By Emily Seguin. 6:00AM - wake up and throw together a formal lesson plan for my teaching supervisor to glance at while observing me later today. 7:00AM - wake up Darryl, iron school clothes, shower, dress. 7:35AM - hear sounds of cussing in the backyard. Wonder what has happened. 7:37AM - hear from below: "Honey! Be REALLY careful outside! It's icy!!" 7:45AM - leave house for school. Slip on ice. 7:45 and 1/2AM - worry that dog poo is on butt, then remember I'm wearing brown, decide that's good enough, and head to school. 8:30-9:00AM - prepare for huge day of observations. 9:50AM (20 minutes before observations) - find out professor is worried about slipping on the ice. No observations today. 10:10-11:40AM - first class. Insanity. Why do they have so much energy? 11:41AM - Say thankful prayer that I made it through the lesson without a coughing spree that turns into gagging, a la the kind I have been experiencing for TWO DAYS NOW. 11:42- sometime later - lunch. Free! Enjoy salad and milk while remembering exactly what junior high lunch felt like, because the teachers sit IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LUNCHROOM WITH THE KIDS. end of lunch - spend 10 minutes feeling guilty that people have to sit next to me while I wheeze, cough and sniffle my way through lunch. Recess! - watch mentor teacher take some random girl's shoes and throw them to the far corners of the gym. Other teachers laugh, and make up a game involving basketballs, backspin, and the rack on wheels. 12:30-1:50 Second class. Oh My God. Big paper + markers + group work + adolescents after recess = bad afternoon. 2:00-3:30 - rush home, print lesson for tutoring, and paper due in class. 3:30-3:45 - lay on bed, in school clothes, moan, sniffle, and pray the day will end quickly. 4:00-4:30 drive to class, park, walk VERY CAREFULLY into the building. Realize that I forgot my paper on the printer. 5:00-6:45 - phonics class. Listen to professor complain about standards-based testing for the entire class. Receive packet about phonics to read later. 6:45-7:50 - tutor 5th grader in reading. (The highlight of every Thursday). Have extreme coughing fit while he reads to me that ends in bloodshot eyes, tears, and sympathetic glances from other tutors. 8:00 - 8:30 - drive home. 8:30-9:00 - Type blog post while Darryl goes to the drugstore for more cough drops, medicine, and vitamins, and to pick up some kind of hot food. 9:15-9:30 - Eat. Quickly. 9:30 - wash up and sink into bed. Dread tomorrow. Remember the orchestra field trip. Cry. Sleep.