Preparing for Student Teaching

The past two days have been busy with setting up the classroom with Ms. Bolden as well as attending meetings such as union meetings, superintendent conference, tenure meeting, team meeting within my area of study. When I arrived at Peekskill, an hour early, better to be an hour early than a second late, I was filled mixed emotions. I was excited, nervous, and terrified. It finally dawned on me when I pulled into my parkinf spot that this was the next big step in completing my undergraduate studies and the beginning of a lifelong career. There was a Superintendent's Conference that I attended with Ms. Bolden and the "behind the scenes" view was more than what I expected. I never realized how much work goes into preparing for the first day of school; where books belong, who does not have a roster, why books were not ordered for the fall, getting the classroom set up. I guess when I was a student, I used to think that everything remained the same and teachers just left their classrooms as they were over the summer. That is definitly not the case! Yesterday, I was very much overwhelmed and thought to myself, "I dont want to do this anymore." But with the support of friends and family, I realized I was going to be just fine and no matter where I get a job start and internship, I have to start at the bottom and work my way up. Life is not that easy. In any case, I went into school today to help finish set up the classroom and felt more positive about student teaching. I found the entire faculty and staff charming and very helpful as they have offered their hands to help me in anyway. I am sure that as the days go by I will fall into a schedule and hopefully feel right at home in the middle school. I am prepared to meet all my students tomorrow, greet them with a smile, and begin.