Nerves

I am VERY nervous about being able to keep up with the course map! I have all the information I need to be successful this year, but am I ready? I am breaching panic mode as I think about the fact of students entering my classroom in 4 days. 4 DAYS! I met a veteran teacher this morning from New York and when she found out it would be my first year teaching ever she told me.... "Get ready to cry. You will cry your eyes out and it is OK. It's ok and there is nothing wrong with you. You are not crazy, and you HAVE to be STRICT!"

In our faculty meeting today, our principal gave us the most inspirational quote I have heard in a long time.....

"You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. It comes from the courage to turn your back on the old formulas and invent the future."

This quote brings me to tears. I do feel crazy! I quit my highly sought-after-well-paid job to encounter more student loan debt and enter a field where I am barely going to make enough money to support myself? Enter a school district which has been on a salary freeze for the past 2 years and counting? Teach in a state where the educational system is in turmoil? Not know if I am going to have a job next year? Yes, Yes, I did. I quit my job with the excellent salary to do all this. And I couldn't be more excited, nervous, scared, inspired, and enthusiastic. Working in that highly sought-after-well-paid job did none of those things for me.

I may be eating macaroni and cheese for the rest of my life, but at least I feel alive. I feel I am doing something worthwhile. I hope I have what it takes to become an inspiring teacher. I know I am in a great school with a great leader and my personal goal is to make sure it stays on this path all year