What am I most excited about for this year?

First of all, I just want to say, not being able to watch baseball is the most difficult thing about giving up cable TV. I know my KC Royals are doing pretty well this year and I know they play today. I just want to watch.

Today's BTLBC prompt is this: What are you most excited about for the upcoming school year?

Seriously, I feel like it is not a fair question. I am most excited about.... EVERYTHING!! I am very excited about the team and the district that I have joined. I have not spent a lot of time with my principal yet, but he's very supportive and personable and I look forward to getting to know him more. I met our superintendent the other night at a town meeting, and he is very supportive of our little school. And I met some of the townspeople last week at the same meeting. They are very serious about the success of our school and very supportive. And I really, genuinely enjoy my teaching partner and I know there is so much I can gain from working with her. But as exciting as all this support is, it is just the tip of the ice berg. I am part of the Mt. Hope PBL Charter school. We are all about project based learning. If you know much about PBL, you know that it is more hands on, it encourages higher-order thinking skills and it prepares students for life in the real world. Because we don't just go to school forever and live in time blocks divided out like the school day. We dig in and process and adjust and re-do and finish and preview and edit and present. That is true to life. If you are a mechanic working on the car and you don't fix the problem, no one says "Wow, A for effort. Next, please." You go back, find out what went wrong so you fix the problem and you keep doing that until the car runs and works like it should. So if your project isn't done or needs fixed, plan on going back and fixing it and working on it until it runs smooth and purrs like kitten.

I am excited to be back in the classroom after being in the reading room last year. I can't wait to teach all subjects and to jump in and do my level best. I see everyone's back to school classroom make-overs and mine won't be themed or super-cool this year. Well, it will be super cool, but not themed. This is my first year in the district, school, and PBL setting. I will know SO MUCH more about how I want my classroom to look like by next fall.

I feel like a toddler, teetering off as I take my first steps. I will gain confidence and agility as I go. And there is not much that I am NOT excited about for this next year.