It is always hot on back to school night. It is always hot on the day of back to school night, as evidenced by me sweating like a pig. What’s funny, historically speaking, is that sweating like a pig has its origins not with the animal, but with the smelting process for iron. Pigs don’t really sweat that much–when they need to cool down, they wallow around in mud, which is a metaphor I choose not to attach at this writing.
Either way, I’ve taught all day and now have to go back to school to tell parents about my classes. I love this night, even though I will find new ways to sweat. Parents are a big deal–I know because I have this 12-yr-old who is in Honors English but does story summaries for homework–and this is the night I get to “sell [them] this pen.” They need to be convinced that their son/daughter IS in the right place and IS with the right teacher. That may seem like a hard sell for me sometimes, but I hope by the end of the night that their fears are assuaged.
It’s going to be a little harder for my next-door neighbor teacher to assuage his students’ parents’ fears, as a brand new class period of freshman students was ushered to his room on day 15, less than 12 hours before back to school night. These kids had another teacher up until now (maybe multiple teachers). He also had a class of sophomores during that period, but I don’t know where they ended up. Perhaps it’s like baseball and there will be a player to be named later in the whole process. Either way, kids are still being shuffled around on the fourth week, which can’t help their adjustment to a new school and new expectations.
For parents tonight, they get the reality of me. I’m not so bad because I’m HONEST and always TRYING NEW THINGS. Some of the things I will try this year will fail so miserably, but I’m trying. We will laugh about them (I hope) and move along. Guess I’ll drink some more water now so I can sweat some more tonight.
More Leo for you.