The Pre-First Day of School Jitters

Tomorrow is the first day of school for students. I have been back at work for a week now for preplanning - my classroom is all arranged (I have gone deskless this year - expect an upcoming blog post about this in the future), my syllabus and beginning-of-the-school year forms have all been printed and are ready for students, and my lesson plans for this week have been written. I am all set and am now just waiting for students to arrive tomorrow. I have been teaching for almost 20 years, so the 1st day of school routine is pretty much ingrained in me. In spite of all this, I am nervous about tomorrow.

To be fair, I always experience this the Sunday before the first day of school, so this is not a new feeling. Even after almost 20 years, I still worry:

• what will my students be like?
• how will they view me?
• what will each class' chemistry be like?
• will I do a good job?
• am I going to have any discipline issues already on the first day?

But at the same time, as I have been doing this for almost 20 years, I also know that once students arrive and I get started, I will be fine. It is the same way I feel before presentations: I am nervous 10 minutes before, but once I begin, I feel completely relaxed.

So I guess that these jitters are all part of being a teacher. I am sure that I will have difficulty getting to sleep tonight, and then once I do get to sleep, I also expect waking up every hour due to fear of sleeping through my alarm. I also know that once I get started tomorrow with students and get back into the zone of teaching, I will say to myself "Why was I so nervous?"

So to all you 1st-year teachers (and even veterans of 25 years), you are not the only one who is nervous about the first day of school!