Getting Ready to Go

This is an exciting and overwhelming time of year to be a teacher. It is exciting because you are getting ready to start school. If you think just the kids are nervous, you are wrong. The teachers are as well. This will be my ninth first day of school and I still get nervous. It is also overwhelming because we have to not only go to a lot of meetings but also have to get the classroom ready. This is a daunting task that you typically don’t see unless you are a teacher. When I went into my classroom the other day to start getting things ready, there was a pile of desks, file cabinets, tables, and all of the other furniture for the room piled into the middle. It took several hours just to put the furniture back where it went. Even though it takes a lot of work to get the room ready to go, I like doing it. I get all kinds of ideas about new things to do as I set things up. Some are little, like how to do lunch count and others are bigger, like how want to do timed tests and check math boxes during the year.

Each year I try to pick a theme for the class. Usually it isn’t a while lot more than something to decorate a few bulletin boards with and clipart I put on nametags and on name plates I put in the hall. While I was in Colorado this summer, I came up with the idea to do a “mission patch’ theme. I actually came up with this idea before I knew I was going to Florida. I have actually designed a class mission patch which will be our class logo for the year.

On another note, I am finally packed for the trip. All the batteries are charge, memory chips are clean, every camera I own is packed and I even have some clothes to wear. I leave tomorrow morning and should be in Florida around 5:00 tomorrow evening. Then we start up bright and early on Monday morning. We have to be at Kennedy Space Center by 7:30. We are over an hour away and I will lose an hour going to Florida compared to Kansas City time. It will be an early morning but well worth it. At least now, we don’t have to stay until midnight. The night viewing has been moved to Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.