"These are the days to remember..."

I have never had a first day of school like this one.  

My students were so wonderfully polite, on task, attentive, and adorable!  I only met with my Advisory class today (a class for working on character education, problem-solving, mentoring, etc.), but if those students are any indication of the rest...  :)

I had music playing as they entered the room - "Joy to the World (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog)," "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," "Rock Around the Clock," "Dancing in the Streets," etc. to set a tone of excitement and energy.  The kids really seemed to like it, but they were still amazingly well-behaved.  

I shared a bit about myself via PowerPoint, and the students worked on posters to put on the outsides of their lockers to tell about themselves.  We toured the school, practiced using locks for the lockers (that was fun!), went over rules and procedures, reviewed schedules, did some icebreakers, went to an assembly, took a middle school photo on the grounds, etc.

Most of my students are Asian or Amer-Asian, but some are from Korea, Japan, the U.S., Singapore, etc.  Again, I haven't met my other students, so I'm sure that list will grow.  Considering that more than half of all sixth graders are new to the school (and even Shanghai for some), they worked really well together on a group assignment and were very nice to each other.  I do have one little rascal to keep an eye on, though!  He's a bit playful and sneaky...

The only negative about the day was the the A/C is still not running properly.  My classroom was 80 degrees when I entered it this morning!  Imagine my LCD projector and the body heat of 12 students and me added to that!  Hopefully it will get better soon... very soon!

Since I can't post pictures of students' faces, I took a few shots when they had their backs to me or their faces weren't straight on.  Check out the little guy and the lovely library!

Touring the school and then we met in the gym for a grade level icebreaker planned by the P.E. teacher, Mr. Z.  We stayed in teams with our Advisory kids - mine are in green.