First days of School

Well, let's walk through the days leading up to school first.  So, I am lucky because of the fact my mom has been teaching math for the past 28 years or so.  I thought this would prepare me a little but more than it did.  Both of my parents came to Jackson and helped me to get my room "ready."  I felt so good about it; my room looked great and my assistant principals were even complimenting me on it.  I then found my way over to another MTCer's room down the building a ways.  I looked around and thought how bare his wall looked and how unprepared he must be.  Then we started talking about what each of us has gotten done.  This is when I realized that I had done nearly nothing that truly mattered.  While he had his syllabus, letter home, information sheets, and all that jazz done, I had not started on them.  I applaud his efforts and all things he has done.
Now I finally realized what needed to be done, and how little time I had left to do it.  Only a day and a half left.  I thought that this would still be enough time, as long as I could stay at school and get ready as long as I wanted too.  Little did I know that they close the school down to everyone at a certain time each day(namely whenever the principal is ready to leave).  So I tried my hardest, but was still not ready for the upcoming days.
Now, my first day started off well enough.  I have first block off(time to run copies).  My first class of the school year went about as good as it could have for me.  This kids were relatively well behaved and nice.  I didn't have too much trouble keeping them calm and getting through the procedures.  Third block got a little bit more disruptive.  They were a little bit too loud and obnoxious.  They did, however, get calm and quiet when I asked them to.  Lunch went about as good as it could have for the first day.  The food itself was not very delectable, consisted of small portions, and cost the teachers $1.25 more than the students(we got the same amount as them though. Weird, huh?)  Fourth block came along and about ruined my day; correction, DID ruin my day.  At no point in time would they ever shut up.  I threatened them, punished a couple of them to make examples, and slightly raised my voice.  Nothing worked.  I couldn't figure out anything else I could do(at least nothing I could think of off the top of my head).
Today went a lot better.  The classes were still acting about the same, but with slight improvements.  My 2nd block class was still my best, with 3rd block a little worse, and 4th block the worst.  I think thank getting to actually teaching math really helped.  They know they need to pay attention to pass now and it deters the talking quite a bit.  There are some trouble makes and others who are just a little too talkative.  I will hopefully find a way to get these kids under control and have complete power over my classes.  That's all for now, I hope everyone is doing much better than I am right now.  Good luck on tomorrow and I can't wait to see you all on Saturday.