When I was entering my first year of teaching, I remember being asked countless times, "Are you ready for the first day?" Ready I was! I had my best shirt and tie picked out, a new pair of red Chuck Taylor's to balance out my freshly ironed black dress pants, and I even had a few lessons planned. Of course, I had the room set up, music in folders, lessons planned, etc, but it's fun to think back to getting ready for that first day in a new profession.
This year, as I enter my fifth year as a teacher, I still planned out that new shirt and dress pants but I did not have them planned weeks in advance. This taught me a valuable set of lessons, lesson number 1: try on your outfit. Yes, those wicked cool charcoal colored pants that I bought were mis-marked. I mean, I tried a similar pair on in the store but needed a longer pant length; and those new pants? 4 inches too short and 2 inches too narrow. Damn.
