Four Weeks in...

Hard to believe already four weeks have rolled by. I'd be lying if I said I felt completely content and happy with the job I've been doing and the kids I've been working with. Honestly it's been a real challenge. This is mainly my fault in my classroom management skills. I have kids that love to talk, and they simply don't stop. I've tried various strategies, but at the moment very little has been working and I've had to resort to the infamous "dhalls" to get them to pay attention. I have a good positive reward system at the moment, but I need something more individualized: maybe candy? We'll see how that works. There have been moments in class where I'll have little control and it's a crap feeling to have, but I've also had days where my kids are learning and awesome and I feel a "teachers high" from things going well. So....once I solidify how to keep the buggers in line it could become the rewarding job that I've imagined it to be.

Don't worry though, despite elevated blood pressure and my attempts at perfecting my dad's infamous "evil eye" to stop my misbehaving children in their tracks, things have been going well. I'm still happy with where I am and that I'm teaching music, I'm just developing things that experience or a natural knack for teaching give you. I have neither, but I'm getting my chops, just like my ability to play choir warmups are slowly improving.

The choirs are also fun, but a big challenge. I have kids that don't want to be there and simply don't want to participate, so that presents a problem for the kids that want to be there and want to sing. Yish.

I sound like a regular whiner now huh? I'm optimistic things will improve, but right now each day is a regular struggle as I try out ways of ingratiating and engaging my kids. It definately keeps me on my toes.

Due to Adam's gastronomical journey, I thought I'd give my accounts of some of the newer foods I've had.

Catfish: Lots of it. It's plentiful, and comes in its most common variety in fried fillet form. It used to taste bland to me but now I'm acquiring a taste for it's unique "I'm a fish from the Mississippi even though I was probably hatched in a farm" taste. Quite good with other friend delecacies like...

Okra!: Another lovely fried morsel consisting of the Okra plant. Not sure exactly how it's grown, but it's a very good..especially with tartar sauce. It's also the mascot for Delta State University.

Hushpuppies: Yum. Fried cornbread. Quite delightful.

Ms. Rhoda's Tamales: Wrapped in corn-husks, you unwrap them and eat the lovely meat filling. Ms. Rhoda has a restaurant (more like a shaq) with awesome food, including mac and cheese with sugar in it! Think it's weird? Think again, it tastes awesome.

Sugar coated mac and cheese: see above.

Ms. Rhoda's Cupcakes: Another Lake Village delicasy. Not sure what's in them, but they are awesome.

Sweet Tea: I love this stuff. Wish we had a thing to brew it at our house. It's like iced-tea, but with sugar. Lots of it. It's in fact brewed with sugar, or something highly scientific and southern that I'm not aware of. Pour me another glass!

That's about all of the "weird and wonderful" foods I've had thus far. Not quite up to Mr. Adam Frank's foreign journey of weird and wonderful collon, but I love the food down here.

So yes, things are going allright. We've rocked it on to eighth notes and an intro to monastic music. I'm hoping to teach my kids how to do basic compositions with rhythms and notes (ooh, we also learned line and space notes). So yeah, my kids are learning, but there are days when I feel like I'm a balding old man with weak knees once I let my kids out and sit down. My former teachers: I salute you.

-Nate

"You see the world through your cynical life. You're a troubled young man, I can tell. You've got it all in the palm of your hand, but your hand's wet with sweat, and your head needs a rest"-Styx