Co-Teaching and Lesson Plans

I am terrified of lesson plans. There, I said it. I know I shouldn't be, as I've done them in my 406 and in the special ed component, but I am. Absolutely terrified. I think part of my problem, in 406 at least, was that I couldn't wrap my mind around a mini-lesson. Consistently I thought too big and wasn't sure how to pare my lessons down into short, sweet, and informative snippets. But now having watch Bob, Kim, and Buddy, I feel like (maybe) I get it. To have the privilege to watch them bounce ideas off each other was an awesome one but the part that was most useful to me was when Buddy pulled them back and said something to the effect of "but yeah, what's the goal?" I realized then that lesson planning is sort of like writing a good essay where at the beginning and end of every paragraph you can relate it back to the thesis because every paragraph is doing its job to most effectively get across your statement. Even if I have to literally write out HOW DOES THIS RELATE? at every point of my lesson planning so that I remember to periodically look back and change things if I must, I will do it. Whereas in the past I felt like I was floundering in my lesson planning because it was just so much to do, I feel like I have a solid base to stand on. Most of my classmates probably came to this realization a long time ago, but it was really perspective changing for me. I think having such a solid goal in mind is really the difference between being prepared, as in having a lesson plan, and being prepared to go down every possible avenue it takes for students to reach the goal of my lesson plan.