Dear Students,

So, I asked you to write me a letter and now I am writing you a letter. I try to always do the thing I ask my students to do. So, how am I feeling right now, at the end of the first day of school? Tired, and hot.

After eight weeks of being “off,” it’s strange to be doing it again. In some ways, it feels like a dramatic change of pace; in other ways, it feels like I’ve never left. I’m going to be dragging during my indoor game tonight, in just five hours.

But, overall, I’m really happy with how today went. Lessons went smoothly and it was fun being in a middle school building occupied by middle school-aged people. I’m really looking forward to this year. As I mentioned in a previous post, although this is my ninth year of teaching, everything felt brand new last year, coming here from a (much) different school, and I never really felt all that comfortable. But, now I do, and I do think this is going to be my best year of teaching yet.

I’ll reveal all sorts of personal information throughout the year, starting with my Bio-Poem tomorrow, but, I guess the main things you should know about me, being my students now, are these:

I turned 40 this summer, and, like I said, this is my ninth year teaching; my second at HKMS. I taught at Derby Middle School for seven years prior, and, before that, I was a newspaper reporter at various places in Connecticut. I really enjoyed that for a while, but the media is a tough industry to be a part of. I’m married, and have two children. My wife, Keri, is a 6th-grade language arts teacher in Westport, and my daughter, Paige, is entering fourth grade tomorrow, and my son, Christian, begins kindergarten (the “children’s garden”) on Friday. We live in Stratford, the town in which I grew up. I love playing soccer. I play indoor Wednesday nights, at the CSC in Woodbridge, and outdoor Sunday mornings, where we travel but our home field is at Wolfe Soccer Park, in Orange. I follow the English Premier League, and support Tottenham Hotspur. I also really like, although in a different league, Bayern Munich, and used to enjoy watching Barcelona but not so much anymore. (I hate to say it, but I like watching Real Madrid [they do have two former Spurs players, in Bale and Modric]). I play guitar. Have since I was 19. I jam with a group of guys from my old neighborhood in town, and we’ve played at a few neighborhood parties. I like to read; I try to cut out about 30 minutes each morning of quiet reading time. And I do like to write. I always have. That’s the part of the reporting job that I miss. The part about asking people questions I knew the answers to because I had to write a story because my editor wanted to see the story is not a part of the job I miss. I went to UConn, in Storrs. It’s a great state school, with a lot of options for people who don’t really know exactly what they want to do in their early twenties, and it’s a beautiful campus in the fall and spring. I miss it sometimes, but on the few occasions recently when I’ve returned I’ve felt really really old.

Anyway, that’s probably enough for know. You’ll get to know me more, and I look forward to getting to know all of you. I hope you had a good first day.

Sincerely,

Mr. Jockers