientation, but I didn’t have a chance to talk to him then. Today, I had to find him. I circled the library and the halls surrounding his office, helping to direct lost students to their rooms even though I barely had any idea how the rooms were numbered myself—trust me, I must have gone passed the library and main office at least three times before I figured out which way took me to Mrs. Moore’s classroom! I decided to visit the teacher’s lounge and then cycled back to Mr. Stevens’ office. Again, no sign of him anywhere. Finally, I thought maybe I should be heading back to Mrs. Moore’s room, even though homeroom was still going on, when I spotted Mr. Stevens in the hall. Thankfully, he was able to inform me of my schedule, which includes three theater classes (Three! We didn’t have much more than that at the Academy, which was a performing arts magnet school!) and two sections of world literature for seniors. And then Mr. Stevens took me into this cavernous closet known as the home for English textbooks, which reminded me of the stockrooms when I worked retail. Mrs. Moore had requested the teacher’s edition for me, along with a workbook version of the text, and Mr. Stevens was undaunted by the challenge. Soon enough, he had excavated the lone teacher’s edition and told me that it was my lucky day and, with no uncertain terms, DO NOT LOSE THIS OR ELSE! The book is almost as heavy as my two-year-old—how can I possibly lose it?

He then guided me to the 1st period theater class, which, as luck would have it, is being covered by a sub this week. At least the sub is permanent sub for the high school, but the sub knows next to nothing about theater. Nor was he particularly good at distributing the syllabus, as he gave all of the students the one for a different class. I read the syllabus and took attendance, despite knowing that the sub should probably be doing that, since he’s being paid and I’m only forking out a large sum for the privilege. I figured it was a good way to learn the students’ names faster. Given how he was functioning, I have a much better chance of learning their correct names this way…