Meet the Parents...

Oh help!

Tomorrow night is "Open House" at our school...which translates to "OH HELP!" I can talk in front of any number of children, but in front of a group of adults is an entirely different thing. I can do it; it's just that I don't necessarily ENJOY it. It would be different, I suppose if I had some humorous or inspirational speech to deliver, but no. I'm going to go over kindergarten procedures, standards, grades, etc. And THAT wouldn't be so bad...but...

It's like this. This classroom designed to accomodate a group of ohhhh...25 kids comfortably (yes you could pack more in)...is suddenly filled with more than a dozen kids...and their 1-2 parents (and sometimes a grandparent or two...or a translating neighbor.) And so we've got lots of people, some of them sitting in chairs designed for five year olds...the rest of them standing around...some of them talking while I'm trying to...people coming in late...and then, my favorite, THE BLANK STARE.

What does the blank stare mean? Are they taken aback at all that kindergarten entails and so they're just "soaking it in?" Are they hearing "blah blah blah blah?" Are they thinking "I could be home watching the Olympics!"? Are they wondering why on earth my shoes are THAT ugly? What does the blank stare mean?

Last week I spent one day in my classroom. The rest of the week we were asked to stay out so the custodians could get some stuff done. This week I've had half a day to work in there...and it was filled with stuff like collecting new textbooks, workbooks, etc. Busy busy busy, but my room doesn't show much improvement for it. In fact it's worse because now I have all those books to put away. TOMORROW the hammer hits the nail, though. The room turns into a child-friendly classroom and somehow I get my brain together to tell the parents "all they need to know."

I don't know what else to say. So.......... THE END. (That was smooth, wasn't it?)