It’s Beth WA here, and tomorrow is my first day of school.  It will be my eleventh year teaching, and I *still* get the jitters the night before the first day.  I am usually up  most of the night, thinking of things I hadn’t thought of before.  Usually these thoughts could probably not be considered, what’s the word I am looking for here, oh yeah, rational.

What if I don’t wake up to my alarm?  What if I can’t remember anybody’s name?  What if I try to talk and nothing comes out of my mouth?  What if I forget the schedule?  What if there is a huge discipline problem that I can’t resolve?  What if I forget my books?  What if …

But I try to make these thoughts useful, and think that most of my students are probably in their beds going through similar panic.

And so I like to view these irrational thoughts as a way to relate to the student on the first day of school rather than the annoying voices in my head that are keeping me from getting some sleep!