Kindergarten Rocks

At least, that's what it says on the shirt I wore Tuesday for my first day as a kindergarten teacher. All the other K teachers have them: black shirts with the words spelled out in rhinestones. Those of us who sing in public and say things like, "Please sit criss-cross, applesauce!" 85 times a day have no sense of what is or is not dorky anymore, so I bought mine and joined the gang. It's actually kind of cute.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure kindergarten DOES rock. For me, at least. After teaching for five years before this and finally settling into my own personality and style, I now feel like a rookie all over again. I don't know the "Good Morning Song." I didn't know you have to tell them that the voice coming out of the box on the wall every morning belongs to the principal. I didn't know I have to walk the Cafeteria Lunch Kids to the cafeteria and send the Lunch Box Kids out the back door to Mrs. So-and-So. I'm clueless. I might as well have joined the cast of "Dancing With the Stars" (there's ONE cheesy reality show I don't watch!) or become a veterinarian for all the resemblance this job has to teaching third- or fifth-graders.

I'm only teaching 2-3 days a week, so I should only be 40-80% as tired as full-time kindergarten teachers, but instead I feel like a school bus has driven over me quite a few times lately. You know how Tom Hanks says, "There's no crying in baseball!"? Well, there's no sitting in kindergarten. Hardly any, anyway. They don't read or work independently, they need their shoes tied, they need their belts done/undone, they need you to show them how to sit/push in a chair/wash your hands, they need a little round of "The Hokey Pokey" or "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" every few minutes to get the wiggles out of them, and they apparently generate their own energy via photosynthesis, because they sure don't eat the lunches their mommies so kindly pack for them.

Fortunately, the kids are adorable. If we'd had a particularly unattractive group this year, I might have gone running for the hills already, but the spiky-haired boys and the pigtailed girls alike have conspired to keep me around...for now. My teaching partners are awesome and have done this for years, so hopefully they'll be patient for a little while longer while I find my way.

I need a nap. Again.