mmm... saturdays

I slept in until 7:30 today. It was glorious. I feel so good.

It was a little disconcerting to arrive as the college library opened, and I will leave when they close... 9 hours later. Granted, I took a two hour lunch break with the lovely Jasmine. But seven hours is still a lot of homework time, and I don't really feel like I produced all that much. I will have finished two bigger projects, though.

I get to play games with the girls in my group tonight. Hurrah! Something to look forward to!

And there are kids from Malawi coming to my church tomorrow. Have I told y'all that I'm going to Malawi for January? Well, I am. God willing. I'll be doing my multicultural teaching experience teaching AIDS orphans. I know. Crazy intense.

I need to finish up this paper in the next 25 minutes. Happy Saturday, everybody.

today in school...

I wrote my first discipline referral to one of my favorite students.

I found out one of my students was arrested this last week for dealing cocaine.

I taught my first mini-lesson. Kind of. If Go Fish (conjugating the verb tener) counts as a lesson. They seemed to like it.

My mentor teacher was surprised that I'm not nervous to get up in front of the class. I told her, no! not if I have a plan!

Conversation of the Day

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you really need a haircut," said a boy in Sunday School.

"Ummm... ok. What way should I take it?"

"I don't know. Not the wrong way."

"Ok. Don't take this the wrong way, but you need a haircut too."

turning a grr situation into a contented sigh

I discovered today that I have yet to buy a textbook for class. It will cost me $88. Ah well. So I packed up and drove to the college bookstore, only to discover they are closed on Saturdays. Too bad I have to read 100 pages in said textbook before 8 a.m. Monday morning. I drove to a nearby bookstore just in case. They didn't have it.

So, I bought two poetry books instead.

And read Sherman Alexie poems at stoplights.

If you have never read a book at stoplights, you haven't lived.

ooh, a challenge

In English class today, I looked over to see a student beating his head against his textbook.

I asked, "Hey, so, Billy, are you ok?"

"Uh huh."

"Are you bored?"

"Yeah. Really bored."

"You're good at English, though. I read your essay and it was great. Do you like it?"

"Yeah. I almost joined AP, but didn't. It's just this class. It's boring."

"Well, I'll think about it and see if I can come up with ways to make this stuff more interesting."

The next time I'll be in class, we're going over Of Plymouth Blah Blah and a slave narrative of the ship voyage. Both deal with racism, cultural misunderstanding, and perseverance. Ideas?