8. Watch a musical on Broadway from a center seat.
9. Live in another country.
10. Visit every state in the United States.

(Those are the three things I want to do before I die that I left out last time.)

My classroom is trying to come together. There are some things that can't be finished until my kids get there, so I'm doing everything I can now. School starts a week from Thursday. I can't believe how fast summer came and went. That's what I had been looking forward to all last year and now it's almost over. Crazy. I'm SO excited about teaching Kindergarten. I expect that I'll have to stay later and prepare for class more, but that it'll be worth it when my kids can read at the end of the year. It's an amazing feeling knowing that, in some way, you have impacted 20 kids every year. I want to be an amzing teacher. I want people to see how excited I am and I want it to transfer to my students. I have some goals this year.

1. Be positive. I think that the praise pockets will force me to do this because I'll have to look for things to be postive about. Eventually, I'll think positively naturally.
2. Document everything. I'm still trying to come up with a way to do this so that it doesn't take up all my time.
3. Be consistent. The whole tone of the year is set in the first few days. I have to be consistent and expect my students to follow my rules. I'm not there to be their friends. That would just be a benefit.
4. Make more parent contacts. The only way to get parents to trust you is to let them know what's going on.

To people who aren't teachers, just take my word for it that this is all really difficult to do.