First-Day Jitters Aren't Just for Students

This from the Washington Post, Photo by Katherine Frey:

In those last few seconds before the beginning of the school year at 7:45 a.m., Paul Murdock's baby face was a mask of concentration. As he stood outside Room 23, a column of almost two dozen fifth-graders marched right at him. He was nervous. It was his first day of class at Langley Park-McCormick Elementary School.

In fact, it was his first day as a teacher as he joined a professional corps of tens of thousands in Washington area public schools. Murdock was out of time to change his mind. These were his kids. He had to take charge.

"Right here," he said, gesturing to where the lead student should stand. "Second full tile. Make a line. Eyes forward. Hands to your side, please."

The children obeyed quickly and quietly, lining up single file alongside the wall. In uniforms of white polo shirts and navy blue pants and skirts, they looked like little police recruits. They, too, seemed a bit nervous, perhaps in need of reassurance.

"Welcome to Mr. Murdock's class," the teacher said. He led them inside.

And so school began yesterday for Murdock's class...

... Last Tuesday, Room 23's desks and plastic chairs were stacked atop one another. Some children's books were piled on a table, and a few hundred thin volumes sat in milk crates. The salmon-colored cabinets were dusty; the walls, bare.

Murdock's imagination worked aloud as he assembled the scene: Where would the library go? The class slogan? The teacher's desk? How would he arrange chairs and control access to the built-in bathroom?

"I didn't realize that teaching involved so much interior decorating," he said.

It was a first lesson for the tall, lanky new teacher from Hyrum, Utah, a small town not far from the Idaho border. It was his 26th birthday. For a long time, he had thought he would never be a teacher. A political science and economics major, he planned on law school. But it didn't feel right.

So he applied to Teach for America and was accepted and assigned to teach language
arts in Langley Park.

Elementary school, he said, fit his personality.

"Well, I'm a big kid, really. That's basically what it comes down to. I want to act in a silly way," he said. "This is one profession where you can be paid to be crazy."

Although Murdock received intensive training, there is no substitute for standing in front of a roomful of children, said John Malter, a sixth-grade teacher at the school and Murdock's mentor.

"Your first week, you're not even thinking about your curriculum. You just want to survive," Malter said. "You're hoping those kids don't eat you alive." ...