overwhelmed...

school started for me yesterday...wow! actually, i spent all last week at the school because i was taking a digital storytelling workshop. it was so great and i'm really excited about trying these with my kids- i think for our Romeo and Juliet unit. but the first day for teachers was yesterday and i had to go through all of the new teacher induction and orientation. it was great to see friends from my student teaching last spring but very intimidating to open the door to MY classroom. i think i have the room arranged in a way that is comfortable and still conducive to learning- we will soon find out. today and tomorrow are professional development days and then in-service will follow on thursday, quite a busy week but lots of good information. we are talking about how to incorporate technology into our classrooms and i know i need to do a better job with that. there is something very comforting to me about a pencil and paper, but i think i need to join the 21st century! so today i have been working on setting up webquests for my first few unit and i started a blog for my classroom! if i can figure it all out, i am going to have all of my students start a blog and they will use those as their journals for reading reflections and other short writing assignments- no having to buy a journal and i don't have to carry 100 notebooks home to read! maybe computers are a good thing!

my freshmen come on monday and the upperclassmen will return on tuesday. i am exicted to meet my new students and see my old kids from last year. i am in kind of a funny place- i know the school, the faculty and lots of the kids but i am the "new teacher". the closer we get to the students' first day the more anxious i become- i can't believe the awesome responsibility i have taken on. i just hope my students learn something!