It’s the last long weekend of the summer. The final hurrah. And what am I doing? Spending the majority of it in the classroom. I have to get ready for the first day of school tomorrow. It starts again.
One interesting thing about teaching is that you need to constantly reinvent yourself, your routines, and procedures. What works for one class might not necessarily work for the next year’s class.
The good thing is knowing what to expect. I have the same grade, the same room, and the same resources as last year. I got to know most of the kids in the school last year so I will know most of the kids in my class by name. I won’t know their ability, reading level, and classroom behaviour for a while but it feels like I have a bit of a head start this year. That is nice.
For some reason though, I always seem to have a hard time sleeping the night before school starts. I am going to spend most of the day here in the classroom so I will be prepared. But I have found from experience that you can never be truly prepared for teaching. You need to be like one of those improvisational comics, ready for anything, and ready to invent things right on the spot, to keep the room from falling into chaos.
So am I ready? Yes and No. See you tomorrow.
4 responses to “It Starts Again”
So funny! I have the most terrible time sleeping the night before the big first day, too!
It’s amazing how much goes into planning for a school year. As a kid, I never realized how much time, care, planning and effort went into each day. It was simply done and usually quite polished so that each one of us could come into a comfortable and dynamic classroom every day. I appreciate all of the great teachers I had throughout my life as a student far more now than I ever did before. I just wish I had realized it earlier so that I could give them the thanks they deserve.
That said, I don’t feel like I, as a teacher, can ever really do enough for my students, and don’t feel I need that kind of appreciation. Weird, huh?
Leese, I know how you feel. I wrote a poem at the end of last year that basically said the same thing. It was titled “I wish I could do more.”
It felt like I hadn’t done enough for my students last year. I don’t know why we should feel like that, but I usually do.
I hope you have a great first day and an excellent year! Thanks for the comment.
I hope you had a great first day, my friend. Teaching is the noblest of labors.
Oh, don’t worry, you’ll be great Chase, I’m sure.