First Day Of School @ MindSay

Ah Fall… my favorite time of the year.  Crunchy leaves, hurricanes, pumpkin flavored everything!  It rocks.  But this fall is a little different from those in years past, because our baby started Kindergarten this week.

 

Yes the day finally came when our big boy jumped into the elementary school pool.  Shiny and I knew two definite things about our child before we even got married.  The first was that if we had a boy we would name him “Avi.” The second was that we would do our best to send him to a Jewish day school.  Part of this came from our education background – both of us were day school kids.  The other part came from wanting our child to have a strong Judaic foundation.

 

Lots of preparation went into the days leading up to Tuesday.  Aside from the usual forms, shots, etc., we had to get him mentally ready for this big change: new school, new classmates, new teachers, new daily routine, new commute.  For me one of the hardest things was saying goodbye to his daycare/pre-school.  After all, he’d been going there since he was 3 months old.  Watching him grow up there – from being the tiniest baby in the infant room to one of the big upstairs kids.  (“Upstairs” was a magical and mysterious place for parents in the infant – 1 classes).  They had been with us through a lot, and really took great care of him.  There were quite a few weepy parents on that last Friday – hard for us to say goodbye, but not really, since playdates with preschool friends have been scheduled already.

 

Off we went to the mall to buy back to school clothes, a new back pack, and lunch box.  Kippot had to be found since he has to wear one to school every day, and his name had to be written on everything. 

 

Finally Tuesday morning arrived – and as soon as I woke Av up at 6:15 he jumped right out of bed.  “I am so excited for Kindergarten today!  I can’t wait to show everyone how clever I am!”  Mornings have now become a contest for him to see if he can get fully dressed and ready for school before Shiny gets out of the shower.  He was already and roaring to go, and off he went in the Shiny-mobile to go to his new school.

 

I met my boys at the new school and they had a special ceremony for the Kindergarten class and their parents.  The Headmaster spoke to the kids about what they can expect, and then the parents all stood up and each of us spread our Tallit (prayer shawl) over the children and we said a special blessing of thanksgiving for reaching this special day.  No tears were shed by me (surprisingly).  When I spoke with Av about what they would be doing for Mommies and Daddies and the kids, I told him that I’ll bring my camera and my tissues.  His response was: “Mommy…you’re not going to cry…you have to go to work afterwards.”  That’s my boy – always practical.

 

There was one girl who cried as they were led out and off to their classroom.  As one of the parents sitting near me said “Oh good…that’s not my kid!”  The rest of the day was spent anxious at work – IMing with Shiny – both of us wondering what he was doing, since we didn’t know the new schedule.

 

That evening when they got home, we completely grilled the kid about his day.  He told us all about the set up in the lunch room, his teachers, the school, the Hebrew language immersion part of class (“I’m going to learn more Hebrew than Abba!”), the new blessings they learned.  He summed his first day at Jewish day school right up when he said “We sure thanked God for a lot of stuff!” 

 

Day three today, and he still enjoys school.   One of his teachers informed Shiny that Av was the only kid in the class who didn’t ask “When is playtime?” during the first day, and that he was really interested in learning.  What I think is most wonderful is that I know this is really the only time in his life when he will be this excited about going to school.  I hope that excitement about learning lasts him a lifetime.

i have a 3 INCH binder for AP Government.
i've never even seen a binder this big in my life. much less ever used one.

including me working in first hour, there are 28 people in publications, or working on the yearbook.
you only really need like 12.
i swear, all those people were just stuck in there because the schedules got fucked up. that's just crazy.
but it's a good thing i'm not in there.
Miss Perfect Little Morgan K is there.
along with Giant Miss Kristina R...who really doesn't like me.
so whatevs. it's chill. they'll all switch out.

there are TWO, count em, foreign exchange students at my school.
one from Denmark, Ida.
and one from TOKYO JAPAN, Chiho. haha.
the Denmarkian knows english, and french, and danish, fluently.
Chiho, from Japan, doesn't know english that well.
me and my friend Kassie went to lunch with them today. they're nice.

THE BEST PERSON EVER IS IN MY MATH CLASS. AND SITS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.
(this is of major importance.)
oh. and in this same math class? i was called lauren like three times.
weird.

"Digital Communications" is going good. i got my TOTALLY COOL war whoops shirt. ha. a medium and i ordered a small. the first radio show is this wednesday, so i gotta get some interviews. el pronto mundo.

drama looks fun. i'm happy Audrey is in my class. :D


all in all- good day i guess.
my schedule is really good. i only have three classes that i really need any books and stuff for.
English, which she didn't give us a syllabus for, only uses small novels. like we don't have a giant lit book. thankfully.
Math i'm with my good friend. who also happens to be the hottest girl ever. literally.
then AP Government. but HOLY SHIT. that binder is giant. and, yes. i plan on taking the test at the end of the year. and you know i'll get a 3 for that credit. my oldest sister Shosh got a three. my second oldest sister Amanda, who is actually in the running for valedictorian, only got a 2. her somewhat average friend got a 1. it's a hard test, but we're above the national average, which is a passing of 52%.
so i do aim to pass this test. i'm not the best studier. but i can do it. even if the great mother doubts it.

after that it's just a chill day.



get books and shit tomorrow.
yayy.

good question.



school starts tomorrow. i can't wait. i'm so excited!!









i'll update tomorrow. :D:D:D:D:D

Well, the first day has come and gone.  I'm pretty tired but not as much as I was after the freshman orientation.

We didn't do any learning in classes, mainly just teachers all saying the same thing about rules and expectations.  I got a little bit of homework but not much.  Spanish was the most fun class because I was actually learning, we had to speak all Spanish and no English in the class.  I think around 90% of the kids there have done Spanish in middle school, but I caught on okay.  I know basic words and can string them together sort of to try to understand it.  It worked pretty well.

My Algebra teacher...is SCARY.  It's hard to type it out because you really have to hear him to belive it.

"In this class, you need a number of things.  You need PENCILS, A NOTEBOOK, A CALCULATOR, AND A BINDER.  Now these calculators can do a number of things!!! You can DOWNLOAD applications, do GRAPHING, AND EVEN DOWNLOAD APPLICATIONS.  YOU CAN EVEN GET GAMES, AND SHARE THEM WITH YOUR FRIENDS.  NOW, everyone in high school for some reason is OBSESSED WITH FOLDERS.  I SUGGEST YOU USE BINDERS!! ITS EASIER, AND IT BECOMES LIKE A BOOK!!!"

He does this the entire time, screaming at the entire class for no perticular reason.  Once or twice he put a kid on the spot, saying "Am I a nice guy?? AM I A NICE GUY???" The kid mumbles "yes" to which the math teacher says "Say 'YES SIR!'"  "yes, sir.."  "THERE! SEE? I'M A NICE GUY! I DON'T GIVE TESTS ON THURSDAYS!" or whatever he was talking about.  It's a little hard to explain, you more have to hear him say it to understand.  He's brutal though.  I've heard horror stories aabout him from seniors at lansing.

But other than the math, it was really fun.  I got 2 insanely heavy textbooks which I need to lug around all over the place, and I think I'm getting at least 2 more.  It's hard to write about school when I haven't really done much, but I got the idea of what I'm going to be doing.  I'll post more later in the week.

I finally had my first day of school today.

I need some advice on something, though:
I was going to take Psychology/Sociology and had it on my schedule and was really jazzed about it.
Then I remembered that I haven't taken a foreign language and I told her that at my old school in California, two years of foreign language was required and I wanted to go to college so I needed those two years. We figured I could just take it in community college, though. So we went ahead and put P/S on my schedule.

But then she said that I might want to go ahead and take it because if I wait until community college then I will be with people who have already had it for many years and I may not do very well. So I though... okay... I either take an elective or I take Spanish to help me get into college.
So P/S got bumped and replaced with Spanish.

But I don't know if it's really worth it. I REALLY want to take P/S because that's what I want to study in college... but then again, I won't even be going to college if I don't have two years of a foreign language, right?

So I dunno if I really made a wise choice with that or not... whattaya think?

I do regret it in part because my Spanish teacher is total ass. He's like some young 20 year old guy that is just a jerk and EXTREMELY annoying and cares more about being cool to everyone in the class whilst displaying his dominance.

He asked me, "So what've you been up to these last couple days?"
"....................uhm..........Nothing."
"Why did you miss the first days of school?"
*everyone turns to look at me*
"Oh........because......uh.......well......I had trouble getting enrolled."
"Oh. Have you been here before?"
"Yeah, I went here sophomore year."
And then he gave me some dirty look.

I'm in a class with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores.
I must get out. He said he hates people that leave his class. I could really give a shit less.
Later he was giving me my book and he had been being really obnoxious and I was annoyed and honestly I fear if I do stay in his class, he will be the first teacher I'll end up bumping heads with. But anyway, he was handing me my book and said, "Do you like this class so far?" and I said, "...No, not really" and walked away. He ignored me after that.

My Modern Literature is my favourite so far. I liked her class. It's my second period class but the first I went to today.

When I walked in she told me to have a seat and they were having a discussion about what a Utopia would be like. There were questions on the board and she was asking anyone who wanted to to share what they thought. It was interesting to see what everyone had to say and I was kind surprised at myself because just a few minutes after being in the class I already raised my hand and started contributing to the discussion.

The first question was, "What kind of laws would there be in a Utopia to guarantee equality?" My mind started going like nuts.

I started considering the fact that everything would be relative to what one's definition of a Utopia is. Then I thought that there would have to be some sort of awakening or enlightenment for a Utopia. Laws and other such things don't matter, because really... I think in a Utopia you would not need laws.

So I thought about this for a while and thought how I could make it so it pertained to the exact question. After I had it figured out in my mind, I raised my hand and said that I thought the idea of laws in a Utopia that would guarantee equality was stupid (not my exact words) because there would have to be people to enforce the laws and in order to enforce the laws you have to have power and authority over someone else and that is not equal. She just kinda looked at me for a minute and finally said, "...Good point. Okay!" Then tried to reinterpret what I said to the class and kind of misinterpreted it but oh well.

I met a really neat girl in my US Government class and we talked for a while and we were going to chill at lunch but we have different lunches. Oh well.

So I sat on the steps and drank my water and did some work alone today. I really enjoyed it, actually. I liked to watch everyone and have some time to myself before having to go back into the confines of the classroom.

There was a boy sitting on the steps in front of me with his friends who had gum on his shirt. I tried to get his attention to tell him but my voice is too quiet and no one heard me. Oh well agian.

I talked to another girl in my Geometry class. She was really nice and I felt really comfortable with her, but this idiot behind me kept interupting our conversation so I just gave up. Better luck next time, I suppose.

So yeah. My mom just called and I told her about what happend with P/S and she said to think about what I want to do and we'll go in and talk about it with my counselor.

I wore really uncomfy clothes today. I don't know why. From now on I stick to tennis shoes and t-shirts.

Biology was easy. But it will get harder.

My US History teacher is alright. I wish I got my teacher I had sophomore year, though, Mr.Rache, because he was a really neat guy. I loved his class, even though he wasn't very good at controlling it. I felt comfortable in his class and enjoyed it anyways.

I realised that it is only a 6 hour school day. I'm used to 8 hours. That's kinda neat... and we get out early every Friday.

Yup.
Walking through the halls, I felt very disconnected. Like I was in another world. I think I just get so overwhelmed I have to shut down certain parts of myself in order to not just get really overstimulated and break down.
I don't like walking in the halls.

Lunch is my favourite period. :)

-Liv-