School is back in session today in the Penn-Harris Madison School district. The teachers have been getting their classrooms ready and dealing with those first day jitters.
Veteran teacher, Kara Flanagan, says that even with coming back to Elsie Rogers Elementary School for the 7th year, she still has some nerves, “we’re nervous as well. This is a new year for us.”
First year teacher, Amanda Stonerock, agrees, “we had a back to school night and I got to meet some of my students,” she says, “they would say that they were nervous and I’d be like, ‘yeah I am too,’ and I think that made them feel better too.”
Flanagan likes to read her students a book, all about those first day nerves. It’s called “First Day Jitters,” “and I’ve read it to my kids every year that I’ve been teaching,” she says, “the character doesn’t want to get out of bed, is hiding under the covers… and at the end of the book you find out that it’s the teacher.”
Stonerock says that she wants her classroom to be a welcoming environment for her first year teaching. She’s decorated her classroom with paper plants, pastel colors, and even a wall with the birthdays of all the kids. She says, “I am making my classroom like a second home, so that when students come in they’ll feel comfortable and cozy.”
In regard to having a work life balance while teaching, Flannagan says, that’s important, “definitely don’t forget that you have a life outside of teaching,” she says, “it’s a career path that requires your heart.”
With their classrooms set up and their students coming in this morning, both Flanagin and Stonerock are ready to dominate this school year.
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