Insert Witty Title Here

This week marks where my student teaching really begins. Today was the first day freshmen were in the school. They toured the place, got to know everything and were my first experience working with students. It was a half-day and was a very loosely defined operation. Because I only have one class with freshmen, I spent most of my day deeply involved in trying to finish the reading for the AP Literature and Composition class rather than actually interacting with students.

That part comes to-morrow. My first block in Journalism, followed by AP Lit., a bit of downtime and then my freshman English class. The last one has roughly twenty kids in it. Today also marked my first experience with the school's cafeteria, since we were provided with pizza today. A slice of pizza and a small container of fries proved to be alarmingly bad - I have become something of a connesuir of pizza (which is a funny way of saying I eat a large amount of frozen pizza, coupled with living within throwing distance of a decent pizza place), but this was some of the worst pizza I have had in memory. The fries were also both cold and soggy, ever a lovely combination.

My first class with freshmen was in many ways what I was expecting. The students were full of energy and very eager to talk. Because things are just getting started, they are very unfocused. There are a few class clowns but I imagine they will have calmed down significantly by the time I am actually solo-teaching them. I am really excited to be working on The Odyssey with them (I do love that story) and think that there's so much material there I can cover, even if it is a really toned down translation (they removed the sex, most of the gore and all of the extended Homeric similes. It's really the last that chafes me most.