Tuesdays = the bane of my existence

Tuesdays are simply terrible for me. Most days, we have planning periods scattered throughout the day so that we have a break from the children (and they have a break from us) and we can have a little bit of time to breathe and figure out the rest of the day. On Tuesdays, I only have one planning period (40 minutes long) and it comes at 1:40pm. Furthermore, we have mandatory tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So that means I leave my house at 6:30am and at school until 4pm, with only a forty minute break. That is a very, very long day. When I get home, I feel like my legs just won't be able to hold me up any more, and my voice is hoarse from trying to speak loudly and clearly without yelling.

Additionally, I have no idea how to reach some of my students. At first, I couldn't figure out how, after two and a half weeks of reviewing, some of my students still don't know the sounds that the five vowels make. But then I sat in on their Spanish class today. The teacher asked them what the five vowels are (in Spanish) and they said, "A, E, I, O, U," pronouncing "I" the way I taught them to pronounce it (like the word, "eye"). But their teacher yelled, "I (read: eye)? What is I? The vowel is I!" But she pronounced it like a long E. So, I don't know if that makes sense, but basically the long I sound doesn't exist in Spanish, it's more of an 'eeee' sound. How are the students supposed to learn two sets of vowels at once? I'm sorry, but it's absolutely ridiculous. At the same time, I am getting a lot of pressure to finish this garbage curriculum this year. The curriculum really is garbage. It's dated, it's ineffective, and it's written for rich Americans. I am so frustrated that we don't have a curriculum that is geared specifically for children in a bilingual school. It's not fair to the children or to us that we are expected to work with an old American curriculum. I don't know what to do. I have to give my students a phonics test this week and I think most of them are going to fail it because they don't know the vowel sounds. So what do I do? Give them the test I've scheduled (that the school made me schedule) and watch them all fail? Or keep trying to teach them these lessons that aren't getting through their heads? I have no idea. Seriously...any suggestions would be very welcome.

Another note- just to clarify what I mean when I say, "Zelaya protests." In the big cities (Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula), there are constant protesters marching on the streets. Most of them are supporters of Zelaya, the ousted president, because he's still not back in the country. Most of the marches, from what I know, have been peaceful. However, there always seem to be some people who get rowdy and burn cars or small bombs (don't worry mom, no one gets hurt, they're all just supposed to be symbolic) but that's why there are always police and armed guards everywhere- to keep the protests under control. There was one rally that I saw in Gracias, where a huge parade of cars drove through the little town with Liberal party flags and Zelaya support signs, and they were honking and yelling. In general though, it's just in the big cities. Also, as a side note- most of the liberals I've talked to here don't like Zelaya, either. Everyone I've talked to thinks he's trying to do what Hugo Chavez did, and use a corrupt version of communism to take over the country. But his supporters are loud and determined. It will be interesting to see what it turns into during the election!

Please let me know what you think I should do about the curriculum/language barrier. I'm so frustrated! 3 days till the beach.