Fake it 'til you Make it!

Fake it 'til you Make it--that's my teaching mantra. No idea what I'm teaching today? No worries. Fake it 'til you make it. No idea how to deal with an unruly student? Fake it 'til you make it. You have a thousand things to do, but no time to do them. Fake it 'til you make it. Having a really, really bad day? Fake it 'til you make it! See, it's kind of catchy and it seems to be working out really well for me.
For example, many a time I have been assaulted by the feelings of inadequacy as a teacher. To combat this, I've adopted an attitude that I am the best teacher out there. Sometimes I will tell my students things like, "Wow! Today is your lucky day. Today I, the best teacher in the country, perhaps the world, will be teaching you about pronouns" or "How much did your parents have to pay to get you into my class?" or "I hope when they bring me the trophy for teacher-of-the-year they don't disrupt class because this lesson today is so amazing." And when I'm really stressed out or having a difficult time dealing with a student or a colleague or whomever, I tactfully remind myself that I am dealing with mere mortals, after all. Do I really believe these words? Am I truly so cocky? My students think so. But I know that I'm just faking it 'til I make it. And I've found that it does make me a better teacher because suddenly I have this reputation to live up to, and I have a cheering squad in my corner-me. Aw, positive thinking...I'll take another glass of that, thank you!
It's like I'm this award-winning actor in a movie called "The English Teacher." It doesn't matter if I've had a fight with my husband that morning or if I have a tummy ache or if I'm just in a crummy mood-I have a role to play and my audience is depending on me to deliver that award-winning performance. And as I play the role of English teacher extraordinaire it becomes who I am and my day really does begin to look better. Maybe this phenomenon is why I didn't become an actor...a couple of 'pretend' kissing scenes with Brad Pitt or Paul Walker or Matthew McConaughey or (okay I'll stop here), and my reality would become blurred and I would probably fall madly in love with him/them (or even more likely and inevitable, he/they would fall madly in love with me). Sorry, boys, I'm taken...
I'm currently trying to apply my fake-it-'til-you-make-it attitude beyond teaching to my other life goals: to become rich and famous. I'm pretty close, I can feel it! =)