For teachers and students, the countdown to the start of school is a mixture of excitement and stress.
Early projections from the Juneau School District put the number of students walking through the doors on Monday just under 4,700.
There’s a lot to get done before they arrive.
While students were making the most of their last few days of freedom, teachers spent most of last week at school, in faculty meetings and finalizing lesson plans.
Scott Grant is one of the district’s newest teachers.
On Friday, the ninth and tenth grade English teacher was surrounded by the blank white walls of his new classroom at Juneau-Douglas High School.
“It is kind of exciting that I get to fill it up,” Grant said. “So I get to have them create things and over time that stuff will kind of take up all this space.”
Grant did his student teaching at Juneau-Douglas three years ago.
He’s worked for the district for several years. But this is his first time teaching English in his own classroom.
He said that’s a little intimidating.
“They’re going to be as aware as I am that, like, I’m new and some things we’re going to try and they’re not going to be super great and some things are going to be hopefully awesome. So, it kind of bubbles over as excitement right now,” Grant said.
Just upstairs, science teacher Ben Carney was putting the finishing touches on a chemistry lab.
“I’ll most certainly be working this weekend,” Carney said. “And I’ll be here early Monday, too. Probably by 6:30, that’ll be my goal.”
The walls of Carney’s classroom are a lot busier than Grant’s. He’s been teaching for more than 20 years. That means Monday’s approach is slightly less intimidating for him.
“It certainly gets easier because you have a lot more tricks in your back pocket, if you will,” Carney said.
This year, Carney has six classes. He’s taught all of them before, so he has plenty of experience to fall back on.
Still, he expects time management will be his biggest challenge this semester.
“But I’m not stressed as to, ‘How am I going to do this?’ I don’t have that stress. A first-year teacher has that. That doesn’t exist for me anymore,” Carney said.
Down the street at Harborview Elementary, teachers are busy decorating and getting classroom supplies organized.
Naakil.aan Hans Chester is a new teacher for the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program.
“Organizing all of the things I brought with me so I can start setting up my systems, so I can teach those systems to the students,” Chester said.
Chester grew up in Juneau. He said he’s looking forward to teaching in his hometown and collaborating with other teachers in the program.
That doesn’t mean he won’t miss vacation.
“We only have 181 more to go and then I can start my next summer,” he joked.
Grades one through 12 start school Monday. Kindergarten starts Thursday and the district’s preschool programs begin Aug. 28.
