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Just wanted to say hello. I am in the same position as you. Well except I had a great student teaching experience just it was 2 years ago and in 2nd grade and I will be teaching 4th this year. I am really nervous too about everything. I know I am planning on doing the big seven with in the first week. I think 4th graders can hanle it. I really think second can too but I'm sure the experts will chime it witH their advice. Good luck and have a great year!

Hopefully you have had some time to browse the site and you are feeling more comfortable. Trust me~ as far as engagement and student learning is concerned~ WBT is awesome. No one likes to be forced to do things~ so that is unfortunate~ but this is actually a gift in disguise. Trust me. The "I have to do this....." for me came my first year of teaching when I was told that I had to follow a very boring curriculum word for word and couldn't deviate or be creative. WBT is by no means a death sentence (like that was!)~ in fact it is a sentence that will bring life to any classroom. It completely focuses on student learning~ which is key. I know that when we all got into teaching~ most of us either said, or wrote in some type of "my philosophy on teaching" paper, that we decided to teach because we love kids. Of course we never said that we decided to get into it because we felt that we were big important people and that kids should just listen to us. No way! We all love kids and want to do whatever it takes to help them learn. And unfortunately even if we were big important people with big important things to say~ they really could care less unless we find a way to reach them. WBT is fun for the kids~ but it also engages them and utilizes all the parts of the brain which of course is great for retention and deeper understanding and learning. And what teacher doesn't want that for their students! With WBT it truly is all about the students and their learning.