Making friends already!

On my first day of training at the school, I made a friend in the parking lot. She had been sitting in her car when I arrived and she got out to follow me into the school and asked if I knew where to go. I explained that I was a new teacher and she said she was too- Christy, teaching 4th grade, moving from southern Utah. We stuck together those two days of training, even though she had her team to work with. Throughout those two days, I did my best to befriend as many people as I could and remember their names. I now feel friendly with teachers from 1st grade, 2nd grade, 4th grade and 6th grade. I have met the secretary and think that I can make her good side if I remember to pronounce her name right. And the principal even said in an email that she "loves" me and gave me extra points for being the only other person to use the word 'wazoo'. So I feel like I am off to a good start. But my most favorite story thusfar is my budding friendship with our custodian. I met him on the first day and introduced myself and got his name. Four hours later when I saw him, I used his name and apparently impressed him, so he told me yesterday.

So, he comes in to my room yesterday. (I was the only teacher there, just me, the principal and the custodians.) He and the kid custodians are cleaning the other kindergarten room next to mine. He comes in and says "Can I just tell you some of the pet peeves of a custodian?!" and seemed genuinely surprised when I responded "Please do!" and followed him out of my room. He showed me the velcro in the next room that the teacher had asked him to remove. He showed me spots where old tape had eaten way at the surface. And he seemed happy to talk to me and have me justify his feelings. Those are things I would have cleaned up myself. Anyways, from there we just started talking. (oh, yeah, he also said he would have guessed that I was only about 24, even though I seemed experienced with a classroom- awww.) He fixed the lights in my room and we started talking about our families- he is married but no kids. As he said this, he kept going "probably because of my low testosterone..." and then explained that they had experienced 2 miscarriages, etc. I empathized with him and told him about my fertility problems and that I "don't cycle". Anyways, it was kind of a crazy first conversation. And when he came back in to bring me something awhile later, he says "so, did I really just tell you I have low testosterone?" It was kind of hilarious. Unfortunately, he is being transferred to another school. I sure hope the new custodian is as easy to talk to and get to know! In our program, we were always told to get in good with the custodian and secretary because they know everything, run everything and are pretty much your lifelines. This is definitely something I take to heart.