sheeepssss

Sorry I never got around to blogging yesterday! I watched a movie when I got home and then kind of forgot about it.... but I did have a pretty ok day!

Murielle is going to be out until at least the March vacation.... which I'm totally bummed about. I don't really mind her replacement, she's a little bit of a yeller... but at least the kids aren't completely out of control like with the other replacement at the other school. But- obviously, it's just not the same... nothing runs as smoothly, the other teachers aren't quite as talkative... but maybe with Murielle gone, they'll make more of an effort to chat me up?

With the older group, the replacement had the kids read an excerpt about the life of an English school student. After they read the excerpt (in French), she had them ask me questions about the English school system.... as in, the British English system. I know she knows that I'm American because she commented on my accent.... so I'm not really sure why she thought I'd be the best person for this particular topic as she has been to England, I have not. I've read books and seen movies (aka Bridget Jones), but I'm by no means an expert on their school system... But I did my best answering questions about uniforms, school lunches, and morning assemblies. Every time I gave an answer, I'd make sure to add in, "But in America..." in hopes that the kids knew there was a difference. I kind of got the feeling that the replacement has been grouping us in the same category when giving English lessons... language-wise, this makes sense, but otherwise, we are completely different countries! For example, they asked me what kinds of sandwiches they eat at school... and I said, I'm not sure, but a lot of American kids eat peanut butter and jelly. The teacher said... "hmm I guess we won't be packing our bags for England anytime soon! That sounds weird! We need our cheese!" (Lol- I'm going to have to ask the British girls tomorrow if they eat pbj...)

Anywho, that didn't take up much time, so it was a good thing I brought along Froggy! I read the book and we went over some vocabulary. I also brought the "English Question Box," a little review activity for the kids (they pull out a question they've already seen before, answer it, and ask the same question to another kid). When I was done with my lesson, one student, who often gets into trouble, asked, while the teacher stepped out, if I knew the Kardashian family or if I knew what playboy was. This is the same student who asked Amy if she knew what playboy was. I'm not really sure why he knows about either topics...as all of the other kids in the class were like, "What's he talking about???" I sort of pretended like I didn't know what he was talking about either until the teacher got back into the room. She thought he seriously didn't know what playboy was, so she gave a vague explanation and commented that it had nothing to do with what we were talking about.... How awkward! Next time I'm just going to say, hrmm, I don't understand, perhaps you should write out your question and we can give it to Murielle... lol. That would straighten him out!

I did pretty much the same thing with the middle age group (answer questions about England, read Froggy, talk about clothes)... but with Anne-Laure's class, I read Brown Bear Brown Bear and we worked on learning the names of animals. It was so cute, we'd ask if they heard the word for the animal and they'd say the color.... or they'd just say the French name instead. It took them a while to grasp a few names, but one that they had no problem remembering was "sheep." This is because sheep sounds like how they saw chips. Chips are chips in French, but they say it like this, "sheeepsss." And therefore, I had a class of 25 kids yelling sheeeepssss... even though there was only one sheep on the page:)

I really like Anne-Laure as a person, and most of the time as a teacher, but it is so odd to me that this age group is told to sit still in old desks with the chairs connected to the tables. The tables are set in rows like you see in high school and all face the board. They look fairly uncomfortable to me.... and if I were 6-7 years old, I would very much like to move about a little more. And so... there are always those kids that get yelled at for wiggling around, turning around, or talking.... whereas in the US, we have so much movement in K/1st grade... circle time on the floor, centers.... and there are very few things that children must do without making a peep.

After classes, I had lunch with the other teachers and made some copies. I got home and watched the Social Network... which was just bizarre to watch and then go on Facebook afterwards. Very interesting movie though.... After my movie, I felt very much like I wanted to get out of my apartment... I'm getting cabin fever. I guess to go from doing something every minute of every day with my dad and Steph to doing not a whole lot other than work.... I'm ready to be social! Which is a good thing because this evening I'm going out with 2 co-workers from my Tuesday school. We're going to go shopping, eat dinner, see a movie, and then Eve will drive me back home after we pick up her sister-in-law from the train station! Then tomorrow, I'm having Hannah, Helen, Lindsey, and Caroline over for lunch!

Hope you all have a nice Friday and a happy start to your long weekend! The French do not celebrate MLK Jr Day... so I have work on Monday... (I know I know... I don't have much to complain about!)

Reste cool:)