Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter

This book was better than I expected. It is interesting to me that in ever vampire story, the author has a different type of vampire. Those that have to drink human blood, those that pick a human to "snack"on sometimes and those that sparkle in the sun.

But this book read like a very good biography. It went through Abraham Lincoln's life story; it just had some vampires thrown in there. I haven't checked yet, but I wouldn't doubt that most of the facts were correct, just not all of them obviously.

The story begins at the beginning of his life when Abraham first learns of vampires. His mother had just died of "milk sickness." (Which is actually what she died of.) But surprise, it was really a vampire. Once Abraham realized the truth behind her death, he became a vampire hunter.

I liked most of the book. I tend to like how stories have coincidences with real history. Although I think this one had a few more than I was comfortable with. But, I would recommend it.

Also, I listened to it on CD. Sometimes music would start playing in the background for no reason. It kind of scared me sometimes because I listened to it on my ipod while I decorated my room last week.

***I don't remember much cursing, although some parts may have a bit descriptive when vampires were being killed. I would not recommend it for Relief Society Book Club.

Mockingjay

Just a warning...

If anybody lets slip to me any part of the this book before I have a chance to read it, I might freak out. I really want to read it. In fact, it is sitting next to me right now screaming at me to read it.

But I know that I won't want to put it down. And then all day tomorrow and Friday, I will look for excuses to make my students silent so I can read just one more page. Or just two pages. Just till the end of the chapter.

So I have to wait until Friday. And I will be reading it until the time I get home until it is finished.

But until then, please no spoilers. It will ruin my life.

I'm Here, again

Oh Hey! Did anyone want to know how my first three days of school have been?

Can I get back to you on that?

Just kidding.

It has been like I have expected it to be.

I knew that I would have students. Some would be perfect students and some would not.

I guess that is the problem and it isn't a surprise at all. Just something I have to deal with.

And I am learning how to deal. I think today went better than yesterday and tomorrow will go better than today.

And that's all I can really say right now. I have a notebook with things I think I did right. I am also writing ways I could have done something better. I have to say the improvements fill up most of the space, but who said I would be a 100% perfect teaching. I still know that I have a lot I can teach these kids. In the next week and a half, we will get classroom management down so I can teach it to them.

Without Interruption.

So nobody misinterprets, I do love like love it.

First Day of School

(Written on August 22)

It's 7:45 am on Monday, August 23, 2010. It is my first day as a teacher where I'll actually have students in my classroom. Right now.

I hope that I am not freaking out. I hope that I am not so nervous that I start shaking. I keep thinking back to my school teachers. I don't remember judging them. I just wanted to know what I could expect out of the class for the year and if I thought she would be nice to me. And I think that is all my students will be thinking. They don't care if I am nervous. I need to fake my confidence if it turns out I don't have as much as I want.

But here I am. There is no turning back, not that I want to.

In 7 1/2 hours, I'll have survived the first day of school.

What Teachers Make

Sammie posted this video on her blog awhile ago. To be honest, I don't usually watch videos posted on blogs because I usually read blogs while watching TV and you can't watch both at once.

But I digress.

This is exactly what I needed to make me feel more confident going into tomorrow. (My first day of teaching.) I'll probably watch it all week long to remind myself what I hope to be able to do.

Weird Stuff

Here is a recent poll that Gallup did about things people in America believe in.

These numbers are not exclusive. So total, 73% of Americans believe in one of these things. 

I believe in 4, maybe 5, of these things above. I have actually been things about one lately.

I think the school I teach at is haunted. (Don't tell any of my students that.) Whenever I have been up there on a Saturday or late at night, I see people out of the corner of my eye which aren't there when I look more closely. 

So, I do believe in ghost, or more accurately spirits. I believe that there are both good and evil spirits. 

Mom and Dad also both believe in ghosts and say that they have seen the same two at different times. Freaky. Supernatural has corrupted my view of them.

How many of these do you believe in? Or are you of the 27% who don't believe any of it?

Get Fuzzy

I know that I posted Get Fuzzy on my other blog, but this one is so funny. Be prepared for me to share some more as I start to get relaxed for the first day of school.

Click on it to see the whole thing. I promise that I will fix it later.

It's not Lupus

Chris Says...

Chris had to take a test today for a class he has been taking for the past week. Afterwards he texted me:

"I finished. They way underestimated my intelligence. There's no way that test would take 2 hours. I finished in like 20 minutes."

I laughed when I got it. It is just so Chris.

The Ghost by Robert Harris

I just finished listening to The Ghost by Robert Harris.

Since I drive about 80 minutes there and back to work everyday, I have been listening to books on cd. Which I love. I could listen to it all the time, but Chris doesn't like it.

Anyways, this was a book I wanted to read after I saw the trailer to the movie. It looked like good suspenseful story.

Here's the gist. A former Prime Minister of the UK is writing his memoirs. He is using a ghost writer to actually write his book. His first ghost writer ends up committing "suicide" and in comes the new ghost writer. I can't even remember the name of the main character. In the process of writing the autobiography, he uncovers some pretty sinister stuff about the former Prime Minister.

I probably would not have finished reading this book if it hadn't been on cd. I got more than half way through the book when I realized that nothing had happened yet. It was very slow moving and in the end I didn't feel like much happened. It could have been so could because there were lots of things in the story that could have been elaborate on.

One thing also annoyed me. The author would have long lists of stuff sometimes. Like one time the main character was looking up things on the internet and the author just listed the the websites the character was looking at. And I mean full websites with the .htmls and the slashes etc. Kind of annoying.

I have heard good things about Robert Harris and I plan to read more of his books.

**This book has language. It would not be appropriate for a Relief Society Book Club.

I've Survived

So, I've survived the first week of in-service. Which means that I have been so tired to do much after school. No actual teaching has begun and I am anxious to start.

I have 1 1/2 bulletin boards done. And I have 3 more to go, with 2 of them big spaces. Everything should be done by Thursday for Meet the Teacher night.

I also signed myself up for a Teach American History Grant. I am still not sure what it all entails or what I have signed myself up for. But I love history, so it can't be that bad.

I am also very glad that I am working at Navasota ISD. From the people I have met, everyone really cares about the students and has made me feel really welcome. I know that there are tons of other teachers that I can turn to and they will help me. Which is much appreciated as a first year, alternative certification teacher.

I'll promise that I'll post more later. In case you care.

Dreaming

It has begun. Usually before I do something life changing/big, I start dreaming about it. Every year before I started school, I would dream. The night before my interview I had dreams about it. You get the picture. But these aren't good dreams. They're the kind that keep me awake because I think they are real and I start freaking out.

So, I've started to dream about the first day of school. And I mess everything up in them. I don't greet the students at the door, I end up yelling at them to be quiet, I mess up in front of the principal, I don't know answers to questions. It's horrible!

Now, as long as I don't have to wake up early the next day, these dreams aren't horrible. But I know that the night of August 22, I will have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep because I will be so excited and I'll dream all night long of messing everything up.

I have a plan. It means not taking a Sunday nap. We'll see how that goes.

(My first day of inservice is Tuesday!)