I'm Official!!

This morning I went and got my teaching certificate!! For a new teacher in AZ you get a provisional certificate so you have three years and you need to teach full time for at least two years. Once you have done your two years you get a conversion and get a certificate that lasts for six years. It is also much easier to move to another state and get reciprocity once you have gotten your conversion. So here it is...

This is that last step in my college path where I'm now able to go out and start my career. It's very exciting and a little scary. So far I have been working on labeling all my personal materials and books that I'm taking into my classroom. I have also started collecting resources for my first couple of weeks of school. I know those first few days will be absolutely crazy but I'm hoping to dial down the chaos by being well planned. I'm back in Tucson, but I took a lot of pictures and inventory of what I have in my room so I also have been thinking about the layout of my room. During student teaching you get so many amazing ideas but then you realize maybe you have too many ideas to fit into one room. I want a lot of different areas but I don't want it to be cramped. 

When I tell people I'm going into teaching a lot make a comment how it'll be nice to have summers off. Seriously, I have worked harder and been more stressed now then I ever was in school or with any of my other jobs where I actually "worked" during summer. I wish that more people could see the time and work that is put in over summer. You can't walk into a classroom the first day unless a teacher put some work in over summer.