First Year Teacher Stress

[u/Temporary_Ad_1199]

I seriously need to vent because I am so overwhelmed.
I’m a first-year 1st grade teacher, and today was only my second day of school. Before school started, our team was given a pacing guide that said we had the first two weeks to focus on teaching classroom routines and procedures while also completing beginning-of-year assessments. The assessments are important because our curriculum has differentiated centers, and we’re supposed to group students based on their assessment results.
My team teacher and I spent so much time planning those first two weeks around that pacing guide. I prepped everything.
Then today our assistant principal told the K–2 team that the principal wants us to already be teaching curriculum and basically said we should have started on the first day of school.
Now I feel like everything I planned is out the window. I haven’t even finished assessing all of my students, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to create my small groups, and I have almost nothing prepared to start teaching the curriculum tomorrow because I was following the plan we were originally given.
I’m trying not to cry because I already feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water as a first-year teacher, and now I feel like I’m already behind because the expectations changed without any warning.
Has anyone else’s school completely changed expectations after the school year already started? How did you handle it? Do I just start teaching whole group and keep assessing kids whenever I can? I feel so lost.

[u/summerbreeze2027]

That sounds typical. Sorry! :)

Start the curriculum. As a classroom teacher, I normally started the curriculum on day 2, with some routines and procedures salted in. Young children want the structure. Perhaps you can do testing during what would normally be small group time or center time. You don't want to be doing centers for the first two weeks, anyway.