You must have known this was coming...

... my job starts tomorrow and I am trying not to panic, trying real damn hard. But every time I look at this:

All the materials I picked up before school vacation - I've flipped through them a few times, but then I get overwhelmed with all my questions. Today I plan to sit down go through them more thoroughly and write-out a bunch of my questions.

I basically want to run in the other direction. I know that I will be fine and I know that a new job, regardless of what it is, always seem daunting and overwhelming at first. I know once I get a grasp on the curriculum, the routine, and the technology I will fall right into place. It's not even the actual teaching that makes me nervous or the students. That stuff is easy. I've done it. I know fifth graders, I know their personalities and how to manage the classroom. I know how to teach in general when I'm given the basic materials. I know how to be creativity and how to make the learning fun and relate-able to the kids. Here is what I feel I don't know (much about):

1. Science - I have hardly taught science in my career and that is a big bulk of my teaching. All the fifth grade students in the school learn science from me and only me! My morning consists of science 3 times in a row! The kids who have it third are the lucky ones - hopefully by then I have the lesson down pat.
2. Technology - So when you go on an interview nearly all schools ask you how you are with technology and in most cases you just need to know the basics. In this district it's all about technology. Every classroom has a SmartBoard. All of my lessons have been uploaded onto the SmartBoard and I teach from there. At the end of the year the kids are going to make a video using flip-cams. We have a cart full of Mac-Books for the kids to use in the classroom when I need them too. They know how to do pod-casts! They write blogs! I feel like the kids are going to have to teach me a lot! ha. 
3. Routine and Schedule - Now I know that this will just take time for me to learn and get used to and then I will be fine (mostly everything is going to take time - and I will be fine). The schedule is so different though. For instance - the kids have a 1/2 day every Wednesday and in the afternoons us teachers have Professional Development, Planning, Staff Meetings, etc. That is pretty sweet. I teach Science in the morning and ELA in the afternoon. My kids have gym 2x a week and Art and Music. It doesn't look like they have a specialist block for Library and Computer. It also doesn't look as though they have recess, so to me that's odd. 

Over the next two days I will be shadowing the regular classroom teacher before she peaces out to have her baby. Clearly I have a million questions to ask her. I plan to spend the next two days learning everything I possibly can, asking all the questions I need answers to, locating all of my important materials within the classroom, learning about the kids & who need extra attention, familiarizing myself with the SmartBoard and generally how to use it, and planning out next week since I'll be on my own starting Monday. Wish me luck!

A SmartBoard is like an interactive white board. You can upload lessons. There are special markers to use with it and the entire white board is a touch-pad.  Now I just need to learn how to use it properly. It's a whole new style of teaching! 

With all this said - I really am so excited! And for those of you who don't know - I found out "on the DL" that the classroom teacher plans to stay out for the remainder of the school year, not the planned 12 weeks. That means - this classroom is mine until June! :)