Preparing for "Back to School"

Every summer right before school starts, I try to take a beach trip. This is my way of mentally preparing myself for the next nine months of the unknown! As I sit here in the salty air and sunshine, I think about what to expect on the first day of school. This year is going to be a little different you see... we usually have a crew / inservice meeting about a week before school starts. This meeting is a mandatory meeting and it gives us an opportunity to put stuff back in our buses like brooms, paper work,..etc. Plus they tell  us all or any changes that where made  or new expectations of us as drivers. We will meet the new sub drivers, which we all check out and take bets on how long they will last ..... just like the new kids in the classroom. (LOL)

 Yet this day is just like the first day of school for the bus drivers. On that day we would act just like the kids do on the first day of school, since this is the first time we have seen each other since the last day of the school year. So you have some people that dress in their best “back to School” clothes, some that can’t wait to tell you all about their summer, then there those who just act like you saw them yesterday. We all go around chatting, laughing and sharing until the boss comes in and makes all sit down and be quiet ... just like a teacher in a class room. 

Ok  now back to my pre-first day thoughts or more like physic visions....The first day of school is exciting to me for a few reasons. I look forward to seeing the kids after the summer break with all the new tans, freckles, clothes, backpacks and hair cuts.  There will be the same old faces but there will be new ones also. It will be at this time that I will find out who moved over the summer... then I get a little sad since i didn’t get to say good bye. 

Once I get to the school, just like the kids we find out what teachers are still there, which ones have left and see some new faces as well. 

You see the first day of school is just as exciting for us as it is the students! 

So from here on end I will be blogging about actual events that happen in my day and life as a school bus driver...hold on this is going to get interesting!!!

30 days and counting

Well, I have 30 days left of my summer vacation before I get behind the wheel of the yellow cheese wagon. As the next school year approaches I think back at all the things the kids on my bus have told me...now one thing you have to know is that  as kids get on the bus they have a tendency to do what I call " vomit information"  at me as they get on the bus. This is as they are walking up the stairs and before they find their seat. So here are some things that I have heard over the years ... ( warning...I may know private information about your family that you may not know I know)

" my mom wears pink thong underwear"
" that's my dad...he just got out of rehab"

Not so funny one.... " my baby brother passed away from SIDS"

" that is my dad's crack head girlfriend"
" my dad lost his job"
" what is sex?"
" we are moving because my dad's business partner is a "Bleep"!
 "my mom got a new belly button and bigger boobs"

Now most of these come from elementary kids...the stuff I hear from my high school students are a little more shocking and I don't think I want to repeat. Yet there are times that they don't realize that the 40 ft metal can on wheels echo's and I can hear quite a bit from where I sit. There have been a couple of times I have had to come home and ask my own teenagers what something meant or was...then I get really shocked..LOL!

So just remember that people who are strangers to you but not your children....May know a little more about you than you think :)