I'd say so far so good, but I'm not sure. Ha, no...it's not that bad. It's just that I'm finding many more...obstacles than I thought I would.







I have officially survived my first week - even my first classroom observation by my principal! Go me! Of course she did have to come and observe the class that is doing research projects now so there was a lot of noise (not as much as the 7th graders), but a lot of "unstructured" time. Altogether though it wasn't bad. I did fine on the observation, so I can be grateful for that, right?







So, this town, Chilhowee, MO. Where do I even begin. First of all, it's a nothing of a town. There is a gas station (of which I'm informed has very watered down gas), a cafe (okay), 2 churches, a town hall that looks deserted, a tanning salon that apparently is never open, no library, and about 4 streets. Wow. I thought I grew up in a small town. So, to say the least, they're a little...uptight here. First of all, they can hardly get teachers, but then they have to do all sorts of crazy things (new rules every day) that DEFINITELY don't help to keep the teachers they are able to snag. So, the poor kids have new teachers, every, single, year. Many new teachers every year. Then we leave and they start all over. It seems to me like that would be an impossible world to live in.







So, these rules I'm talking about. Okay, where do I start. I'm the volleyball coach, right? Well, teams always have music that they warm up to before game time. So, I told the girls to get a CD put together and get it by Mr. Henley by Monday so it could get approved in time for our first game. Nope. Apparently, the girls are only allowed to listen to music that has no words. What?! Who warms up and gets jazzed up for the big game listening to classical music? Apparently there was a big uproar a couple years ago because some of the music that had been approved contained cuss words. Well, HELLO! You approved it. Really guys.







Another rule. At practice the other day Mrs. Gregory (principal) came in to say hey and one of the girls had a wife-beater on. Not one of those slinky ones, but basically just a tank top. That day in the bulletin it said they weren't allowed. It is seriously like that, a new rule every day.







I could go on and on.







So in my creative writing class there are only 3 kids. We were talking today about another student (they were talking, I was listening) and Hannah mentioned that Tiffany had said "I only like black guys." My comment? I just said, "How can anyone know that's all they like, that's ridiculous. You haven't met everyone." So, Hannah proceeds to tell me that it's disgusting (whites and blacks dating/having sex/whatever), to quote her "who wants zebra stripped kids" WHAT?! What century are we in? Seriously. And this girl's gonna be valdictorian. OMG. She just couldn't imagine why we would want to do this. Why anyone would rather. She said something to the effect of "whites are the pure race," and that soon there would be only "mutts. I was in utter shock. How do you handle that? I just said, "Who even says there is a pure race? And if there were a pure race, who could say for sure what race that would be?" I just...dumbstruck. Really. I said much more than that but I can't remember it right now. But really.







Well, I need to make some copies and grade some papers. I just knew it was time for an update. Wish us luck on our first volleyball game tomorrow night!!