Ride the wave

So - here we go day 2.
I am asleep on my feet and want an early rise in the morning for a decent amount of time at school to get more things ticked off the list. So I will endevour to keep this post short.
The English class is still troubling me a bit. I have been reflective about this, but also not allowing myself to feel too responsible. I stayed at work late today to tidy up as the paper work piles had got a little out of control. I only got through 1 (of three) but have a plan to keep getting through the others.
But the paper work thing told me two things 1 lesson and 1 reassurance.
The lesson - in reality, the current unit is a little under planned. I have made a lot of hand notes about the things I want to address and I have the unit plans from other teachers available too. I have made good resources and feel like the way I have gone through the film makes sense. However - perhaps, by not planning thoroughly enough, I am not letting the brain structure get out onto paper and this is also hindering the way I communicate the work with my students.
The reassurance - I do have many strong resources which do get the students to think. So with a little effort to link these into some stronger structures I feel that I am doing a thorough job there.

So from here - it is allowing myself time to plan effectively and to ensure I have accounted for each lesson carefully. A little bit of an 'over the top' approach to feel like I've got the rails back on the track.

Another success from today is that I started a melodrama unit with my Year 11 Drama class. I have two lower level learners who I worry about being engaged in the work that we are doing. They really latched on to the melodrama context as it provided them with something they were familiar with (as we discussed examples from Shrek and Despicable Me). I was worrying about that class and really stoked with the uptake.

So - I often use the metaphor of the 'black clouds' brewing when I am feeling overwhelmed about my workload and confidence levels. A close friend therefore asked me today 'hows the weather' as code for 'how's it all going'. I replied with 'pretty good overall, slight risk of a light shower at one point, but I managed to ward it off' - quite pleased about that.