Today is my first day as a public school teacher.

I’ve taught before in universities, and subbed long-term in public schools.  But this is my first time as a full-time teacher in a public school.  I am teaching high schoolers the art of language.

The first two weeks have been my introduction to the world of school staff, the world of what it’s like when students aren’t around and school people have to do school business things.  I’ve met people, signed forms, sat in meetings, been introduced to software, emptied a classroom of over a hundred old Pearson Hall textbooks, hung posters,  organized a desk, stacked fifty 1970s Dictionaries in a corner like an Andy Warhol exhibit, and begun planning exactly what I’m going to do the first week.  My students are here today.  I am getting to know them, and they are getting to know me.

This is what it’s like to be a teacher.  All these moments I’ve had so far, and the school year had not even started yet until today (By the way, no, I’m not typing this in class; it was posted before I even got to school).

But this week I really get to find out what it’s like to be a teacher who is teaching.  Well, I know what that’s like, but this is my first time as a public school teacher, not subbing, not student teaching, not part-timing it as an adjunct.  This is it.

We’ll see how it goes.