New Goal

I made a decision today. I have spent way too much time in the past few days going through OTHER PEOPLE's lesson plans. I've dug through the other teacher's old stuff. I've gone through listservs and internet resources. I've been trying to find the perfect lesson plan. (I'm trying to be perfect at week 2...) But the catch is--there is no perfect lesson plan. And I think that internet and physical resources are great at what they are...RESOURCES. But they shouldn't be a replacement. I think after I've gone through my curriculum once or twice, I'll be able to use them to supplement what I have--but right now, I need to know what I'm doing and where I'm going in order to be able to understand what I can and can't use. So, my new goal for the remainder of the quarter is to START FROM SCRATCH. And as I defined to my sixth grade students recently: "scratch" means from the raw ingredients.
I went to college for 5 years. I got a 187 on the Praxis. I'm pretty sure that I know my material. I just need to think harder instead of trying to steal harder.
(and not that there is anything wrong with stealing your lessons....that's the greatest invention ever.... but I'm using it as a cop out, so I'm not going to do it anymore.)

Today was hard. I have all sorts of computer problems and I feel like I'm being annoying in trying to get them fixed. That's not the goal. I hope that I'm not being a problem. It's also hard because I wasn't prepared as well as I should have been. I found myself with TEN minutes of downtime at the end of class. (And for a 40 minute class....that's saying something.) I felt bad for that. I need to try a little harder. AND, I said that I was going to leave school at 5:30. It's 9:30 now, and I have yet to go home....

Good luck to me tomorrow.
~The Teacher