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As 8:20 a.m. crept closer, Emily Squittieri got more and more excited.

You only have your first day of first grade once. She had spent the past two weeks planning for the big day and on Monday it was finally here.

“Is everybody ready for first grade?’’ the Osceola Elementary School first-grade teacher asked. “How many of you were nervous to meet me today? I was nervous (to meet everyone) too, but I know we’re going to have a great year.”

Squittieri had every reason to be nervous. Monday wasn’t just her first day as a teacher at Osceola. It also was her first day as a teacher in general.

Squittieri graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in the spring, and immediately found a job as a teacher in Collier County.

Osceola was her first choice, and as luck would have it, a first-grade teacher was needed. Squittieri said she jumped at the chance to teach at the same school where she had her internship.

“I’m the only newbie here,” she said. “But I did my internship here, so it felt so comfortable to come back. It made the transition feel so natural.”

The transition from a college-level instructor to middle school teacher may not have seemed like a natural one for Jennifer Wojcik, but the Royal Palm Academy teacher said she was looking for something new after nine years at FGCU.

“I liked the idea of a new challenge,” Wojcik said. “It’s been a lot _ at times it’s been overwhelming. But I wouldn’t say I’m nervous. Anxious is a better word for what I’m feeling.”

Squittieri and Wojcik weren’t alone. In the Collier County School District, 360 new teachers joined the ranks this year, while the number was far less at Royal Palm, a private Catholic school in North Naples, with nine teachers and aides joining the staff.

While numbers of teachers vary from school to school, one thing’s the same: The teachers were just as nervous as the students.

Squittieri paced around her classroom as students slowly arrived in the classroom. Her morning was going smoothly but the door wouldn’t stay unlocked. That meant she needed to scurry back and forth to open the door for her students and their parents.

She was prepared for anything, for the criers, the overanxious students and everything in between. Meeting half of the students during the school’s open house last week made getting to know each other a little easier, but Squittieri came prepared with Skittles to help pry some fun facts out of her students.

The goal was simple: Five students got to pick a Skittle out of a bag and answer the question that corresponded with the color. The exercise was meant to loosen up her students while allowing Squittieri to learn a little bit more about her charges. Throughout the question-and- answer process, Squittieri told her students more about herself.

When a girl stumbled over a question about her family, Squittieri told the girl she too had two brothers and a sister. On the dry erase board in front of her class were pictures of herself and her new husband while on a recent vacation.

Wojcik also shared personal details with her students to break the ice. Growing up in Naples, Wojcik attended both St. Ann’s and St. John Neumann Catholic schools for the entirety of her elementary and secondary education. That means, she told her seventh-grade homeroom Monday morning, she knows all the tricks.

“I’ve got two kids, (so) I know how hectic it can get at times,” Wojcik said.

But for Wojcik, sharing personal details wasn’t the only way to get to her students; she also used humor to get her point across.

As Wojcik went over everyday procedures, students fidgeted in their seats and began to talk quietly among themselves. Wojcik stopped what she was doing and looked at them, before asking them what was wrong.

“Is it that boring already?” she joked. “I know you’re all seventh-graders and you’ve been through this all before, but it’s all new to me.”

Wojcik watched from her door as students scurried to place their books in their locker. Things weren’t that different from teaching at the college level, she said.

“This is hard stuff. It’s hard on a teacher and it’s hard on the student,” she said.

“But the atmosphere here is incredible, there’s such a family atmosphere here. (I know) I’ll be more comfortable tomorrow.”