Meet the Teacher

Meet the Teacher night always makes me nervous - usually because I'm the teacher.  Somehow I was still a little apprehensive tonight, as Carter and I set out to meet Mrs. T.  Will she like Carter?  Will she like me?  Will she think I'm a bad parent because he is a challenging kid?  Sigh.

This Meet the Teacher night was unlike any I've ever experienced in my teaching career.  First of all, I have only taught in Title I (read: POOR) schools, and parental involvement was super low at all of them.  My last school usually only had 1-2 parents show up for PTO meetings.  So sad.  So, imagine my surprise when I show up 10 minutes early, and the parking lot is already completely full.  I had to park down the street and walk the rest of the way.  Seriously!  I can't imagine if I'd just been on time... I would have needed a shuttle!

Kids and parents were already lining up outside of the classrooms, and we quickly discovered that Carter knows two of the boys in his class from our neighborhood.  Carter was his usual chatty self, asking all of the kids questions - name, age, favorite soccer player - and jumping around yelling, "I'm going to kindergarten!"  His excitement was adorable.

Mrs. T seemed nice enough, but I just couldn't stop myself from taking inventory of the classroom.  I was judging.  No smartboard.  No computers.  No RUG.  How do you have a kindergarten class without a rug?!  I know that kids are taught successfully without all of the bells and whistles of classroom technology, but I've become so accustomed to having access to the very best technology available that I can't imagine running a classroom without it.  It will probably be good for Carter to have 6 hours a day without anything electronic though! 

I am so excited for Carter to have his first day at Kindergarten on Thursday.  I hope he loves it... and I hope his teacher loves him.  How could she not?  He's pretty awesome.