I’ve been teaching since 2001, and the day before school starts is still an exciting moment for me. I spend a lot of time getting my classroom organized and student friendly and this year is no different, except I *did* have to move to a completely new building this summer. I had forgotten how difficult moving (especially in the middle of the summer) is!

So, I feel that in order to be completely honest with my students (and myself), these are the things I am most scared about starting tomorrow:

1. In the past ten years, my largest class was 17 students. How long will it take me to remember everyone’s name? I’ve gotten older since I last taught 150+ students.
2. Will they like me? “They” includes everyone: teachers, students, staff, parents. I went from a campus where I was accepted and valued to a campus where I am just a n00b.
3. There are so many procedures! How do I print? What do I do for Panther Den? I just know that I’m going to miss (and mess) up.
4. Am I going to be able to balance my work and school life? As much as I love my students and my job, I want to be able to enjoy *my* family when I get home. My babies are only babies for a short period of time, and I want to snuggle and play with them as much as possible.
5. Where am I going to eat lunch?
6. Will I be able to print when I get to school? Will I be able to print in my conference period, at least? Will it come out looking okay? I spent too much time on those “index” cards for them to print funky.

Actually, typing these out made me realize that tomorrow isn’t as scary as I’m pretending it is. So far, everyone has been super nice to me, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how friendly at outgoing the students I have met are.

The only thing that I’m kinda sad about is that I won’t be able to say hi to the KO Vistas students before they get on the bus. I’ll have to make sure that I stop by on Tuesday to send my love to them.