Feeling: panicky
Listening to: burning CDs on the new laptop
Reading/Watching: Coupling, season 1

I just do not want to go to work tomorrow. Or at all this week, really. I don�t know why.

(Well, actually, I do know why: I have my principal coming on Tuesday for a scored evaluation, and then my internship advisor coming on Wednesday for another scored eval/observation.)

I need to have my stuff together this week, and I have to look like I know what I�m doing, and I have to somehow get the kids to behave so I�m not marked down on Classroom Management (last observation, I was told I needed to set clear discipline boundaries... well, I write up more kids on average in a day than any other teacher in that school. Last Thursday it was eight. Friday it was twelve. How�s that for boundaries?).

But yeah. I know what we need to do this week, we need to collect the essays and do one last binder check, we need to collect the last of the fundraising money, we need to give out the behavior contract for all the kids who want to go on the field trip in May, we need to review the letter-names for the treble and bass clef so kids have a better chance of writing in their solfege on solo songs without my having to put a chart on the board for every single key signature. We also have to review (again) how to find the key signature, once they know how to find the letter-names. I need to make a list of five or six solo choices for girls, and five or six for boys, so I can sing them for the kids and help them choose their song. I need to give out one last music journal assignment and get them to turn in all the others they�ve blown off. I need to finish all the last stragglers who haven�t taken their sight-reading test, and I need to finish meeting with my top singers to help them choose a solo song that�s a cut above the ones the rest of the kids will sing. I also need to pick (and purchase) the pop stuff we�re going to do for the spring concert, but part of me is paralyzed by the conviction that no matter what I choose, they will criticize me for picking it and hate it on principle (seventh and eighth graders can be such charmers).

And finally, I need to do all of this with them shutting up long enough to hear me doing it. Which means I need to design a lesson format that will grab their attention and keep them involved instead of sitting in their chairs (not) listening.

I just want to take more time to plan. I feel like I need a week to gear up for all this, or a day at least. But if I�m gone on Monday the kids won�t re-set for the week until I get back; they�ll have Monday-squirrelys on Tuesday when I�m being observed. So I just need to grit my teeth and do it. Today.

It�s not like I don�t have practice gritting my teeth: apparently I�ve been so stressed I�m gritting and grinding my teeth in my sleep, and my dentist has made me get a mouth-guard so I won�t wear my teeth down.

P.S.- The lisp I have with the mouth guard in is dead sexy.

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