September Already?

I finished my second full week of school!  Yay!!

Backtracking though, a reflection on my first full week:

The kids are absolutely awesome.  I'm struggling still with many of names, since they are 230 kids and, while I see them each twice a day at recesses, I only have each class in PE once a week. 

On Thursday of last week, we had Parents Welcome Night, so all the parents and some of the students came to meet the teachers, hear about their students' classes, get tours of the school.  I had a couple of parents come and talk to me after their kids excitedly dragged them over to me.  The most awkward though was a monolingual Spanish-speaking mom who came over (which was really exciting considering most parents who were fluent in English avoided talking to me) and, with her 6th grade daughter translating, told me that I need to work her daughter hard in PE because she is getting too fat (her words, not mine).  I felt terrible for this girl.  There's enough pressure for girls to fit in in middle school without their moms telling them they are inadequate.  I responded that our main focus is to help each child find a game or sport which they enjoy participating in and to make exercise fun.  I hope that was the right response!  I was kind of caught off guard.  It was awesome to see all the parents though and see the kids in other clothes than their uniforms.

Our first all school mass was the next day, so all of the students came to school in their formal uniforms - boys in navy slacks, black shoes, white oxfords, and navy ties; girls in dark green and navy plaid skirts/jumpers, white oxfords, navy criss-cross ties, knee high socks, and black mary janes.  They looked so cute, especially the boys with their hair all slicked back and combed perfectly into place.  I sat with the kinder (in CA for some reason they are too cool for the whole word, so kindergarten is shortened to "kinder") students because there are 30 of them in one class(!!!) and they still are working on learning how to sit still.  They were quite the wiggle worms!  One of the little boys sitting next to me hadn't ever been to mass before, I don't think, because throughout the mass, he kept asking me if they were almost done.  He also didn't understand what was in the bowl during Communion, so he asked me and I replied that it was bread that had become Jesus - hard to explain quietly during Church to a non-Catholic 5 year old - and he asked if he could have some because he was hungry.  I said it wasn't that kind of bread and that he needed to wait until he was older.  That must not have set too well with him because when I went up for Communion, he followed me.  One of the other teachers pulled him back into the row (not soon enough though, because everyone else saw and was giggling, including Fr. Scott) and when I returned to my seat, he said that he had just wanted to peek in the bowl and see if there was anymore of Jesus for him.  That's a quote for the books.
We then had a half day and a faculty meeting consisting of business stuff (we adopted a new discipline plan this year) and a Ignatius reflection.  It was really inspiring and moving to sit in a room quietly with the rest of the staff and be led by Fr. Scott in a spiritual exercise.  We listened a reading and reflection and then shared moments of our summers during which we were most at peace and during which we were most distant from the person we wanted to be.  It was an amazing way to connect with the other teachers and learn about their values and the people they cherish, as well as have an opportunity to be completely vulnerable with each other.  ...but hearing all kinds of stories about families and thinking about summer made me super homesick, which was the first major wave I've felt since being here.  The honeymoon phase is starting to wear off a bit.  I still love it here though, it's just a hard transition.