Dear Diary,
Today I started back at school. Like the first day of school when I was a child, like my first day of Teaching, so too was today a swarm of excitement and nerves. I woke early and happy. My mood did not fit that of Mother Nature's. She seemed quite down and eager to share her fowl mood by casting the sky a bleak grey, adding a touch of cold winters rain for good measure. I boarded the DART with a stomach full of butterflies, reviewing my lesson plan in my head, making mental notes of the older age of today's class.
I followed my usual route from my Howth home to my Ballyfermot School of walk, DART, walk, Bus and walk again. I know the Bus Drivers now and had a lovely chat when I boarded, this time with the very chipper Bus Driver who always charges me a 'special' "Just for you today, because you're so lovely with that gorgeous red hair." He says as he smiles and charges me the same fare as everyone else. He's an awful flirt who could put a smile to anyone's face. If he can't, I'd say it's your problem.
I entered the school with a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils in my head ready to teach Creative Writing to 6th Class. I popped in to the S.C.P. Department to say "hello" to my co-worker friends and have a quick chat before class. We had so many laughs in such a short time, hugs and happiness to be back was I. Up the stairs and I made my way to my class, down the long hall, passing a group of students moving from one room to another with Teacher. I had a lovely chat with the Teacher, who's class I'll be teaching Creative Writing to from Thursday. One girl, from my Writer's Group, was waving enthusiastically and I waved back to her. The girls were busy querying me as to where I was headed. She popped right up to me, saying she was so happy to see me back and could not wait for Writer's Group on Thursday. Then she spontaneously gave me the biggest, warmest hug! She looked up at me with a face splitting smile and added, "You'll be Teaching my class today, so don't start till I get back!"
Class started and we quickly got down to the business of exploring the foundation of all good writing, the difference between hard Journalism and Creative Writing, exploring the spectrum from fact to fiction and answering those six important questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How? Then, as a class, we brainstormed and built Stories! The Girls of 6th Class had wildly fantastic answers to the above questions. They were imaginative, insightful, creative, poignant and funny!
When I left the school, it was still grey outside and the icy rain continued to fall.
But all I could see were RAINBOWS!
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