Newborn driving

The first week of student teaching is in the books and another is about to begin. Being back in front of the classroom is awesome. After two years of being a student again, I feel like a 15-year old behind the wheel of a car. The clutch is kind of sticky, the car lurches forward, stalls, gains speed. It is a familiar feeling working with the youth, humbling, but I now appreciate the breadth of what I've been learning over the past 1 1/2 years in the MIT program. I wish there was a way to integrate these two parts of the grad program experience, to be doing both at the same time. Trying to employ cutting-edge teaching strategies with a group of live teenagers is the best truth serum of "I understand how to use this technique"or "this technique really does/doesn't work well", etc.
Right now I'm planning the next month of instruction for an Intro Bio class and an Enviro Science class. In longer-term planning, it's difficult and time-consuming to figure out is where to begin and what to include/exclude. Having both quality teaching standards and a good curriculum in place is key. A big part of my work right now is trying to sequence each day such that what students are learning fits into a bigger, cohesive picture that adds successive layers of complexity to the understandings the kids are picking up. In this case, I'm using National Science Education Standards (NSES) and AAAS benchmarks. I'm using the existing textbook to help put these in order, but textbooks or longer-term curricula organized around these teaching standards would make life easier for everyone. These LP's and calendar are taking a lot of time to put together.