BACK TO SCHOOL

Micah Janzow, left, and his wife, Julie Janzow, right, exchanged a quick kiss in the hall outside of one of Julie's classrooms at Cape Central High School. Micah stopped by to see how Julie's first day had gone. He had to rush off to coach Cape Central Junior High's football team. It had been his first day of teaching also.

Julie Janzow didn't sleep well the day before school started at Cape Girardeau Central High School last week. She worried about getting names right, not stuttering or misspeaking in front of a crowd and finding bathrooms.

Although her voice was a little shaky just before her first class of the day, it wasn't because she was worried about the teacher. Her focus was on the students.

"I just want them to get comfortable and relaxed," said Janzow, a first-year science teacher. "It's not my incapableness I'm worried about, like it was when I was student-teaching. It's more the not knowing the class, not knowing who they are and how they're going to act together."

Her fears were shared by her husband, Micah, who is a first-year science teacher at Central Junior High. The two had a bad night and ate very little on their first day of classes.

"All I could think was at least we're both in the same boat this morning," Julie Janzow said.

By the time she entered the classroom, Janzow was ready. She stepped to the front of the class and began sharing her rules and school policies to students as if she were a practiced veteran.

She credited her success with an unconventional student-teaching experience that resulted in her leading a class at Central High School for seven weeks last year.

By lunchtime, Janzow said she was more comfortable in her new role. The only real problem she'd faced was the walkie-talkie that laid on the table near the lunch she had brought from home.

"I was told something about parking-lot duty during lunch, but no one seems to know anything about it," she said between bites. "I may just give it back and, if no one mentions it tomorrow, neither will I."

One of the problems she faces as a young teacher is her age. At 23, she looks as young as many of her students.

"If I'm working with students and I sit down, everybody goes 'Where'd the teacher go?'" she said.

Janzow likened her fears to that of any student entering a high school for the first time. Freshmen and sophomores feel bigger, stronger and cooler once they enter high school, but from the front of the classroom the view is much different, she said.

"Now, looking at them, they look so scared, so young," said Janzow.

While she has no plans of sponsoring a student organization this year, Janzow said she would eventually like to see a science club organized. As for now, "I'm glad this is all I'll have to do," she said.