Teaching Panic

What me panic? This is not surprising, although I haven't really leave things to the last minute, I still have about 3 weeks to go before I have to step foot in a classroom full of 9th graders. Still, I worried when I got an email from the woman who  (I think) will be my teaching mentor, letting me know that she's available for questions. Right after that email came, I had a million and one questions! All of them I have certainly asked before, but for some reason the answers left me. Instead of just listing these questions one by one, I started to panic. Were they serious? Was I really in charge of teaching 20-30 students English? How does one teach English? Isn't this something we just magically knew and went to college all prepared? Did I even take an English class in the 9th grade? I mean, I vaguely remember a teacher, bottle blond, 50ish, Northeast Philly accent, last name Green. Yes! I remember her, and her voice but did she actually teach me anything? I also vaguely remember 10th grade English, where most of the time I decided the assignments were "dumb" (because honestly, they were unless someone can tell me the value of a Macbeth Quilt made of construction paper pictures of scenes from the plan) so I didn't do half of them and still managed to be the only 10th grader in an 11th grade English class and have the highest average.  What did I learn in high school English?

These are the books I remember:

Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (not H.S. material at all!)
Pride and Prejudice
Much Ado About Nothing*
Emily Dickinson
The Stranger
A Brave New World
Macbeth
Beloved*

This is all I remember about high school English. I remember my teachers, the other students, and so little of the curriculum it's no wonder college scared the shit out of me.

I don't want my students to have that experience. I don't want them to walk away thinking, "What was that bullshit?" Or worse "I hate reading."  On top of all this stress, I have been told over and over again that this year is going to be hell. That the parents will complain no matter what I do, that the students will complain no matter what I do, that this year is going to be the most stressful of my teaching career.  I'm beginning to believe them and to be honest, I'm a little frightened.

Here are the books I'm teaching:

Persepolis I and II
Oedipus
Macbeth (There will be no quilt making in this class)
A Raisin in the Sun
Short Story Section
Silas Marner
Shipwrecks
The Bible As/In Literature

I think a large part of my approach will be to pair these things up. So though the beginning focus is on drama I'll throw in a short story that illustrates some of the other literary device. And music, I like to use a lot of music in my lessons, it makes the text more exciting and keeps them focused.

The panic is dissipating. Now all I need is my copy of Persepolis II...packed somewhere in a box....I hope.