First Day of Religion!

Yesterday was the first day of religion class of the year. It wasn’t my first year teaching (two years ago I taught a class of third graders on my own and that was…challenging. I abandoned ship midyear), but this year I’d be a teaching assistant (at my request) so I was feeling more confident. It started with laminating mass cards on the world’s slowest laminator which I didn’t mind because I got to sit down and make small talk with one of the other teachers. Plus, there were snacks!

There had been a meeting earlier for the leaders of the different parishes and so there was an abundance of treats left over like bagels, banana bread, sugar cookies, muffins and croissants. I’m perpetually hungry and have no self-control so I heaped my plate full and grabbed an everything bagel. I went to cut it and that’s where things went wrong. I’m on a bunch of meds and as I have mentioned before many of them cause some tremors in my hands. The knife slipped, slicing into my thumb. For a moment I thought ‘Maybe this won’t be that bad” Then blood started pouring over the side of my hand. I grabbed a napkin and applied pressure but it soaked through the blood.

The head of religious education came over to see what was going on. “Oh my goodness!” she was horrified and told me to sit down. Luckily, the cut looked deeper than it was and after applying pressure, I was able to put a band-aid on it.

Around 4:15 all the kids started arriving. I had been assigned to be an assistant teacher for a sixth-grade class of 15 kids. Most of them were my size (I’m pretty short). As they streamed in, I tried to make eye contact, smile, and ask them their name. Some were shy and mumbled it to their feet. Some burst into giggles as soon as they were away from me. I tried not to take it personally.

It was now 4:30, which is when classes start. My class was starting to get rowdy and still no sign of my teacher. The religious director had been teaching a fourth-grade class of 11 students but she swapped with me in a pinch. Still, I couldn’t command the fourth graders either. First of all, I hadn’t planned for the first day. I hadn’t even glanced at the schedule. The kids sensed weakness and they went in for the kill. Midway through the lesson, I told the religious director I couldn’t do it. I was starting to feel panicky like I might break down in front of 11 ten-year-olds.

We ended up merging the classes and teaching them together. This meant many things- such as not everybody had a chair- but it was a good opportunity to study the class and get to know them. After all….I’ll be returning next week.