Twas the night before the first day of school...

Here I am... writing a blog post. For the record this is something I said I'd never do and yet here I am. Although many have a negative view of blogs and bloggers, I think that the stigma of having a blog is slowly but surely fading, as are my reservations. There are two main reasons I decided to give in and create a blog. The first being that this is a great way to keep my loved ones updated on my first year of teaching. I know I will have plenty of stories and ideas to share with friends and family but won't be able to talk to everyone as often as I'd like. This way, I can share with everyone. The second reason is more selfish (and probably more applicable because the first reason is given that any of my friends and family will actually read this). This will be somewhat of a personal diary to help me remember my first year teaching. You always hear your first year is the hardest so I'd like to look back at this blog in a few years and laugh at the miniscule things that stressed me. So here it goes...

The last few weeks of my life have been anything but dull. I think I've experienced the widest variety of emotions ever in such a short time period. I've felt things these past few week that I didn't even know I was capable of feeling. Nervousness, disbelief, excitement, stress, joy, relief, uncertainty, gratefulness, loved, humored, confused and exhaustion to name a few. It was only a few short weeks ago that I was relentlessly praying for an interview. But the good Lord graciously provided me with the most amazing opportunity to teach Biology and Environmental Science at an incredible school, under the best principal anyone could ask for and with a remarkable group of colleagues (in which I'm learning just how remarkable they are with every new day). The past two weeks alone have been full of new teacher orientations, technology workshops, science content workshops, pre-planing, faculty meetings, getting lost in my gigantic school, meeting more people than I can remember names for and lots and lots of prayer.

And now it is Sunday night; the night before the first day of school. Ironically, it feels eerily familiar. I would have never guessed growing up that the way I was feeling the night before I was about to start another year of school was the same nervousness my teachers were feeling. I have butterflies in my stomach and a knot in my throat. I have already picked out that perfect 'first day' outfit and my alarm is set so that I will have enough time to get ready and arrive at school an hour before I'm required to be there. Physically, I'm ready. Mentally... well, I'm still working on that. My prayer and hope going into this school year is not necessarily to mold every student into a scientist or even convince them love science. It is to be a positive influence on these kids; someone they can look up to, someone who they know believes in them and someone they can count on. For a lot of my students, school is the only consistency in their lives. I want my classroom to be a comfortable learning environment where they feel safe and encouraged. What I'm most excited about, however, is what I will learn from these kids. I know each and every one of my students has something to offer and incredible potential. I am elated to get to know them and discover their interests, talents and gifts. So I am ready for year 1- I know that although I'll be teaching about cells, heredity, ecosystems and more, what I can't wait to experience is what my students will be teaching Miss B.