The only things getting me through this week.

New sharpies, and a drawer full of post-it notes.

I'm not gonna lie... I had a few panic attacks and nervous break downs today. (I have a GINORMOUS paper due Friday, and I really don't care about it, but it needs to get done. I found out I will have a combo class that will have 14 Kindergarteners and 14 First Graders, with little support. I will literally have to be in 2 places at once more than one time a day. I have to do 2 back to school nights in the next 2 weeks. My room has to be ready by Friday to meet all of my new Kindergarteners. All of this, and more, hit me today. When nothing has been happening of any kind of stress level for the last 2 months...)  Opening my new sharpies and getting rid of my old ones helped immensely.

I had been determined that because I spent so much time in my classroom this summer, I was going to feel like I could just walk in this week and be ready to go. Yeah. That didn't happen. I was hit by all of the things that need to be done immediatly and got overwhelmed. All of the things I did this summer will definitely pay off, but just not right away. There are SO many things involved in getting a classroom up and running, and I think I mentally block it out each year so I never remember just how much there is to do.

I keep trying to tell myself to deal with one thing at a time, that when this Master's class is done on Friday, I will be able to concentrate more on school. I only have to make it through the first week before I really have to start planning and implementing lessons. I got to pick the first graders I have from our classes last year, and they are all so sweet. I also got to pick really high and independent Kindergarteners so I will have a great class (fingers crossed!).

Like I said, the only things really working for me right now are the sharpies. I just want to fast forward through the next two weeks....