My Friend Atticus Finch.

I am more excited to start teaching than I have been about anything in a while. I got to spend several hours this afternoon learning from the teacher I am replacing, and those hours were absolutely worth their weight in gold. (THANK YOU TRACY!)

That's not to say I'm not nervous, but Tracy said today, "If you weren't nervous, I would think there was something wrong with you." I think anytime you begin something new, especially something where you really want to do a good job and you care what your colleagues think of you, you'll be nervous.

I'm officially teaching Language Arts, but those are two little words that encompass so many things -- grammar, parts of speech, short stories, novels, poems, essays, narratives, book projects, spelling, vocabulary. Wow. So much!

I think the most fun thing is all the stories. All the many many stories featuring the characters we remember from our childhood. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Fall of the House of Usher, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Rip Van Winkle, Flowers for Algernon, Casey at the Bat. These are all middle school curriculum. Isn't that wonderful?

I have just a few more days left to organize my classroom and get the things I need -- a lesson plan book and a pocket folder and other things to start my year. I also have a few short days left to plan my first lessons for the year and be ready to teach.

I'm trying to remind myself of one thing, and that is love the kids. It was the driving concept of my time at the dance studio, and it will be the driving concept of my teaching at Our Lady of Fatima.

Reading. I love reading. And reading aloud. And listening to others read. And talking about reading. How exciting!