I taught high school English for five years in a little suburb of L.A. The layoffs started about then, and I found a job teaching in Compton, where I was able to teach English 9-12 grades for a year. They laid off the new people first, obviously so I was really over a barrel when pink slips showed up in Compton.
Enemy, the kids will adjust to you quickly. Especially if you remember that they are struggling between grade school and adulthood. I love being in a classroom full of kids having a big discussion. I love reading their journals and getting to know the students personally. That goes a long way to help you "sell" your lesson plans every day.
Enemy, it was not the students that bothered me, as much as the teachers who would sit in the teacher lounge and say hateful things about their students. I teach in California so there must be a lot of differences between teachers. But I was horrified the first time I heard teachers talking about what a bunch of little shitheads their students were. And after lunch go in and teach those "shitheads" like the teacher didn't secretly wish the kids would all fall dead on the floor.
I sincerely hope it is not like that for you.
Now, my very first class is home from college and from the war, everything. They call me, FB me, take to meet their families, come over and have dinner with my husband and I. Our year in the classroom together bonded us.
Meanwhile I do not have any teacher friends and if one of the THOSE come over to my house I grab my keys and say I was just leaving. Teachers are by and large impatient, hateful, spiteful and the worst gossips ever.
American Education system. #fail