Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tuesday 10/18: Another day of teaching…

Another busy day! Today I didn’t have class until 10:45am, but I got up at 9am so I could prepare some things and get to the school a little bit early. My first class was with the CE2 students (8-9 years old). Claire, Margot’s cousin, was in the class—she’s adorable. As are the other students, of course! We did the same things that I did yesterday with the other classes (Greetings, Oregon, Halloween) and it went really smoothly. The teacher stayed in the room and worked in the back (grading papers, or something), which I think might have made the students behave better. They were very interested in everything and eager to participate. One of them asked about US money, so I showed them the bills I had brought. The only times I had to scold them were when they all started talking at once because they all wanted to answer a question. It was very different from the other school, where half the class didn’t really pay attention. Two boys gave me super-hero drawings —they’re pretty cool.

I headed home for lunch (Catherine and I had soup today…with croutons!) and rested a bit before going back for the whole afternoon. I had class with a group of 10 students (7-8 yr olds) in the library. That went really well—they listened to me and were probably the best at pronouncing “Trick-or-Treat!” I ran 10 minutes over my ending time because I got confused and thought the class ran until 2:30pm instead of 2:15pm! No real problem, though.

I hurried up to the CM2s (10-11 yr olds), where I talked mostly about Oregon and Halloween because they have already done a lot of the basic questions with their teacher—because she’s the English teacher for the upper grades. Claude (the teacher) stayed in the room, which was good since there are 23 students in her class! After the class she said that I did a good job, but should speak more English.

Photo: The candy bags for the CM2s

I had 15 minutes between classes, so I had my photo taken for a poster they’re going to make of all the teachers at the school. When I arrived at my last class, I realized that I had messed up again—I was 15 minutes early! Turns out I actually have a half-hour between those classes! Oops! It worked out ok, though, because the teacher said we could just start a bit early.

My last class was with the CE1s (7-8 yrs old) and they were amazing. Really. So well behaved! I could not believe how quiet they stayed the ENTIRE TIME! They all paid attention and even when I had them color (for probably 10-15 mins), they were silent with maybe a few whispers. And boy, were they cute! I’m not sure if I’m allowed to take any pictures, but these kids are so sweet. They were really nervous when they had to come up and trick-or-treat all by themselves, but they were very excited to get their candy and sticker. It was so lovely to have such a respectful class—especially at that age! Their teacher was in the room, but she didn’t even have to do anything while I was there—she trained them well! ;)

The funniest thing that happened in that class, though, was when I told them they needed to write their first name "prénom" on their paper. Then I said they should also copy "Happy Halloween" as well. So, I wrote "prénom" on the upper left side of the board and "Happy Halloween" in the middle of the board. For some reason, some of the kids thought I wanted them to just write the word, "prénom" on their paper. Hmm. I had to explain it a few times before they caught on and changed it to their own names. You'll notice that some of the drawings say "prénom"....

Photo: PrénomHappyHalloween!

After tea, I went running with Dunja. The weather here is changing, but it hasn’t started raining…yet. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. So, when I got home, I jumped in the pool for a few minutes. It was chilly, but after I swam around for a while, it was fine. I feel silly that I live in a house with a pool, yet I’ve only gone swimming in it twice! Too bad I’m not here during the summer!

I helped make the salad for dinner and we had quiche as well. Lucas is home this week because he’s job shadowing at a business in Tyrosse. Apparently all students at his school are required to do a job shadow in 3ième (9th grade). Hugo did his last year because he is one grade ahead (Lucas was held back one year).

After dinner we all (except Lucas) watched “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” in English. Margot did her best to understand (sometimes we explained)—it’s not too hard to figure out the general idea of what’s going on. They all liked it.

Tomorrow there’s no school, so I’m planning to do some cooking. Since the high school has morning classes, Alison is coming over afterwards to hang out. We were planning to go to the beach with Catherine and Margot, but it’s supposed to rain…

I feel a lot better about teaching, now that I’ve had all (except one) of my classes. At least I know somewhat to expect from them! Overall, it’s not too bad!

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