No, that's probably not right. I would feel prepared if they were coming that soon. There is no way school starts on Monday. Maybe I should check my email again (like I don't reload the page enough as it is) and see if someone messed up in telling me that.
The kids are coming on Monday?!?
What?! I just checked and apparently they actually are. Monday definitely marks the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year and there's not really anything I can do about. This is happening, regardless of my preparedness.
But I guess it doesn't really matter if they come next Monday or the Monday after that or the Monday after that. I'm still not going to feel prepared, and I think that's the nature of teaching. I can plan as many lessons as I can come up with, arrange (and rearrange...and rearrange again) the desks until my body physically cannot move desks anymore, and tape/tack/staple/pin as many posters and informational documents around my classroom until there is no wall space left and I have to start using the backs of chairs and the students themselves (wait, what?) but I am never going to feel truly prepared. I have no idea what my 70+ first semester students like (ideally learning), dislike (hopefully not me), and have in store for their English teacher (apples and neon post-it notes, please). Everything I think we will be doing over the next 4 months could change drastically the moment my first student walks in the door. That is both terrifying and exciting, because these workdays and last summer days spent getting ready could have been for naught, but maybe I'll be afforded the opportunity to do something more innovative and worthwhile for my kids. Or it will all blow up in my face and I'll go home crying after the first day! You never know...
The kids are coming on Monday!!!
I'm honestly really looking forward to the start of this year! I feel great about the place I'm at, the people I'm surrounded by, and the direction I hope my teaching will take. I'm starting a new position this year (new school, new classes) and so far I have been impressed, inspired, and somewhat intimidated. I'm out of my comfort zone with this yearbook class, for sure, and that's a huge contributing factor, but it's also the fact that I've heard about and already seen so many great things happening at my school that I feel the bar has been raised. This is good for me because I feel challenged in a way I hadn't been before, but didn't truly realize I needed that in the same way I now am sure I do. For those of you who know me, you would find it telling that I have already found myself stressing out a bit over the upcoming school year. So I'm having to give myself the advice I usually give others: that I can't do much more in two days (okay, so I may go in over the weekend), that I will realize I'm more prepared than I feel, and that though I won't be able to do anything about which kids I get, I can control everything they get from me within my classroom. No worries- bring on the teen angst!
Happy New School Year, teachers!
And Happy Payday!!! (If only 'N Sync had made an official music video...)
Billy Madison said it best:
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