Freaky Friday Feelings

The Freaky Friday experiment was a success! I've had the whole weekend to think about it. There were some things that I expected to learn, and did, but I also learned some things that surprised me... I won't bore you all with the narrative, so here's a list.

Things I was expecting to learn:

Paperwork abounds! Mrs. B must have grading coming out of her ears judging from all the piles found on every available surface.
Her kids all seemed deceivingly smart because of their sophisticated language.
34 mouths talking all at once is loud. I bet she's great at crowd control!
I'm not that great at teaching anything other than basic facts in math. I mean, when do I ever convert fractions into decimals in real life?? Never, that's when.
34 kids will never make a quiet, straight line, whether you threaten or bribe them!
My instructional aide is God-sent!!!!!! How would I survive without her?

Things that surprised me:

I felt like a total stranger in her classroom. Nothing was familiar. Where should I sit? How do you check email on a Mac? Who are all these kids?
I had a forty minute planning period first thing in the morning... all of which was spent checking their homework (not grading, checking), and passing out tests. When does she get her planning done??
I really, really missed my kids. That was perhaps the most surprising thing of all! I couldn't wait to get back to my room and my students. I mean, they can be terribly annoying at times, but at least they're mine... strange mama-hen feelings I didn't know I had.

Well, that's the end of my reflection today. In other news--
NINE MORE WEEKS! NINE MORE WEEKS! NINE MORE WEEKS!