It begins.

Wednesday 6th September, 2006. The day I lose my first name, and am destined to be referred to by small people as "Mr Fox" for the rest of my life. Ladies and Gentlemen of the interwebs - today was my first proper day as a trainee teacher. And it was fun. You know that you're finally in a good place when you walk into assembly to be introduced to the entire school to the sound of The Flaming Lips - turns out the Headmistress (who is mid-50s, by the way) is a big fan of Wayne and co. Amazing scenes :)

I've actually spent the last few days in school, preparing everything for the arrival of the children today. Monday and Tuesday involved the final sorting of stuff; labelling drawers, putting names on exercise books, trying to remember the French for 'sit down'... the usual. But today was The Day, when I finally assumed the responsibilty for a class full of nine-year-olds. And you know what...? It didn't go too badly at all. While I am not exactly the most useful person to have about the class in a teaching capacity at the moment, the teacher I'm learning from/with has a bit of technofear, so loves the fact that I can actually work the Interactive Whiteboard or set up a projector. It's so nice being in a place of work that I'm wanted at, and that I want to be at. First time in a long time, I can tell you.

I have the usual suspects in my class. The boys who you know will be fighting off the girls in a few years, but will unfortunately still be as dumb as a bag of hammers (yet will get away with it his entire life!). The SEN (Special Educational Needs) kids who you can't help but root for because they try so damn hard. The class joker. The scarily hyper-intelligent girls (we have loads of them). I like just walking around the class, seeing who needs a hand with stuff, answering questions and such. I even did a bit of talking in front of the whole class today, presenting some stuff on Charles Dickens! Right in at the deep end. Brilliant. AND they gave me a laptop. DVDs and interwebs in bed! It's like heaven!

I feel, for once, like I'm in the right place. Here's hoping it'll continue.