My night in second grade

Parent Orientation Night is always interesting. I learned a bunch of things:
There's a whole lot of sand in the playground, so my hopes of it running out in the next week, so there isn't any sand in Sydney's shoes after school, is a pipe dream.
The principal likes to chat, and is super excited to be at such a good school. Like, really. He was incredibly enthusiastic. The vice principal also is a chatty guy, with seemingly no direction at all in his remarks.
Change is hard, and the parents don't like it. There's a new Gate to Gate policy at the school, where parents drop their kid at the gate, and pick their kid up at the gate. This is the first year it's been implemented, and the parents don't seem too happy about it. It's interesting to hear the administrators explaining the new policy, clearly placating the freaked out parents who have been complaining for weeks.
In second grade, the students' chairs are bigger, and sitting at desks is more comfortable.
There are nifty words for everything, prettily emphasizing what they really are. Writing, reading and phonics is called "Fundations." Math is called "Math Facts," making it more definite, I guess. Reading is called "DEAR time," which stands for Drop Everything And Read. ... Happily, social studies and science are still called that.
Homework and schoolwork begin in earnest next week, and once again, it looks like the homework is going to be more work for me than Sydney. I get to log all her time playing math games on the computer; I get to log her time reading every night; I get to go over all her work with her; and of course, I get to make sure she's doing all her assignments. I don't mind my responsibility in this. It's just that none of these things can be accomplished without some pushback, attitude and/or ridiculously exaggerated pouting from the student herself.
There's an overhead projector that shows on a white board in the classroom and it's a touch screen, too. There wasn't anything that cool when I was in school.
School is still a fantastic thing, and I'm glad that Sydney is enjoying it.
Even the principal and vice principal can be super rude. As a couple, they came into our classroom towards the end of the orientation, made some random comments here and there, and then announced at 7:02 p.m. that it was time for us to go, cutting her off rather than let the teacher finish up with her remarks and allow time for questions. To add more irritation to that, I noticed as we left the classroom that there were two other classes still happily moving along with their time together.
If I'm not home, and Brian is in charge, Sydney is perfectly happy not insisting on her dinner being prepared and ready for her consumption right at 6 p.m.