Aug 25 2007
First Day of School
Yesterday was the first day of school for Josiah, Abby, and Gabe. Josiah is in 7th grade and has now attended 5 different schools. Do you think, maybe, we move a little too much? Abby was awake and ready to go at 0430. She hopes one day to be a teacher and loves school. She was ready to go make new friends. When I woke Josiah up, he asked me if he really had to go back to school. A little different attitude than his sister. I sat in the orientation in Gabe’s class. The teacher explained to them that when she called attendance they were to say here or present. She apologized ahead of time if she pronounced their name wrong and told them she would call them by a nickname if they preferred it. Attendance was called and the children said a quiet “Here” or “Present” until it was Gabe’s turn of course. There is nothing quiet about that child. He is “one louder” or as they say in Australia, “full on”. When his name was called he loudly said, “Here!”, followed by “And I have a nickname! It’s Gabe!” Some of the other parents in the class snickered quietly. However, his declaration seemed to have emboldened the rest of the class. After that there were quite a few, “Here! I have a nickname too!”
I feel much the same way as Josiah when I get up in the morning. Tell Gabe that I get my Drama students to play one louder. One student whispers their name and then the next student says the name one louder and so on until the name is being shouted. They all love that game. Teachers have nick names too, at Trinity mine was Happy; now I am an Executive Teacher I think it should be Snappy. Ah Severus, mine own hero.
Only 5 schools? Codi & Jayde are now at number 8 and only in 7th grade, though hopefully this one will see them through to the end now. I don’t even have your excuses for moving them so much, although we can say they have been to a school in every state in the country bar one (Tasmania)
From what I’ve been told, the schools in Tasmania are the best kept secret in Australia! Apparently, they are very much like the public schools in Louisiana.
I never get to have a nickname.
I guess ‘the South’ is the same the world ’round.
My nickname is nothing I would like to have remembered.
We thought you were Rusty???
My sister named me Poo, in later years she gentrified it with an “h”
When I read Gabe your comment about not having a nickname, he said “What about Dile?”
Okay. So I have a very short memory. I guess I’m trying to forget I was ever Rusty! With that nickname, I should be driving in Nascar. Like Julie said, the South is the South.
Gabe’s quite the comedian, isn’t he? Or should I say Ebag?