First Week of School is Officially Over

Friday is always the happiest day of the week for everyone, the end of the work week, the end of the school week, the beginning of the weekend and so it was for us last Friday.

The first week of second grade is officially behind us. I thought starting the school year would get easier but oddly, it is as stressful as starting kindergarten.

I suppose that it did not help that we did not ease into the beginning of the school year as in year’s past. My week before school ritual is to begin the bedtime process in a gradual manner so that the night before school is a cake walk. Going to the Disney World as fun and amazing at it was, did not help my getting ready for school process.

Of course, lying to your child all summer about who her teacher is going to be doesn’t help the first day jitters either. Let me explain. The administration at our school does not communicate the teacher’s name of the upcoming grade but only the room number. This is somewhat of a joke because most teachers have been assigned the same classroom for years. Within 24 hours, Daddy Mitch of gaynycdad.com informs me that my daughter has been assigned the Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) which my daughter had for kindergarten. For the uninformed, the CTT class has one general education and one special education teacher, so basically the general population kids rotate into a class with kids who have special needs. This definition has never been exactly defined for me and when I think back on my daughter’s class it took almost 6 months for me to figure out who the CTT kids were.

That said, since I had already been assigned the CTT class, I sent an email to the parent coordinator and in very nice way said that before I am reassigned shouldn’t all the families rotate through the CTT class. She agreed to confer with Principal and Assistant Principal  about the “mistake.” I am going to assume it was clerical error.

This is where having a connected parent like Daddy Mitch is imperative because I would have shown up on Day 1 of school and it would have been too late to make the change.

Long story short, my daughter knew on the last day of school that she was in the CTT class and that I was trying to change it.  She begged me not to change it.  So to avoid a lot of temper tantrums all summer long, I told her that she should be flexible and that things happen.

Let me set the stage for second grade drop off.  In kindergarten, the parents escort their kids to class and actually go in the classroom and read with them for 10 minutes. All nice and rosy, right, easing into the entering school.  In first grade, you escort your kids to the class, your kids line up on one side of the hallway and the parents stand on the other side (and dammit, don’t block the hallway because you will get scolded by the teacher and/or the Principal) and you never enter the classroom unless you have an appointment or it’s visiting day. Click here to read my earlier post.

In second grade, the drop off is in the cafeteria. Just magine, 100 kids plus a parent all clustered around their respective tables that are marked with the teacher’s name. We come into the cafeteria on day 2 and I am just overwhelmed by the noise, the adults, the kids, trying to find where my daughter is supposed to go. It’s enough to send you over the edge.

I find the right table and my daughter says “No, this is my teacher, I am supposed to be in X and Y’s class.” An all the kids in her class are telling her, no, Mrs. H. read your name on last Wednesday, this is your class. She doesn’t believe them and runs off to the other class.

I literally have to beg and drag her back because the teachers are coming to get their respective classes. My daughter starts to cry and say this is wrong and she starts hugging me. I really feel bad because my daughter has never had an issue separating even back in pre-school. Her motto is “if I don’t know any kids, I will make new friends” and  she does.

I kind of push her along with her classmates as she is crying. Luckily, the assistant principal was standing there and asked me “What’s wrong and why is she crying?” I tell her the whole story about the CTT class and she tells me she will go and check on her.

I walk away feeling bad that I lied and hope all will end well. At pick up, I ran into the Assistant Principal who said that all was well. And there she was all happy and smiles and super excited about her class and her teacher.

Needless to say the rest of the school week went well although the morning drop off is still nuts.