Nearly there...

...2 more days til I start!
I got my school contract through the post the other day and ever since then I've been brimming with excitement! I'm still a bit nervous but now it all seems so real, and the contract says 'unqualifed teacher' so thats what I am convincing myself I am: a teacher.
The DRB have posted up a calendar of centre based activities now, on our website. Some of it isn't relevant to me as it's for SCITTs too, and it doesn't say which is which, but it mentions 'intro to the GT program', 'voice training', subject carousel' (?) and 'how to survive your first week in school' so I really feel a lot more relaxed about starting as I feel theres more support out there than I knew before.
I'm spending the majority of the week in the centre, just a half a day at school on the day the kids go back (in the morning). That time should be fine, no worse than any other day I've spent in school. I've been told it'll be no curriculum subjects, more settling in and getting to know you and setting the rules so I'm not worrying about that.
My stupid car has started to play up - typical! 6 weeks of summer hols and it starts to go wrong when I can't do anything about it! Just the fan keeps on running, but it should be fine. I hope it lasts til October half term!
I have teaching files sorted out now. School policies, my contract etc in my school file. Subject plans, timetables etc and subject-specific resources in another file. I have hanging files for the standards and stickers for if I want to colour code paperwork. It's all sort of coming together now.
I've chucked out loads of old clothes I don't wear and put all my 'teacher clothes' together and done some intensive house tidying over the last few weeks. It doesn't look much better but a lot of clutter is gone.
So, I'm mostly prepared. Just need a pencil case and some plain v-neck t-shirts from M&S. I have loads of different cardigans and I thought I'd mix and match plain t-shirts with various coloured and and styled cardies (M&S have some really funky ones) to make dressing as easy as possible.
Now I just have to decide whether I keep my hair the dyed brown which looks good but is a pain to keep up, or do I revert to my natural blonde? I'll have to decide over the weekend...
Roll on monday!

Course start looming...

...there's only two weeks to go now and suddenly it doesn't seem very long at all!
I've spent weeks...months...looking forward to the long summer holiday and all the reading and prep I can get done during it, and suddenly I have only 2 weeks left and feel just as disorganised as before!
I have some lever arch files now - I've read varying advice saying I'll need anything between 3 and 25 of them - and I've cut out articles from TES and Child Education magazine that I really must get round to filing somewhere sensible.
I've started revising for the numeracy skills test. Everyone says to get them out of the was asap, and maths is not my strong point - especially the horrible mental maths bit at the start of the test.
On thursday I'm meeting my mentor in our classroom to chat over stuff, look at the long/medium term plans and generally get to grips where resources etc are kept. She's very approachable and easily emailable, so that's a weight off my mind!
Am currently worrying about subject knowledge, planning, pitching the work at the right level, behaviour management and actually having to get up in front of them and act like I know what I'm doing! I think I worry most about the unexpected happening - odd questions, not knowing the normal procedure for things but I hope that in my early days in school observing I will get the hang of the nuts and bolts of school life.
It's scary and exciting, but there's loads of people on TES all saying that are terrified too - or that they were terrified at the start of the course and now they are NQT's and it all worked out okay, so that helps.
Anyway, not long now - I'll post some more once I'm in school. Wish me luck!