First Day of School

Today is the beginning of my 22nd year of teaching.  It's hard to believe I've been doing it this long! Wow!  And, I still get super nervous and can't sleep. I am writing this at 3:35 am. I am excited about a new year, new challenges, a practically all new team! I can't wait to get to know my students! I have a teacher candidate (student teacher) from Arizona State University all year and that will be amazing!  But also scary and weird and I really hope I do a good job mentoring her.
Everything is ready in the classroom- copies are made, anchor charts are started, supplies students brought at Meet the Teacher are organized. It's always such chaos that first half an hour when they have all these amazing school supplies and you are trying to get them put away and organized and they are so eager to use these supplies.
It's always so nerve-wracking and then you get into the classroom with the 25 new faces and you forget about all your nervousness and worries and it just begins to click...
Here's a picture of my amazing team- only two of us remained from last year. That's also exciting too for me this year- to rebuild a team that was seriously broken last year. Our theme for the school year is "Building a Foundation for Learning."

Whether your first day is today, next week, end of August or early September (lucky you), I wish everyone a great year!