And 2013 Begins

Tomorrow is the official start to the new school year for teachers at my school, however many of us were in there today, trying to get our rooms set up. I say "trying" because some teachers couldn't get into their rooms yet due to renovations, and others were overwhelmed by all the extra furniture that seemed to have been relocated for the renovations! It sounds like I'm complaining, but really I'm not. The start of a new school year is always exciting and nerve racking. You want to get everything just right for the moment when the students walk in, but that rarely happens.

I love getting my 'draft' class list and running my eye over the list - looking for siblings of kids I've taught, or checking for names of kids I know from the playground. It's fun to imagine the kids who very soon will be sitting at the desks I've just set out (but then again, will that arrangement work?!)

I pull out my brand new whiteboard markers and neatly write their names on the busy bees I have for my class jobs chart. And again on the birthday charts.

I set up the class computers and check the interactive whiteboard is ready to go. I put in my request for any spare computers that might become available.

This is all the fuzzy fluff that I can get away with in the day I'm at school but don't have to be. And I know that tomorrow the real work begins - no more leisurely time to put up posters or to ponder why none of my students were born in January! Tomorrow the brain needs to be switched on to think about curriculum and all the nuts and bolts that keep the education machine running.

And that is why my brain is buzzing and I can't get to sleep tonight!