An early start. I got up about 5:30 a.m. and had a cup of coffee right away. On the first day, parents will come in with their children and have questions for the nurse, and sometimes they get there earlier than me. So I like to get in a little earlier than usual to see what’s going on.

On alert for allergies. The first thing I did when I got to school was get a list of all 477 students from the school secretary. I look for new admits who have food allergies — especially peanut allergies — and asthma, because those are the two issues you want to identify first. Some of the children I know from previous years, but we had a big influx of new 3rd-graders and it’s the first year that we have pre-K. I make an allergy list for school personnel — for each classroom and for the lunchroom especially — and I distribute the list to let them know what to look out for.

The hallway wave. As the students came in, I stood in front of my door and greeted them as they walked by. There’s a little thing I do called a hallway wave. You take one finger and you move it up and down, and that’s the quiet wave. Sometimes they come in screaming and yelling hi, so we try to train them when they first come in to move quietly through the hallway.

New beginnings for pre-K. The best part of the day was seeing those little pre-K students come in. I was excited because I didn’t know until a few months ago that we were going to get pre-K this year, and they’re so cute. Some were a little nervous — some were throwing up. I just rubbed their backs and said, “Mommy’s going to be back by the end of the day.”

A 1st-grade checkup. I always go to see my 1st-graders first because they’re the ones I miss the most from last year, when they were in kindergarten. I want to see how tall they got and how they’ve changed over the summer. I was so excited to see them. When they saw me, they started calling out, “Nurse Maggie, Nurse Maggie, I need a Band-Aid, I have a loose tooth!” Things like that. The minute they see me, it’s always a medical emergency.

Paperwork and more paperwork. In order for me to administer any medication, I need a doctor’s order. So I had more than 100 medical administration forms to fill out to send home with the kids to bring to their doctors — mostly different kinds of allergies and asthma. This is my third year at PS 119, and I felt like I had more control over most of the paperwork this year and it wasn’t as overwhelming for some reason. I pretty much accomplished all my goals for the day.

Rejuvenation. I was even able to go to the gym after school so I got home around 7. What am I looking forward to now that school has started? Flu season!