I have a secret to confess. With very rare exceptions, I don’t automatically fall in love with a class on day one. (I don’t know any other teachers who do either…so don’t get all judge-y on me here….) On day one, they are too new. They don’t know one another yet….they don’t know me….I don’t know them…..and really, honestly, on day one, I am still in LOVE with last year’s class…..(nothing against the new Bears, it’s just that we don’t have a connection yet…..)

I am patient though. I know the love will come. I know that one day, I will be sitting at the yellow table and all of a sudden I will look around, and it will hit me….full force in the stomach…..just how much I love these little people. I will watch them working together, hear them reading with one another, smile at them being silly little people who have just discovered that our classroom library has a book entitled Underwear…..and I will be smitten……and I will know that I would not trade places with anyone else in the world……..

Today, for most of the day…..I saw that…….I saw the potential for the classroom family they are becoming. I saw them problem-solve and share and work together. I saw them trust one another and interact just the way I wanted them to…..

And I fell for them, just a little bit…..

It did not hit me full force, yet……but I know that day is coming…….and I am ready for it……

Because today, they begin to show me just what they are made of. And it is some GOOD STUFF……..

And today, I thought……”They pay me to do this………”  🙂