Rules Rule for the Day

Try 20 short strangers.

It's not their fault, being short and all. They're only 6.

The wait is finally over. Time to jump back into the hectic, fun-filled days of school. The 80 folders are laminated and cut out. The name tags are in place on the tables (or were this morning). The room has "magically" transformed itself from this:

To this:

The palm tree full of parrots, each parrot lovingly bearing the name of a short stranger, is posted on the door. The pencils are sharpened. The tables are labeled along with the crayon bins, and the glue and scissors bins. The books are sorted. The calendar is up. The dragon is in it's place once again, perched atop a bulletin board where it's been perching for the past 7 years. Though he once was a nice bright green he's faded to an ideal greenish-gray dragony color.

The names are on the coatrack. The bin labeled "Class Books" is empty, waiting to be filled over the next 9 months with stories and tales of a new batch of first graders.

A whole new group of kids with unique personalities, but yet somehow exactly the same as every group that's come before it. A whole new group of kids who believe that they're the sole inventors of the rhyme "Step on a crack, break your mother's back".

They're finally here. 20 new strangers who will soon become the focus of my life. 20 new kids who are excited to go to school but also scared about what they'll find. 20 new kids to convince that they're smart and talented and capable of anything.

I'll try and give an update about each new day of school so you, the reader, can experience first grade all over again. Happy happy joy joy.

Day 1: OVERLOAD

The kids are pretty much overloaded with information today, whether I try to stop it or not. Everything's new. There's so much to remember. They have to learn how to eat breakfast in the room, where to throw away their garbage, where to sit at their table, where to sit on the rug, when it's okay to get a drink or go to the bathroom, where to get that drink and where that bathroom is, which doors to use at recess, and that's just naming a few of the things they have to learn.

Not to mention all the rules: recess rules, breakfast rules, sitting at your desk rules, sitting on the rug rules, raising your hand rules, walking down the hall rules, using the balls and jumpropes rules, lunch rules, talking rules, raising your hand when you want to talk rules (this takes about 180 days to learn), cleaning up the room rules, reading a book rules, passing out crayons, pencils, glue or scissors rules....it goes on and on.

I try not to go over everything on the first day. I try to just get them acquainted with me, the school, and the classroom.

But it's impossible to ignore the rules!

We do a simple art project where they make a picture of themselves and we have to go over scissors, glue and crayon rules. We have to go over how to clean up and what to do when you're done rules. I read a book to them and we have to go over sitting on the rug rules, listening to a story rules, and not talking when the teacher's talking rules.

They're not rules, they're just routines, but it makes no difference to the kids right now. I'm the teacher telling them what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. Right now it's ALL rules. Later it will be second-nature.

But today it's rules.

So some of them stop listening. It's too much. That's when we take a break, put on a jiving CD and play "Freeze Dance". But in order to play, we have to learn....THE RULES! (Freeze Dance rules, by the way, are: 1. No running. 2. No talking. 3. No touching of others. 4. If the music stops and I catch you moving you are out. 5. You MUST dance when the music is playing. 6. Have fun.)

There's no escaping the rules! Especially the rule to have fun.

At least, that's the way it goes in my class.