Ready or Not

Welp, today is the first day of school. The past three days have been spent meeting and preparing for the upcoming school year. It's been a whirl-wind, and my mind is totally fried. In fact, I fell asleep - in my bed - at 7:45 on Tuesday night. Needless to say, I was one tired teacher.

Wednesday afternoon co-workers were coming up to me asking, "Are you ready?" or "Are you nervous?" The fact is that I'm as ready as I'll ever be, and I do have feelings of nervousness every once in a while. For the most part, I am just excited. The more I did into the curriculum, the more ideas pop into my head. I see kids up and down the hallway, and I can't wait for them to seep into my classroom. It's going to be a good year.

The other English teacher and I were working through benchmarks and standards implemented by the state. It was tiring and overwhelming. I joked and told her that it takes all the fun out of teaching. Obviously, I was aware of these things prior to this week, but all of the work that is done behind the scenes of a classroom is finally hitting me. I am not lying when I say that teaching is complex and hard work. So, if you get a chance, thank a teacher.

I also realized how fast all of this is going to happen. While we do have the entire year ahead, soon I will wake up and my first year of teaching will be over. It's no secret that time flies. So, here goes nothing. Ready or not, here I come ;-)