First Week of School

    We made it through the first week of school! I took photos of Travis every day for the first week. It started because Alex asked me to send her a first day of school picture. I thought this one was hilarious! I continued because Alex's first week at LHS was crazy and stressful. Travis photos make her happy. 

     School got off to a very weird start. We have not had everyone in the building, all at the same time, since March of 2020. There are a lot of people! Hallways get very crowded and there are many kids who have no idea where they are going. The freshman are new to the building, and many of the sophomores are as well. So I give a lot of directions. To new staff as well. 

      Thursday I got a call from the East Longmeadow superintendent that they were having a 2 hour delay because of the storm. It rained A LOT on Wednesday night and I guess the plan was to give the town a bit of time to clean up. Though I have friends that live in East Longmeadow who said they didn't see any storm damage. The original school day photo (which I sent to Alex) was taken in his messy room. Alex came over after work and she took this photo and a few others. I thought it was super fun! We hung out in the yard and made pizza for supper. Definitely a good day. 

     I have had only the one schedule change I mentioned. So far it is going well. I am starting to make some connections with the kids. It was super rough last year since remote was so stressful for so many people. At least now we are all back where my job makes sense. I can help them when they are having struggles and not just watch and wish there was something I could do. That has been good. 

     I am still not really adjusted to the sleep schedule again yet. I wake up tired, go to bed tired, and it just collects. I take naps after school and I have not worked on dolls or doll things all week. It hasn't even seemed weird. It has been really nice. There are times (like now) when I wish I could just stop making dolls, at least for a while. Or only make a couple when I really want to do that more than anything else. But I can't afford to do that. So I will enjoy my little break and then get back into it. Maybe I will even be refreshed. We'll find out. 

    The first week of school went reasonably well and even though having everyone back in the building is strange, it's not a bad strange. Other than the lack of pacing room in classes I do like everyone being there. Hopefully next week when we really get into the learning everyone will do their best and ask for help when they need it. I am glad to be getting back to what I do. I love to help people learn. I love to be an ear when the kids need it. I love being able to support the amazing teachers I work with and make their jobs just a little bit easier. This is why I am a para.