Chunk of time

Well, one chunk of time has almost past. It's Thursday, which officially means that tomorrow is Friday...which means that we're that much closer to our California visit. It also means that the end of the school year is rapidly approaching and that I have to be observed today.
I've  never had much thought about being observed until this year. It's a whole new ballgame, one that I'm happy to drop out of. This will be my last year teaching. I was a substitute for seven years before I found a classroom position. Teaching has changed in those years and I find myself very frustrated with many of those changes.
During today's observation I will be working with my first graders as they learn the art of retelling the stories they read. We've been taking it part by part and reviewing each section weekly. We will focus on the "important events" in the story. Many of my students will simply state one thing that happened, but our Common Core State Standards demand that students are able to identify key details in the books they read...so I'm teaching them to expand on the stories.  We'll use sentence frames and anchor charts to help internalize this practice. I will use Wemberly Worried to model how I retell the important events and will then read Edward the Emu to guide the students through their own written retell.
It's a fine lesson. Not spectacular. It'll get the job done...sadly, I'm more worried about what my observer will find wrong with the lesson than I am about the students success.
More things to worry about. I've been trying to manage the worry but going to the gym before work but life gets in the way...August had a dentist appointment yesterday so I didn't make it to the gym.  It's amazing what skipping a day can do to me. I'm going today. I'm stressed about work, stressed about the dogs (we may have to find new homes for them, but that's another post at another time), stressed about getting everything together for California.
Sigh. Jennifer worried.