"No matter how much experience you have, you're still nervous," Queen said.

Shaking off the butterflies, Queen takes to her first classroom—room 13—as a new first-grade teacher at Argonaut Elementary School. Queen replaces Dianne Priest, who retired after more than 30 years of teaching. And Queen said she's ready for the challenge, since she's always known she wanted to be a teacher. Priest left Queen with many great curriculum ideas and ways to interact with her students.

For example, on the first day of school Queen's students went for a treasure hunt, finding clues that led them to different parts of the school. Queen said it allowed her students to get to know each other, tour the school and munch on a gingerbread snack at the end of the hunt.

She isn't inexperienced when it comes to teaching. Queen came from the Mountain View School District, where she worked as a preschool director of a statewide program for low-income families. Queen attended San José State University for her undergraduate degree, master's and teaching credential, but is still enrolled in the graduate program with two more classes to go and a thesis to write. But Queen said she's so busy with the start of school, she won't be taking those classes right away.

"I'm definitely not going back to school this semester," she said.

The 34-year-old teacher is also enrolled in the Silicon Valley New Teacher Project, where she will participate in seven seminars throughout the year. An advisor will also observe her teaching skills in the classroom.

The project is connected with a new teacher project started 16 years ago at the UC­Santa Cruz campus and has been in place at Saratoga and Los Gatos schools for four years.

"It provides not only emotional support but also support with helping the teachers set goals, work on lesson planning, teacher observations and modeling lessons," said project advisor Rosalie Chako, with Saratoga Union School District.

Chako oversees about 15 teachers, helping them to analyze student work, create a class profile, build a community resource guide and conduct a confidential assessment of their performance. The benefit of the program, Chako said, is that they are able to retain about 94 percent of teachers using the program.

Currently, Chako has been working with Queen to encourage her to use her buddy system, a network of other new teachers, and helping her plan Back to School Night.

It's a good feeling to not be the only new teacher at the school, Queen said, since there is so much she's still learning, such as Saratoga parent expectations. Instead of struggling to keep up students' test scores and encourage parent participation as she did in her previous job with lower-income families, Queen hopes to work in cooperation with Saratoga students and parents.

Before school started and once a list was posted of which teachers were assigned to the students, Queen said parents and students were stopping by her room on a daily basis to say hello.

Queen said because of state and district budget cuts, she's already been spending her own money on classroom supplies. But she said parent volunteers have offered to help collect donations for crafts and field trips.

"Saratoga parents are very generous, from what I've been told," Queen said. "They really want their children to have a nice classroom."

Queen said she has been impressed with the staff, especially when the new Saratoga Union School District Superintendent Lane Weiss went out to lunch with the five new teachers at Argonaut, including Queen.

"You can tell you're in a good district. The people here are so supportive and kind," she said. "It feels like a family."

Focusing on intensive reading and an understanding of numbers for her first graders, Queen said they'll learn addition up to two digits.

"I want to find a way for every child to be successful," she said.

Queen stressed her interest in early literacy and the importance of having patience with her students as they learn.

"It's exciting to see kids learn to read. It's a drastic change from beginning to end," she said.

Argonaut Principal Sue Brooks said she's looking forward to working with Queen.

"She is very excited, warm and child-centered," Brooks said.

Brooks added that new teachers, such as Queen, are not afraid of children, but rather they are confident and active in getting the school year off to a great start.

"The new teachers have received a warm welcome from the staff here at Argonaut," she said.

Most of Queen's 20 first graders are 6 and 7 years old, although a few are 5. Queen already has their names memorized, but now her hardest task will be associating their names with faces.

Queen said her students will be doing more than just classroom activities such as creating artwork, singing and participating in writing workshops. They'll take a field trip to Johnson Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains and another to Sanborn County Park to learn about nature.

Queen also said she hopes to bring new developments and ways of thinking into the classroom. To start, she let the students pick their own seats and create classroom rules. Queen said she wants to inspire creativity in her students.

"A teacher is not the authoritarian. They are there to make things happen—not to be in control," she said. "I want the children to have more of a say in the rules of the classroom and what's going on. They have to learn that they are responsible for themselves."