Thursday, August 2, 2012

The "Begin the School Year" Craziness

New books to add to the library

It happened yesterday. I flipped the wall calendar in our kitchen and my heart began to race, August. Oh Lord. As of today I have eighteen days left until our Inservice Day, nineteen until students arrive. I feel the need to run around my house screaming, yet I know that will make Chris more fearful for my mental state, so I will swallow the scream.

Are you having back-to-school anxiety yet? Here’s a list of events from today that did not help matters.

·      Printing off some Common Core handouts from this site HERE. (Amazing, by the way. I printed the bookmarks. Thanks to Paul Hankins for pointing them out.) I read through them and my head started swimming.
Bins to label
·      Knowing that Monday I need to go learn how to use our new student management program.
·      Counting 101 books on my bedroom bookshelves that I need to read.
·      Walking in my classroom today and seeing all that needs to be done.
·      Thinking of the curriculum planning I need to finish.
·      Realizing that once I have a class list in a week I need to begin all the items on the “to do” list that require student names.
·      Seeing the stack of letters my students wrote themselves in our end of the year celebration that I need to mail out tomorrow. (More about that HERE)

And the list goes on, and on, and on…
Bulletin Boards to change
Furniture to rearrange
And it is in times like these I begin doing some deep yoga breathing. Calm the heart rate. Think of everything I am looking forward to. I love fall. I love meeting my new class. I love the possibilities that a new school year brings. I love helping new groups of students fall in love with books. In thinking of these positive things I began to relax.

A new school year – my seventeenth. I’ve got this.