Anywho... I was none-to-pleased when my alarm went off this morning.. but got up and ready in time to catch the tram at 7:50am. I decided the tram would be just as close to taking a bus and walking and easier to figure out. (No call from Sabine this morning who has taken me the last 2 mornings to this school... she told me later she was running late and forgot her phone). But, it ended up working out just fine and I got to school on time.
I guess because I've only been to this school (Les Marendiers) twice... I'm still not very comfortable with the kids or teachers. Everyone is very nice, but it's just a little more awkward than when I'm at the Berliet school, which I've been to 4 times now. It had been a while since we had talked about what we were doing... and for some reason I haven't really kept in touch with them via email like I do with the other 2 schools. So basically, other than bringing my bag to every class to make sure I had a back-up plan if the teacher didn't have anything (I brought 3 books and some stuff I had done with the Berliet school), I just sort of came in to do what the teacher had planned.
Thankfully I had Funnybones with me and the Halloween coloring worksheet because the first teacher asked if I would do something about Halloween (the one taught by the longterm substitute). This class has the worst behavior of all of my classes.... At first, (in general with all of my classes) I always try to just let things go and see if the classroom teacher will respond to behavior issues before I say/do anything.... I don't want to step on the teacher's toes, especially since I only see these kids for 30 minutes a week. But this class was just ridiculous... even after the teacher would say something, the kids literally would just laugh and continue doing what they were doing. Finally, after being as nice as I could... trying to motivate the class to quiet down so we could finish the activity and move on to something more fun, I just stopped and stared down a kid who was being extremely obnoxious. And then after an awkwardly long amount of staring, I said, you're not being very nice or polite, in French, and continued on. Needless to say, I had very few major problems from then on out. I guess I gotta do what I gotta do- 30 minutes goes by like that!
In the next several classes, I did practically the same lessons I had done the previous Monday (animal sounds with one class, postcards with another, introductions with another). I guess the teachers wanted to make sure their kids didn't forget everything they had learned over the break... But- in my very last lesson with the littlest kids (the CPs), I knew I needed to have something because the teacher doesn't plan for English as it isn't really a top priority in this grade. I brought my number people and we went over numbers from 1-10. They knew them all in order, but when I said a number, they couldn't correspond the English word to the correct numeric amount. So... before doing either the chant or song I had prepared, I would say a number and have them hold up the correct number of fingers. Of course... I got myself into trouble because I started counting with my index finger when I showed an example. In France, you begin counting with your thumb and so forth. I actually find it quite difficult to hold out the number 4 (all fingers out but your pinky). (And as lame as this sounds, my fingers hurt now!) After our little game, we sang "1 little, 2 little, 3 little pumpkins...." etc.
Anyway, they're just adorable... and the teacher loved my lesson. She wants me to do it again next week so that they can really get the hang of the song and the numbers said out of order.
After school, I ate lunch with the teachers, feeling a lot more competent in my French skills... I once again was able to actually be a part of conversation... so I'm making progress! On my way home, I stopped by Laurence's office to chat and ask about finding something to do for money on the side. She said she would send an email out to teachers to see if they wanted extra English lessons for their own children or needed babysitting. She also suggested actually getting a part time job and showed me websites similar to craig's list. I'm not thaaat desperate... so hopefully something will come about with the email before I have to start going through want-ads.
It was fun to see and talk to Laurence after going all vacation without seeing her. She's always so helpful:) I told her about my friend Amy coming to visit and she can't help me pick her up, but she can take her to the airport (with me of course) at the end of her stay. She did help me figure out what train or bus to take to go pick her up... so Amy- not to worry, I will find you at the airport!
It is a very very windy day... so I'm hoping there are no fires in the middle of the night and that the wind quiets down so I can sleep!
Reste cool:)
No comments:
Post a Comment