One and Done

First day of school is officially over. Overall, I thought it went pretty well. With each of my classes I went through my syllabus, explained my expectations and classroom rules, pretended to be strict and serious (I don't think it worked). I tried to start a class discussion about what they thought were the most important things in history but with all my classes, hardly anyone spoke. Too bad for them, this is their first essay.

Today I also assigned all my students an essay due on monday about what they think is/was the most important event/person in World or US history. This way I get to see their perception on history, I start off the year with an example of their writing style, and I set the tone that I'm the teacher and they shouldn't mess with me.

Anyway, we also shared fun/unique facts today in order for me to learn names by affiliating them with random bit of information. Here are some of the highlights:

• I'm afraid of clowns
• I've never eaten a sandwich
• I can lick my elbow
• I have a scar on my right eyebrow from running into the corner of a shoe-rack
• I broke my front tooth by running into a pole
• I once got 87 stitches in my face
• I blew up my friend's mailbox
• I fractured my skull as in infant
• I once got stuck on a roller coaster for 7 hours
• I eat in my sleep
• I have two different colored eyes
• I once convinced my sister bugs were candy (my mom caught her eating ladybugs)
• I recite Disney's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" word for word
• My brother pushed my down the stairs when I was still in a stroller
• I've never lost a game of Monopoly