An enchanted spindle might come in handy right now...

I've got fairytales on the brain because my roomies and I started watching "Once upon a Time" on TV today - it's pretty fun. In the middle of it I got distracted by all the things I have to do this week and I thought, gee, eternal sleep sounds kind of nice right now... but then again, I have the most fun when I'm busy.

So this week is the money maker - this is the one that separates the tough compadres from the peeshootin' wannabees. I'm honestly a little worried if I'm going to make it out of this week with everything sunnyside up, but I'm doing my best. This week I have to:

• teach 2 - hour long classes in the 9th grade reading class 
• teach and observe in the band class for 5 hours
• do 3 mid-terms
• write 7 essays
• take my teacher licensing exam
• get reviewed by the student teaching board
• perform in 2 concerts
• help put on a luncheon for guests from NY
• assist in coaching sessions
• start a research paper and an orchestral arrangement
• and maybe sleep

This is probably more for my benefit than for yours - it's good to see it all in one place. It seems a little crazy this week, but they're all very good things, and if I approach this week in a disciplined and optimistic manner, everything will be just fine. I guess a lot of the pressure is just realizing this is my LAST semester ever. Kinda crazy. I'm excited, but I still sometimes am under the impression that I'm 17 and I just got here. oops.


I had kind of a cool revelation today. This is going to sound sad, but this is one of the worst days of my semester - I taught in 2 of my classes today, and everything that could conceivably go wrong (just short of the school burning to the ground) did go wrong. None of my videos worked, and I completely lost the kids for the last 20 minutes of class. That doesn't sound like much normally, but this time it involved  sticky-tack up peoples noses, dancing on tables, questionable white board drawings, and quite possibly my reading of Miranda rights to one of my kids. I also might have gotten mistaken for a middle-school student. again. Ah well - here's the cool part:  I still want to teach!!! Sure, today I may not have inspired a deep love and knowledge of the Bill of Rights in all my students, but I got the attention of about a third of them. And that's a good start. They even remembered some of the hand motions I taught them to remember the amendments, and showed me on the way out the door, so that at least got through. But at the end of the day, when I'm dog tired, a little down, and a little worried about my own homework, I still love those silly, obnoxious, brilliant kids, and I really want to teach. Just learning that today, when life kind of sucks, is invaluable. I'm so grateful that I could experience this before I have my own class so that I know it's all really worth fighting for to me.