Math is a wonderful thing. Math is a really cool thing. So get off your ath, let's do some math. Math, math, math, math, math.

So I have really been enjoying the first couple of weeks of school. I have to admit, that being by myself and teaching a kindergarten class for the very first time has been . . . interesting.

I now realize that you really have to be willing to give up a lot of your sanity to teach kindergarten - - for 2 main reasons:

Number 1 - Kindergartners don't want sane teachers. The crazier, the better. The weirder faces, the better. The stranger the voices, the better.

Number 2 - If you expect sanity in a kindergarten classroom, you will ultimately lose your mind anyways. Hence, in the process of giving up your sanity, you maintain it.

But I think the most important thing is that at the end of the day, it has helped me appreciate the fact that when I get home, my house is quiet, clean and child-free. I never really fully appreciated that about my life until I started teaching--and it is so weird I never realized how loud, messy and utterly insane kids are.

Okay, they can be pretty adorable too.

When they're sleeping.

Not adorable--when they should be sleeping.

But, instead, they're awake, and sitting in a loud, boisterous, hot classroom in the late afternoon . . . . just waiting for me to tell them that they can't sit by a certain someone (that they will poke, or pinch, or talk to) just so that they can burst into tears and loud screams so that everyone can know just how horrible their life is.

But then school is over, they give you a tear-stained hug and tell you that you're the best teacher in the world.

Yeah, I love my job!