Tomorrow is the first day of September. I’m still waiting for the email confirming that my substitute teaching paperwork has been processed, but I am already in “school year mode.” Yep, you guessed it: I’ve been hoarding loose-leaf and scouting new pens, and looking up principals’ names, and trying to find my “good shoes.”
I spent much of today setting up a new notebook, to use for the coming year. I counted pages, and put in monthly tabs, and tested my pens on a back page to see what — if anything — bled through.
Am I excited to go back to school? Yes. I haven’t been in a classroom since the 2018-2019 school year. (Thanks, COVID.) Am I afraid to go back to school? Also yes.
Although I’m fully-Pfizered, my autoimmune disease means we have no idea just how much of an effect the vaccine has had, and being a substitute teacher means I travel from school to school where other substitute teachers are also travelling from school to school. The teachers went back today; the students start next week.
I’m very, very nervous.
But maybe by the time the paperwork is ready, I will be ready too.
This post was created as part of Two Writing Teachers’ Slice of Life Challenge.
You can view other writers’ contributions via the comments here.