Still going....

Hello everyone.
Here's what's new.

Nothing big really. You remember how I said I want to end the lives of those roosters outside of our house because they like to wake us up at random times in the morning? Sometimes, it is as if a dog starts barking, and the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood go off. Think of that but with roosters!! Insane. Well, surprisingly, I'm totally used to it now! They may wake me up at 3, but I'm used to waking up at many times during the night, and I tell myself (well, there go the roosters) and then fall back to sleep, involuntarily swatting at small flys and bugs that buzz near my head (kind of like a cow swatting his tail at the bugs, yet not really caring that he has to do the swatting). So I'm like a cow, is what I'm trying to say.

I had the worst class yesterday. First of all, teaching World History is very hard. We changed the curriculum from last year, so I have nothing to base lesson plans off of. I'm all on my own. Also, there are not enough books for the kids to take home to read for homework, so that is aweful. We have to spend class time reading or group reading. And what's more, I can only get the books for my class 2 times a week, maybe 3 if I fight it out with the other teacher.
Anyway, so I had this class planned where I needed books and the kids would get in groups and read certain sections and report important info to the rest of the class and it was going to be great. The first section went very well. The second section, well, I had 5 kids go to the library before the start of class and they came back saying the library was locked. Ok, no problem. I had one kid go to where the offices were to find a teacher to get the key. Then he came back and said that no one knew where the library key way. I was stunned, and I think the kids kind of picked up on my frustration. The person who is supposed to be in charge of the key isn't very responsible sometimes. Needless to say, 3/4 of my planned lesson was now gone, so I tried to lecture longer than I was supposed to to buy up time, but finally I had to give the last 15 minutes of the class to the students to do other homework. I was very upset. It was aweful. My students in that section think I'm probably rediculous. So moral of the story: don't teach a class where a text book is critical unless you have textbooks.

If anyone has suggestions on how to teach world history without a textbook, let me know. Thanks.

Other than that, things are good. I had spam again for lunch today. That's a regular item. I haven't gotten sick yet (knock on wood) and it's been a little over a month since I've been here. That's good.
It's sad to hear about all the crazy stuff happening back home in New Orelans. It's really weird to be completely disconnected. We're just recieivng bits and pieces. I hear HC is accepting students from Loyola New Orleans. That's really cool of them. Go HC.
Anyway, you're all in my prayers. Eat some Junior Mints for me. Peace
AJ