The First Day Of School

1.Contact with members of the lower castes always reminded him painfully of this physical inadequacy

It was 1:00 pm when I arrived at Wanamaker Elementary School. Patiently I waited outside the door. When I was finally let inside the classroom, I was welcomed by a mixture of bright smiles and blank stares. Mrs. Stark then introduced me to the class of twenty third graders. After she introduced me to the whole class, I quietly made my way to the back of the room. As I looked around the classroom, I saw twenty occupied desks. Mrs. Stark decorated her classroom with many motivational posters and some of the student’s artwork. During my observation of the classroom, I was able to see how the teacher interacted with the students, how gender roles were apparent between students, and lastly see the how the students interacted with each other.

A shot of excitement washed over me like a wave washing onto sand, as I stepped into my fourth hour of the day for the first time. Stopping in the doorway, my eyes took in the small space that was in front of me; the long wooden desks with bright orange, metal chairs resting at their sides, to the small black bookshelf that was covering the back wall. In between was the long black table protruding from the left wall and dated couches with floral print in the back. As I finally stepped into the classroom, I saw the teacher. She was an older woman with short, boyish style gray hair, she had a plump frame and was a little bit taller than my 5’5 frame. On the bridge of her nose rested a small pair of circular glasses. “Hello class, I’m Ms. Naz,” her voice boomed. I scrambled to take my seat that was, thankfully, near the front. Scanning the classroom once more I hoped that I would find some of my friends. Seeing a girl who was in my second hour class, I made a mental note to try and talk to her later; beside her, I couldn’t find any of my newly made friends. I’m just going to love this class, a sarcastic voice in the back of my head exclaimed.

Even forgetting the appearance of the school outside it, my classroom was an escape. My teacher, Mrs. Waterman, had an effervescent personality that bubbled over and spilled throughout the classroom. Her favorite words in the classroom were “Great effort!,” “That looks great!,” of the ever-present “Stupendous job!” Everything, from the colored magnets on the pure white whiteboard to the polychromatic rug helped make you feel happy, bright, and positive. Once I stepped inside, a pleasant aura of welcoming enveloped you, causing her room to be quite the popular destination for lunch breaks. When I walked towards her classroom on that fateful day, she was waiting at the door with a perky smile, ready to welcome me. I felt my mouth form into a return grin, and went into the coat room, whose only real purpose was to store the bags of the students, without hesitation. As I put my bag away, my sinus’ filled with the smell of whatever the lunch ladies were making in the cafeteria. Today, the malodor closely resembled something like pureed snails. I was glad I packed my own lunch.

When I was young I was bubbly and timid; a kid who tried to be nice to everyone and cause no drama. I always had a smile plastered on my face even if people had ignored me. I had a sense of naïveté to me, an aura of innocence. In the end of third grade I had been excited for summer, and all of the trips that would fall within it, but as we know, summer doesn't last forever. Before I knew it, fourth grade was approaching and my young self had a bittersweet feeling about this all. I never wanted summer to end, but I could await to see what fourth grade would bring me.

From the moment I walked into this school in fourth grade, I knew that I would have an exciting adventure here, at Maple Place School. On the first day of school in fifth grade I was welcomed by one of the best teachers here. I was excited to have her as my science teacher because her smile made my day just a little bit better. I walked into the gym and didn’t recognize anybody, that's because I was a new student. Everybody was welcoming their peers and friends back to school, and I was standing in the gym, watching. But, I was excited to start at yet another new school. I was used to changing schools, I had already done it twice. I know that it doesn’t matter how many friends I will or will not have during my four years here, it's about my education and journey with the friends that I have.

“Unde?” I replied, wondering where he wanted me to go. What I didn’t realize was that he was saying ‘Hi!’, a common American greeting, and not requesting to come with him.

It was the first day of school, both tired and excited. I didn’t want to get up, wishing that I

It was the first day of school. Children, manhandled out of minivans, walked over precipitous hills, and crossed dangerous streets of monstrous cars wanting a bite out of any child that came its way. All to go to the sprawling, tan building for a full seven and a half hours of learning. Among those children, was a little girl. Her father urged her into the building, and made the usual remarks about how he’ll see her later, and for her to be a good girl. A teacher took her hand and guided her to the preschool classroom where she would spend the year.

It felt like it would be a normal day. I woke up hearing the sweet sound of birds chirping outside my bedroom window. It was my third day of kindergarten and I couldn’t have been more excited. I pushed aside my pink chevron covers and hopped out of bed. My mom dressed me in my favorite purple skirt with white polka dots, and a white shirt that said “SPARKLE” in big, bold, glittery purple letters. My hair was in two french braids with a purple bow at the bottom of each. My dad gave me colorful fruit loops with milk for breakfast and a small cup of sweet orange juice. I quickly swallowed it all up because I was so excited for school today and was yelling, “Daddy let’s go! It’s show and tell today! Come on I can’t be late!” Today we brought in our favorite things to school, and I decided to bring in my favorite color balloon. Dad giggled saying, “Abby, I’m almost ready, let me finish up my breakfast then we will be on our way!” I grabbed my balloon and ran outside. He finished while I was already waiting in the car. He opened my door, buckled me in my pink car seat, and then started up the car. The car ride was full of laughter, smiles, singing songs, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Oh, no! That just isn’t right. I’m Laurie and I am going to tell you what really happened the year I went to kindergarten. As I was headed out the door with my new blue jeans with a belt my aunt got me as a present for my birthday this was unusual because I usually wear corduroy overalls with bibs. Anyways as the older girl next door she was distracting me from my mom because she wanted to know what day it was. As i passed the corner I realized I forgot to stop and wave good-bye to me. As we were few steps from the crossing guard to go onto campus, I see the clouds darkening and air . I left the girl walk with her friends I quickly try to run as fast as I can too not be late for my first day of school, but I heard a noise in the corner where I was suppose to turn and then I found myself in an alleyway between a Home Depot and Stater Bros. I looked at the sewer lid then boom! Lighting hit the the stop sign nearby seeing it burn up. As I looked back at the lid It was open with the lid on the side of the road. Then I felt a slight touch on my shoulder. I turn back and see me. He said “ You are my ticket to the good life”

This past year from when I was a “little” seventh grader to now has been quite interesting. The first day of school was on my birthday and I started off sick. Yeah, it wasn’t very pleasant. I missed the first three days of school. When I was better, I was very scared and nervous for all the new teachers and classes. I knew most of the seventh and eighth grade teachers, but I had never been in their class before. Soon, I learned that they were all extremely nice and loved to teach. I had tried to memorize my schedule before, so I wouldn't go to the wrong class. My first class was art, and then math, science, lunch, P.E., language arts, quest, and finally social studies. I remember Mr. Munford told us that he hopes we would be a pretty good class. I think our class turned out pretty well.

Everyone goes through hard times in school. It can vary from reading to writing, math to science, or simply just interacting with the people that are in class. In this instance, reading and writing were not strong points for me before third grade and didn’t get much better as the year went along. The teacher that I had was a terrible teacher; she gave me absolutely no help and handed me bad grades without clear reasoning. In fact, I realized how much she hated me, but to this day, I will never know why. That year made me learn being a good student in class, participating and asking questions frequently are rude habits to have in the classroom. Since the teacher and I did not see eye to eye, this made weak points such as reading and writing

It was that gut-wrenching feeling like there was something stuck in your throat, something itching to come out. It felt as if I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t look anyone in the eye I felt so shameful. Something was weighing so heavily on my tongue and kept appearing in my mind. That thing was the truth.

A bright but cold morning, January in 2014, I woke up early, I jumped and smiled because it was my first day of school. First I went to take a shower; I thought, “What I would do in school today, who will be my teachers". Then I walked to the bus stop, people looked at me like I'm not from this planet. I sat on a tree trunk waiting for the bus. The bus arrived after 15 minutes, I aboard the bus. The driver was a woman she was wearing a black shirt and brown pants. She told me “ Do you have the paper that shows that you have permission to go to school in a school bus” I stared at her and said “ No English”. A very good girl who was blonde hair translated into Spanish what the woman was telling me, "thank you" I said to her. Finally, I gave the paper to the bus driver. I sat down in the first row my legs were shaking.