School junkie

I admit it... I have a problem. I love school. Seriously. We've been happily spending ridiculously amounts of money school supply shopping, buying new backpacks... today is new shoes. We went to Conor's 2nd grade orientation and Riley's 1st grade orientation this week, where the halls were buzzing with last year's friends, smiles, yells, excitement. The principals were in the hall, directing parents and children to classroom, smiling and welcoming everyone and warmly greeting everyone they knew BY NAME (and yes that includes me, in all my pta-chairperson glory).

In the classrooms, the teachers had cute get-to-know-you activities ready for the kids to do, desks with nametags, new agendas. As soon as Riley's teacher saw us (because, of course, she was Conor's teacher the previous year and we asked to have her yet again), she smiled, ran over, said "And here's the Bowens!", where she hugged Conor and Riley like they were her own children.

And school is much cooler now than it was when we were young. Parents are in the halls and the classrooms DAILY - all over the place. They want you there, they ask for you to come - to have lunch, to volunteer, to read, to help with activities, anything. Riley's class has laptops this year. Conor's class is designated a teach 21 classroom, where they emphasize technology in the classroom, and it is gifted endorsed and is part of a team-teaching program. In both classes, the guidance counselors came in, welcomed the children, made sure they knew that they were there if they needed anything.

I love school. I guess that's why I became a teacher. And luckily, my enthusiasm for school has rubbed off on my children, because they are as anxious and excited as I was (okay, am) for the first day on Monday, to do all the cool things they did last year, to meet up with old friends and make new ones. And I am looking forward to it too - to put my name in the hat to be room mom, take over my former chair position on the pta, volunteer to come in to help, to plan the parties, to be the Friday reader.

I'm so thankful that we live in an actual community, where everyone knows each other, where the school is an extension of that. We (literally) run into teachers at our pool, on walks, in the grocery store. We call Riley the "mayor" of Towne Lake (the master planned community we live in), because no matter where we are, someone yells out "Riley!" and runs over to give her a hug. I love that EVERY school my children will attend until college is located right inside this little community, that last year when Riley had a bad day, her teacher took her over to Conor's classroom so he could give her a hug, that when Conor called from the nurse's office complaining of a sore throat (although he had not one other symptom to speak of) and I asked if I could drop off some cough drops, she said she'd keep him in the nurse's office for me until I got there, because sometimes kids just need to see their moms. I don't worry when they're gone, and I look forward to seeing them and hearing their stories when they get home. I love knowing they've learned something I would never think to teach them even though I'm a teacher myself.

Have I mentioned I love school?