Overwhelmed

OK, so I'll be honest: I'm getting nervous. As new teachers, we've been thoroughly inundated with information and it's intimidating. Everything I do, ever, has to be weighted and posted on BlackBoard. Lesson plans, assignments, grades, calendar events...all that good stuff, which is super helpful for students but confusing and painful for those us who've never been on this side of it before. We had a meeting today about how to use the new Promethean Boards (essentially Education-minded SmartBoards), and though it's an awesome and CRAZY interactive tool, it's totally foreign and all of our lessons have to be taught (and saved and posted on BlackBoard) on them. By the way, I teach 8 subjects, so that's about 5 lessons each day. We're talking intensely pre-planned weeks of lessons.

Plus, I've spent the last day cleaning out my room (ok yeah, I did get excited as I was rearranging the desks) and trying to get organized, though I'm still waiting for my classroom supplies to arrive. The first grade classes have Open House tomorrow, so they're rooms are clean and decorated and look AMAZING, and I'm not even close to being half-way done. Our Open House is this Saturday, and I've got a lot left to do before then. (Outside welcome bulletin board, inside interactive bulletin board, behavior modification chart cards, name tags, word wall, welcome letter to parents, fixing fallen posters and putting up new ones...) I know it will all get done, but right now I just want to fast forward through this first month to the day when I have some idea of what is going on.