TAKS woes.... and its STILL 4 months away

I have no idea how to teach language arts.

UGH! I have the best kids ( You know except for the profanity they are writing on the bathroom walls...) They really need a really structured language arts teacher.... I am and have not been trained or had the experience with language arts to be good at this! My poor kids... I really try to do the best I can... I follow the TEKS, I make it fun, I follow our scope and sequence but thats about it. I went to a language arts meeting the other day and met up with the other teachers who had some great ideas, and were telling me everything they were doing in their classes.... and I was put to shame... I just guess I wish I knew the growth the kids were supposed to have by the end of the year... I feel so in the dark... I dont want to be the teacher who only gives TAKS practice tests... but I have no idea the progress they were supposed to have made by now.... or by the end of the year.... or what... sigh..... I feel so overwhelmed again.... I don't know where I am going with this subject.... I just keep throwing lessons out there in no particular order and without seeing what the final result is supposed to be.

Ugh I just need help in putting all of these great ideas together in an order that will be beneficial for my kids... but just when in the world do I have time.... or the training... or the hind sight to do this?!

Sigh... someone come give me a massage and then tell me how to make sure my kids are going to be successful.... OR you could just get rid of the TAKS test.... you know, if you did, you might have just gained about a million friends.... of the teacher kind...