Questions, anxiety, and excitement

Questions I still have and what I still want to know:
I want to know if our education system is so focused on deficits in children (as a result of high-stakes testing and federal legislation that had to choose some definition for things) that it is unable to recognize multiple intelligences.  I also want to know what I as a teacher can do to look like I am cooperatively working within the deficit model system and at the same time ignore the deficits and seek multiple intelligences instead.  

Anxiety: How will I ever figure out the complex systems my team has in place for behavior management and academic success, and how will I go about recreating those in my classroom if my school culture is different or focuses on different basic rules.  I hope I am in a team situation, a collaborative school, because I honestly don't know if I can set up all that from scratch on my own without any support, guidance, or references.  

Excitement: I am excited to meet the kids and start seeing actual instruction, not just planning, because it is really hard to keep up with planning on my team, cause they have been working together for 3 or 4 years as a team and a teacher says one word and the other teachers know exactly what they are talking about.  They are amazing and laugh a lot and try hard to help me understand everything, but man do they go through it fast.  I am hoping it will all become clear once I see it in action with kids.