Sent to the Principal's Office

Today, I went to school for the first day! We arrived at 9am to meet the principal for the first time, get re-introduced to the office staff, and bumble around as the administration tried to find something for three "interns" to do for a week before our supervising teachers arrive.

Points of clarifications: We are not technically interns, but it is as close to anything else for a description of our work today. Three = myself + one housemate + one Marianist volunteer. None of us are teachers by ministry or by trade, but we're all going to try really hard.

I may have mentioned in a previous post how much the staff and faculty impressed me last time I was at the school, and they continued to make a positive impact today. The new principal exudes competency. I haven't seen enough to know if the impression he made was true, but presentation is half the battle. I didn't have very much interaction with him, but I think I'm going to like him and enjoy working under him.

As for today, the other two volunteers filed paperwork and analyzed claims for free and reduced lunches. Somewhere around 90% of the school is on free/reduced lunch, and seeing the numbers of reported income lined up against dependents broke my heart. Luckily for me, I did not spend all day looking at them. I spent my day (get ready for a surprise) writing and editing!

After spending 2 months over the summer writing and editing, with some research thrown in, I would not have believed anyone who told me I would have fun on a day where I did nothing but edit a student handbook. I really must be cut out to be some sort of a writer, because I had a ball. Time flew. I didn't want to leave it when we went home. It made me cringe when I had to follow the archdiocese's wording when I could think of a more efficient (and probably more open to legal interpretation) way to say it.

Most of the house, however, jumped right into work today, and between that and ripples from yesterday misadventures into one of the less safe parts of St. Louis, emotions were slightly fragile. We remedied this with a trip to Home Depot to make keys (where the key-cutter extraordinaire teased some blonde girl with confusing math) and a stop at McDonald's for some economically thrifty dessert.