I was thinking about Wash U today and how the difficulty of being a teacher is different (basically, I was doing compare/contrast). Although I am exhausted and feeling stressed out, it comes from a different source. While college was mentally draining, ideas could always be synthesized down into topic sentences or subjects for papers; that was a goal in itself. But here, there is just too much information. The goal is still synthesis, I think, but there is no way- absolutely no way- to figure everything out and organize every element of instruction. Example: I'm supposed to assess comprehension in every lesson I teach. How am I supposed to do that every day in 25 minutes? How can I teach a lesson with content, language, skills, strategies, etc. and have that part too? There's no time! Grr. So in the end, while I can plan for over 20 hours during my vacation (that's right), I can still leave out a piece. And then when someone pops in to observe me, that small mistake stands out like a glaring error, as though I sat around debating whether or not to include it and chose not to. At least this isn't organic chemistry: I can understand every concept in isolation (like comprehensible input, kinesthetic vocabulary instruction, on-task participation, engagement, text-to-self connections, rephrasing, etc.). It's just putting them all together, so not a minute of class time is wasted, that makes being a teacher sometimes just as difficult as being a college student. That, and I can never skip class, fall asleep during class, make up what I don't understand later, bs a paper (they can spot when I'm bsing here;0), or drop a class. I feel like my job should be a show: "True Life, diary of a teacher." Here my catchphrase: "You think it should be easier- after all the studying I did in college, now I just teach elementary school... but you have no idea."