Meet the Teachers

We are Roanoke Rangers! Yee-Haw!

This morning was "Meet the Teacher" at school. We woke up bright and early with the girls' new alarm clocks. Meg did AMAZINGLY well getting up, making her bed, getting dressed, etc, all on her own! Last year, she was such a bear to get up! We decided to practice our morning routine all summer--no morning cartoons until they had done all of the above. Today we added "6:30am" to the routine. It was a success! Emily prefers to wake like Sleeping Beauty - with a kiss, rather than an alarm. She did great too--we even had time to straighten our hair!

Emily was quite nervous last night about what to expect in 3rd grade. After a few tears and a lot of tossing and turning, she finally fell asleep an hour later. I told her as we drove to school this morning that my tummy was feeling a little nervous too! I remember missing the first day of 4th grade because my nerves were so bad!

Emily's teacher is Mrs. Smith. She is a very sweet lady. They are Mrs. Smith's Frogs.

Emily & Mrs. Smith

After visiting the 3rd grade hall, we made our way down to find Meg's class. Meg showed us the way : )

Meg & Mrs. Mata

Meg's class will be a new experience for us. She will be in a team-teaching class where there are two teachers and 39 children. I was a little (ok- a lot) weary of the team teaching philosophy. Our principal loves it--there is one class like that in each grade. When the teachers make a great team, it really works well. But I worry about it at such a young age, plus I am not very familiar with either of her teachers. They seem very nice though. Meg was ecstatic when she saw Ms. Long's name on her postcard that came in the mail. Ms. Long was the assistant PE teacher last year, so she already knew her and likes her a lot. I asked Dan if I should go and ask for her to be put in a different class, but after discussing it, we agreed to give it a try and to keep an open mind. You never know, Meg may thrive in an environment like this one. We'll see!

Meg & Miss Long

You may notice, we came bearing gifts this year! : ) It never hurts to get on the teachers' good side even before the first day of school! I totally copied the idea from my good friend, Jennifer Tatum. Thanks, Jenn! I had fun making them. They are "Teacher Survival Kits". Just a paper mache box, decorated with fun paper and stuffed with goodies like chocolate, tylenol, hand sanitizer, lint roller, post-it notes, etc. The girls loved giving their new teachers a treat.

Tomorrow will be the first day of school. Dan is planning take a late morning and come with us to drop them off and see their new classrooms. I'll probably post more pics -- Dad asked me when Emily was in Kindergarten, how long I thought the girls will allow me to trail after them snapping shots? I don't know, but I'll keep it up as long as they will let me! Haven't heard any complaints yet ; ) (But I promise not to follow them to middle school!)