Crazy times

Hi guys,

Because you're all like family to me I want to share some great news with you! Last weekend, I proposed to my girlfriend of six years (She said YES!) and now I'm engaged! How crazy is that?! So we're planning on having a rather long engagement of at least a year and a half to two years, but rest assured, no matter where you all are, whether it be Mississippi, California, or Tokyo, you'll all be invited!

Anyway, I guess I have to say something about teaching huh? As much as I try to define my life at this point with things that do not involve teaching, I find that it's just impossible. This week has been particularly trying for me (and I suspect many of you who waited until the last possible minute to do the 10 day lesson plan). I bet Kate and I logged at least 70 hours this week at our school. On Thursday night, I found myself falling asleep at my desk around 10:30 pm!

I'd be a complete liar if I said that I expected this. I guess when I applied to the program I thought that I would have more fun than stress; however, I find that I can't stop worrying about my students. I'm exhausting myself finding different ways to teach the same thing over and over again and they still don't understand. Now, many of the poor grades in my class are a result of apathy but I see some kids who are really studying, showing up to my tutorial program, and even coming in before school and they are still struggling. I'm running out of ways to teach things. So that's a little frustrating.

Do you want to know what is even more frustrating? Students who eat things they are not supposed to eat. David Odem had a really great story about one of his students eating...I think it was a pencil or something. When he told me his students were eating their writing utensils, I couldn't believe it but much to my dismay, I have a student who is slowly consuming his entire textbook. I think he's made it through pages 1-23 already and that first page was made out of a thin cardboard-like material. I've called his parents who thought it was more funny than serious and I've told other students to watch out for him and stop him if they witness this act. What's worse is that his appetite for the book seems to be increasing. He's now consuming pages at an alarming rate of 2-3 per class. I find myself speeding up my lessons just so that he'll have some pages to read before he consumes them all. And you'd think that I'd dish out some consequences to him because he is destroying school property but it's just so funny that when ever I see him nibbling on one of his pages, I can't help but laugh. He's like a little pack-rat or something. Anyway. ..that's what I'm dealing with.

Well, it's time to go to class or else I'll be late. See you all in about an hour!