It's 3am, I sure hope you are sleeping

I woke up wanting to re-work the inclusion schedule. Yes, at 3am. I sit here yawning and knowing better than to be up this early on my first day and yet, if I stayed "asleep" I would have just been thinking about it in bed rather than being able to do something about it.

Today I have planned a great deal of "play" time in different areas of the classroom. We're going to take a school tour, figure out the best time for us to have recess as a class, and get to know our environment. We'll read "First Day Jitters" and probably one other book from the book bin about school. In addition, we'll explore our math manipulatives and will start in our inclusion rooms. We don't want to wait until tomorrow that which we can start today!

Enrichment rotations (which I'm still unclear if we start today or tomorrow) are typed up and list everyone. I couldn't decide if that was a good idea or bad idea, but for this case, I figured it would be okay.

I will say that my personal goal for the year for the overall class is to be included and accepted. When choosing a place for the students, other teachers now look at this as an opportunity for themselves and their students to work with the students in my class. I'm working with our inclusion teachers to help their class understand more about our friends on their own level. I've studied this area known as disability awareness, given presentations about it during my master's program, and have built up a rather substantial library geared for children and families regarding children with differences. Are all of us (including myself) nervous about this? Of course we are. Just as I imagine the parents of my students are everytime someone comes near their child fearing that they might do something to embarass their parents. I'd like to think that we'll work together, parents and educators, to ease everyone's nerves, to strive to surpass obstacles, achieve what was once thought to be impossible, and provide ourselves a community that truly accepts, accommodates, and welcomes diversity and everything that we each have to offer, especially that of our students.