Fake It 'til You Make It

Every time I was placed in a new assignment as a long-term sub last year, I freaked out. I thought, "What? Teaching Computers? I don't know enough to teach it. " or "What? Third-graders? How will I manage them?"



Then a seasoned teacher offered this sage advice: "fake it 'til you make it." So I did. I waded through the first weeks of each assignment, and eventually it turned out.



When I started my last (and most daunting) placement, teaching first-grade for the last 6 weeks of the year and compiling all of the end-of-the-year paperwork, I was able to acknowledge that the overwhelming feeling of inadequacy would soon subside and that I would only hate my life for a few more days before everything started to fall into place.

I sure hope I experience the same phenomenon...

Here's to faking it!

Anxiety

Has it ever occurred to you that teachers are often just as nervous about a new school year as their students are? It hadn't to me either, until recently. I'll be a middle school English teacher in two weeks, and I have literally been having nightmares about the first day of school.

Does it seem to you that students perceive teachers as being above emotion? When I was in school, I never imagined that nervousness or insecurity or flat-out fear were feelings that adults, much less teachers, were capable of experiencing. I, for one, will be relying on that oblivion of adolescence come August 13th.