Ms. Ja...How Do You Say it Again?

First Day
First Time Teacher
First Thought...AHHHHH!

At roughly 6:30am I tiptoed my way down the stairs from my apartment and began my short 2 minute walk of a commute into life as a second grade teacher. Nerves? Butterflies? You don't know the half of it.

Dodging puddles as I made both my decent and journey, I couldn't tell myself enough to breathe. My classroom door inched ever closer as I reached into my bag for my keys. Looking up I saw a small girl of Asian decent (Korean I believe) sitting on the bench closest to the door. Slightly startled and a bit confused, I introduced myself. Her named matched one of the many on my roster and as I unlocked my door the reality of the day hit me. I'm going to be teaching 21 kids. By myself. Dear God, help me. Anxiously I paced my classroom, I saw more and more blackhaired heads join the girl on the bench. I could have sworn they were multiplying. Once the clock hit 7:30 I took a deep breath, opened the door, and began introductions.

Down the bench I made my way, shaking 21 hands of 21 children, learning 21 names in more than 21 seconds. Each child soon filed in, the knots in my stomach loosened and I felt like I could breathe again.

All I can say about this day is that God is good. I had been told that a lot of my kids were "a handful", but honestly I didn't have many problems at all. That was an answer to prayer in itself. I'm not sure if things went quite as smoothly as I would have hoped and some of my kids can't even prounounce my name but, like life, teaching is a learning process.  Thankfully tomorrow is another day.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! You have no idea how much they have helped :).