happy poisson d'avril!

Ugh! What a terrible start to the month of April! I got up on time, after a weird dream about having a wolf/saber tooth tiger attack at my home in Virginia. I got ready for Corrine to pick me up and take me to the lab to get blood drawn. We got there, waited 2 hours, and I paid 50 euros for the stupid prise de sang. When my number was finally called, I went into the room with the scary old French woman who didn't say much but, "You didn't eat breakfast, did you?" I said no... and explained that I sometimes pass out when I get blood drawn. She went, buff, and stuck me with the needle. Before I knew it I was seeing spots and out I went! I woke up with my legs in the air and the woman saying, "Caldo? Caldo?" Wait- or was that in Italy... he he HA. (april fool's!)

Yes- that was all made up.... it is April Fool's Day, don't you know! :) Except for the part about the wolf/saber tooth tiger dream- that part really did happen.

In all actuality- getting my blood drawn was no big deal. Corrine came to pick me up at 8:05 on the dot, we drove over to the lab, and found a parking spot right in front. She helped me talk to the receptionist and figure out how much I could weigh in kilos (I had no idea!). The woman asked, "What kind of accent do you have??" She was very nice, before and after realizing I wasn't French.... I was doing a very poor job of speaking coherent French because I was nervous.... so it was a good thing Corinne was there to both translate my mumbles and listen to everything she said because I wasn't catching it all. I paid 30 euros, but will most likely get reimbursed for most of it.

As we waited (only about 10 minutes), I asked Corinne a few questions to make sure I understood what the receptionist had said. She sort of chuckled at me.... probably thinking- it's a good thing I'm here! When I was called up, I went into the back and was ushered into the room by a very sweet French woman, who asked me all about where I was from and what I was doing in France. I felt the prick and started to feel a little faint. But, the woman got me talking again.... and I didn't even know it was over:) I know, I know, I'm such a baby.... but I have been known to pass out from a finger prick....

She said, "You're all set," and gave me a little green card to bring with me tomorrow to pick up my test results. They do not send the results directly to the doctor.... which I find odd, but Corinne explained that once you get the results, you look over them and if anything looks like it's not right, you take them to your doctor to be re-examined. I was like- ugh... I have no idea how to examine blood test results. She said they'd take a look at them for me tomorrow when I come over to tutor/babysit. I got switched to tutoring Saturday because they're going to lunch at a friend's house on Sunday.... and since I'll already be over there, they asked if I'd like to stick around and babysit for them... so I said, of course!

After coming out of the back, we said au revoir to the other people in the waiting room (you say bonjour as you come in to everyone sitting down and you say au revoir as you leave.... it's kind of cute).... and across the street we went for some pain au chocolat- Corinne's treat:) She's so nice!

She dropped me off and said let us know if you need anything! After my little feast of chocolate croissants and OJ.... I'm feeling pretty good:)

I know I didn't write anything yesterday, but I did have a good day. At my first school, I got to work with a few small groups in the CP class, which was a nice change. However, one little girl pinched a kid when she thought I wasn't looking, so I had her sit out of the game for a few minutes. Before letting her rejoin, I bent down and asked her if she knew why she was in trouble. She just laughed at me. I said, ok then, I can wait. So less than 5 minutes later, I said would you like to participate in the game? (Yes.) Can you tell me why you're in trouble? (Because I was too loud.) No, that's not really why you are being punished. It's true you could have been a little quieter, but you're not being punished for that. Why else, do you think? (Because I pinched Matthieu.) Yes, and why did you pinch him? (Because I wanted to.) Is it very nice to pinch others? Do you like being pinched? (No.) What should you do differently next time? (Not pinch or be loud.) Can you participate in the game without pinching and treat your peers nicely? (Yes.)

..... It was so weird. It was like no one had ever asked her why she was being punished.... and I can understand that coming from this class/school. In the same class period, this teacher screamed at 2 other kids and had them sit out of the game for good.... not once asking them why they were being punished or talking to them about their behavior. This teacher also had one kid stand behind his chair for the rest of the hour because he kept fidgeting in his seat.... and it was only because he excited about the activity. What a way to humiliate him and ruin his spirit! Then before lunch, the teacher had them line up in the hall... called one kid out for talking (although many were), and had them all go sit back down. While they were sitting, she said, "You can all thank Killian for making you go sit back down." The kids actually said merci Killian, out loud. I was just like, blown away at that.... what kind of message does that send to these kids? And poor Killian!

But thankfully, I had had two great lessons before this one, and I was able to save the one kid from missing out on the entire game.... so that was a plus. I left school with a lot of the kids leaving for lunch. One kid walked with me and told me all about where he lived and pointed out his apartment.... how to push the button to go in.... He said, "Our name is even in all caps on the door!!" It was super cute. He asked me where I was going and I said.... I'm catching the bus to go home for lunch too! He looked down the street and said, "Well, it's coming, so I guess... à jeudi!" (See you Thursday!)

Before my afternoon class, I passed a coach bus carrying Corinne's class on their way to the pool. It was so funny to turn and see all their hands waving at me (Corinne's hand included hehe). I also ran into Nathalie in the hallway, and she wanted to see if I wanted to come over to her house for lunch/dinner before I left the country. She said maybe the last week I'm here we could work something out:)

Then later last night, I received a nice email from my afternoon teacher, saying how much she and the kids enjoy my lessons. She also said she'd like to get together with me and the other teachers one last time before I leave too! How nice:)

Anyway, it is supposed to be a gorgeous weekend- high of 72 and sunny. Once I am fully recouped from this morning, I may go find a sunny spot to read a book this afternoon:) We shall see!

Bon weekend! Reste cool:)

la poste again

I had a nice couple of lessons at my first school- some Gingerbread Man and Very Hungry Caterpillar action in those classes. It's adorable to hear the French kiddies try to pronounce "caterpillar." It's also pretty adorable to hear even the older kids try to pronounce "Gingerbread Man." It usually sounds more like, "Gingerman man"- but hey- it's a hard 4 syllable phrase to say!

I left as soon as possible from my first school feeling a little weird, so I went straight home to take a nap and eat lunch. I felt 10x better after my nap and went off for my last lesson of the day with a a class at my Tuesday school. It was almost hot while I sat waiting for the tram to arrive.... and we had another a gorgeous bright blue sky!

During my lesson, I told the kids they could ask me 5 questions about the US to start off, if they had any more questions (they asked a lot last time as it was my first time with them). One of the first questions someone asked was why I was wearing a pink shirt and white pants. They were convinced I was dressed for another holiday (lol- last time I was wearing green for St. Patrick's Day). Kids are too funny:)

We did my emotions/colors activity where they listen for color words, order them, and then order the emotion vocabulary that corresponds to the color I read in my story. I was glad that even though they don't really know their colors very well that it still worked out. If nothing else, it was a great introduction for them... and they got to hear about how I missed mac and cheese and my family (when asked, "What do you miss most?"). In reality, I don't miss mac and cheese anymore because I've stocked up from previous packages.... but that would be something I'd be missing a lot. I can't think of many other things I miss that much (I do enjoy French food too!). Except for maybe Mexican food.... and bacon. But those can wait.

Speaking of packages and things I miss- I went to the post office to retrieve what I thought would be something from the phone company, but it was a package from my friend Emily! Inside I found lots of Easter candy and a mix for cookie brownies!!! Hurray! I miss both of those! hehe... Actually she sent me a really funny/cute card that had my face in a picture of a dog that said, "Come Home Lindsay." Get it?

The only annoying thing about my nice Easter care package was that the plastic Easter eggs, that were full of candy, had been opened by someone at the post office. I'm sure they were making sure that there weren't drugs or something in them.... but all of my candy was either crushed or melty. (Don't worry, still tastes the same, I sampled it to make sure lol). I will hopefully make the cookie brownies this weekend with Kelsey who's coming to visit Friday and Saturday night. She thinks she's getting a visit to Lyon. What she's really getting is a visit to my apartment with the occasional trip to Lyon (haha jk, but if I'm not feeling too great, that may be the case....). At least I will have cookie brownies and wifi to entertain her with:) Let's hope I get some rest tonight and feel great with this beautiful weather! (But don't worry, if I'm stillll not up to speed, I'm going to go back to the doctor next week!)

Anyway- I got my letters sent out and should be all set with both closing my bank account and DSL line. I feel pretty good about how much I got done today.... but I have to go to bed now to get up and clean before my visitor gets here!

Reste cool:)

run, run as fasahyoucan!

Good afternoon! The sun is shining and it is another beautiful spring day in France (good thing too, as today is the first day of spring!). I would love to be running around the park, but alas, walking pneumonia/being tired strikes again. I started wheezing at lunch and felt dizzy on my walk home, so I'm resting up with the windows open to let in some l'air frais!

Despite feeling très fatiguée, I had a great morning. We worked on the gingerbread man some more in all of my classes. You will be hearing a lot about this little guy as I have planned a 6 week lesson on him:) It's surprising how much more kids pick up after just a second reading. Some of my older kids were able to pick out full phrases that they understood, "I don't like..." and even new vocabulary that was evident with help from the pictures: kitchen, oven, head, nose... etc. And this time around, the kids were more curious about the sing-song part the gingerbread man says over and over again as he runs away. I say the lines slow at the beginning, but progressively get faster.... My CP kids laughed and giggled every time I read it. At the end they said, "Teach us the gingerbread man song!"

Although it isn't really a song, it is catchy- "Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man." I added some motions to it and broke it down for them to learn. The teacher had little faith in them being able to learn it, but we went over it maybe 3 times and they were all singing it! It was so cute.... maybe I'll video tape it when they get really good at it:) They still get it jumbled and it sounds more like this, "Run, run, asfasahuacan, You cancatch ME, I'm the gemmebrman!" But hey- for 6 year olds who don't speak English- sounds pretty close!

We had boeuf bourgignon for lunch today. Yum yum! My favorite cantine lunch:) I sort of laughed on the inside when I got done and had wiped my plate clean with my baguette. It was only just a few months ago I was watching the teachers wipe their plates with their bread and thought.... how do they do that? Their plates are so clean! But, the student has become the master:)

During lunch, there was a bit of heated conversation about teacher absences. Sabine was absent today and Vincent, the director, had called in a sub. However, the sub didn't show and so they were left scrambling with the kids. In most schools they just break up the kids and put a few in the back of each class. For some reason, Vincent decided to have the 2 special education aids watch the class for the day. I went in and did English, which was fine. We just read the story and reviewed some old material.... but anyway- the point is, some teachers are very upset about the number of absences compared to the number of times they are replaced by a sub. I kind of got the feeling that one teacher was indirectly commenting on a particular teacher's amount of absences... and that she feels bad enough when she takes leave when she's sick because there are no subs, but she has even more anxiety about teachers who don't care about this same worry (or so I think that was her point).

In any event, all the teachers agreed that they do feel bad when they don't come to work and are sick, but when you're sick you're sick, and you shouldn't judge others who may be in the same situation another time. But, the same teacher, who was upset, made the point that you never know if the system is being taken advantage of... if the person is really sick. And the other teachers said- it doesn't matter... we're a team and we respect a teacher's decision to stay home if they feel they can't come in. She said, yeah that's fine, but then parents start to complain about the number of teacher absences and it reflects poorly on all of us. And then one older teacher, whom I don't work with, but usually think is pretty funny, said.... Does it matter? Who knows if the perks of being a teacher will be taken away from us anytime soon. We have some of the best flexibility when it comes to taking sick leave... and on national average, teachers are in the middle with the number of days taken absent. If people want to take advantage of the system, then do it while you can!

I just thought- wow! It must take some major will power for her to come in everyday. (But the funny thing is, I've never seen her absent from school!) I piped up and asked- so you don't have a sick day limit? -Nope. I told them that we have certain rules about how many days you can take off for sick leave or personal leave... but we always have substitutes when we're absent.

As I was walking home, I thought... huh... even though we have substitutes and sick leave limits, I feel like for the majority of teachers, very few miss school if they can help it. I think we have different standards for being sick and how sick is too sick to go to work.... but I don't know, I guess there are always teachers that take advantage of the system and take sick leave more often than they should in America too. Just seemed like an interesting dilemma!

Welp- I'm going to try to go lay down. I just want to feel better! It's so frustrating feeling like I'm always sick. Darn foreign germs and my lack of immunity to you!

Happy first day of spring to you!

Reste cool:)

Snowmen.... with toes?

Salut! I've had a productive little morning.... swept, mopped, cleaned, did some school work stuff, and am now watching Family Matters in French. Steve Urkel sounds hilarious. I would have gone out to do laundry, but I had to wait for people to come around and check the gas heating system (or something). They came and went quickly saying that I actually had been upgraded to an electric water heater system, so I didn't need to be checked! I'd go out and see a museum this afternoon, but it's snowing! Must stay indoors:)

Yesterday, I had a great day at school.... none of my teachers were absent, I did a lesson with animals in Corinne's class, and lessons with snowmen in all of my other classes. We went over the parts of the body (with the hokie pokie) and some clothing items with a little book.... and then I gave them directions to follow to draw a snowman. I had them draw ears and toes on their snowmen (since we sing about them in Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes), so all of their snowmen were quite... special:) And they thought it was funny that when translated, snowman is like saying neige-bonhomme, instead of bonhomme de neige.

I will be having another double day tomorrow.... and then I'm babysitting on Friday night for Corinne's family!!! January is just flying by!

Reste cool:)

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:)

Jacadi a dit... (Jacques ah dee ah dee...)

Well- another unintentional grasse matinée this morning! I slept past my alarm, but 50 minutes over this time... which is much worse than 20 or 30. Must still need to catch up on sleep... But all was not lost. I got ready in record time, made it to school as the bell rang, and had good lessons all day.

With the maternelle class (Corinne's class), I worked in a small group like usual, but this time I started working with them on animal names. I was just going to use the Brown Bear, Brown Bear book to work on colors, but Corinne asked if I had anything to work on animals... and what do you know, the book is all about colorful animals! Parfait! So we did a quick little animal overview, even though I had Maxime in my group. Maxime is a challenging little bugger, he enjoys having lots of attention and making up wild stories. He's adorable to me, at least, because of his little man French voice, but he gets in trouble a lot. He also likes to make lunettes, or glasses, with the blocks... and then puts them up to his face. So cute. During our good morning song with the whole class, he sang in a really high pitched voice and Corinne had us all sing the song again so that he could participate correctly. Silly kid.

Then with my CP groups, I had them sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. It was so great and they loved it. And miraculously, it really did teach them the names of those body parts...albeit being pronounced just slightly off... and them thinking that the word "toes" meant "feet." Oh well, close enough. After we sang, we played "Simon says." The kids are familiar enough with the French version of the game, so it wasn't too too hard for them to get it...even though "Simon says" is a nonsense phrase to them. In French they say: "Jacadi a dit..." which to me seems silly. If you didn't see it written, it sounds like "Jack said, said..." because Jac-a-dit, a-dit is what you hear. Well- I was confused for a bit, but after looking it up, I comprehend why a dit, a dit was said twice. In any event, I did it all in English, so I said Simon says (not Simon says, says).

With my CE1 group, I read Froggy again. They loved it like yesterday, teachers and kids alike, hurray!

I left without eating lunch at school so I could go grocery shop and have food to eat. I must have been in a rush to just buy things I was craving, so I came home with a pineapple, kiwis, some frozen vegetable casseroles, and stuff to make tomato/mozzarella salads. I'm going to have to go back... and buy chicken or something with more substance because I've already eaten 2 kiwis, an entire cauliflower casserole thing, and a salad... and "I have hungry." Perhaps I will just make pumpkin bread my dad brought me and call it a night. It's weird to eat and make dinner for just yourself after eating with people for a week!

Tomorrow is part 1 of the laundry fest. I have at least 3 loads to do, but I'm only taking one in hopes that I get a response about the washing machine I've requested. I know it's a long shot, but one never knows until they ask. I sent my landlord, aka the lady from the mairie, and email asking if they would install a tiny washing machine for me because with as much as I pay for laundry at the laundromat, I could have bought my own washing machine and saved myself money and trips out. It's not that big of a deal, but if I do at least 10 more loads of laundry, that's almost 100 euros that could go towards a cheap 1K mini-washer. We shall see what she says!

Hope you are all having a nice week! I may be purchasing train tickets to Italia tomorrow too! The sooner I buy, hopefully the cheaper they'll be for my March trip!

Reste cool:)

Froggy Gets Dressed- A Hit!!

Well, after a day of rest... and sleeping in past my alarm 20 minutes, I got to school in time to meet Monsieur Vincent Jenac, the director of Les Marendiers. He's the teacher who has been out with the replacement all year. I did my Froggy Gets Dressed clothing lesson, which was a huge hit, even though the kids didn't quite get the punch line as quickly English speaking children would (he forgets his underwear in the story... and as they don't know that word yet, it wasn't quite as funny until they knew what it meant). However... the book is like PERFECT for teaching clothing vocabulary. So my lesson, even in the class that is usually nuts, went really well. I have a feeling the class was more well behaved because their teacher was back... but it still felt good to have a successful day right off the bat!

Otherwise- I have been fairly non-productive all day. I wrote a few postcards and wrote an article for my in-service on Thursday. I guess that's not totally unproductive, but I had hoped to go grocery shopping. I have no food, so tomorrow I will not be staying after school for lunch because I have nothing to bring except peanut butter and a brownie mix ;) But those I am saving for American craving emergencies.

A plus! More tomorrow! Reste cool!

Lindsay

ps- both my dad and steph returned home safely!

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” Vincent van Gogh

Last night I didn't end up going out to dinner because plans changed, reservations were lost, and I was already on the tram going a way that would have taken me forever to get to the newly proposed restaurant... so I got off at the Porte des Alpes mall and just walked around in a bad mood. What else was going to happen.... no fun dinner, nothing to look forward to when I went home, I ate a crappy lasgna at a mall restaurant all by myself, the guy serving me commented on my English accent making me feel insecure about my French speaking capabilities.... UGH! It just wasn't my night!

But.... I came home and talked on the phone with my family and realized, all is not lost, I still have my family, I'm still very fortunate to have the opportunity to be here... I need to suck it up and roll with it. What would life be if we had no courage to try new experiences, new places, new people? I may not be in an ideal situation at the moment, but it's not the end of the world.

This morning I was met by the painter, who was very concerned that I was still in bed. Turned out that the electrician never finished the intercom thingy after disconnecting it yesterday, so I didn't hear him buzzing in. He asked if I like the color they were painting the apartment (a bright, but pale yellow). I said yes, it's great, my favorite color actually... And he was like, was this not your choice? I was like.... hah, not at all, none of this was my choice, but thankfully I like it:)

I went to school, knowing that today would be a little weird. The classes that I teach were having an all chorus sing along after the mid morning break, so I went around to all 5 classes to review our Christmas songs. The kids are so cute.... they're getting extremely excited for Christmas. One little girl made me a Christmas card in Franglish (French-English). To top it all off, it started to snow, so the kids were fit-to-be-tied!

After the break, we all crowded into the gymnase to sing songs with a special choral lady that comes once a week. They were fairly crazy up until they started singing- kids spinning around, pushing each other, sliding on their stomachs, etc. Once she had gotten their attention, they sang 4-5 songs with her that I'd never heard of.... and then, I got up in front of all the kids and had them sing Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It was great! I was in shock that there wasn't mad chaos with 150 little bodies grouped together.

At lunch time, the teachers all commented on how well the kids did with the songs in English and how much they loved me (well... if that couldn't put me in a better mood, I don't know what else could!). The teachers I don't work with said they wished I could work with their kids too....

And then, the teacher who is hosting the dinner tonight told me that she did an internship right outside of Washington in a French immersion school. I was like, oh what was it called... she said Fairfax! What a small world! She lived with a family for one month, in Fairfax, Virginia. Hah.

For the moment, I'm feeling pretty good, considering I know that I eventually have to walk home from school in the cold snow and return to my paint fume-y apartment. My ipod is recharged and I have a ride to the party tonight:) Now, let's just hope that the snow stops soon so the party is still on for tonight!

Reste cool mes amis:)

uh oh spaghetti ohz

Well, I'm going to try my best to get this typed out and sent. It seems that my windows vista has decided it's going to crash. I keep getting the "blue screen of death" as they say.... which is not a good sign. I have very few computer problem solving skills and no one to take my computer to. I don't even know if I took my computer to Best Buy type store if they would know what to do with my American computer! So merde merde merde if my computer crashes. I kind of need this thingy. Anyway, I will try my best not to panic so I can update you on my day.

I went to school and was shocked at how warm it felt outside (low 50's today). I had high hopes about giving my crazy class a word search as morning work... and guess what??? I'm a genius! (hehe) The kids came in, got started on the word search with minimal disruption and we got through the roll call in all of 3 minutes instead of the 15-20 it usually takes! I was able to get through all of the lesson I had planned for last week and preview a little of what we'll do for next week. So all is not lost on this class:)

In my next few classes, we started singing Christmas carols and working on "What would you like for Christmas?" I hadn't realized until today that silly bands have infiltrated France. For those of you unfamiliar with this elementary/middle school trend... they are little rubber band bracelets; when taken off of your wrist, they take the form of an animal or some sort of object. They're just called bracelets in France... I think I might have even heard a kid say "des crazzees." Anyway, on most wish lists, kids were asking for video games or board games... action figures and barbies.... so not much is different. Kids are kids:)

During lunch, I tried explaining the movie Elf to the teachers because in one of the classes we talked about elves and Santa.... and it turns out elf is also the word for eleven in German. So in any event, while we were re-discussing this, I brought up the movie out of curiosity. No one had heard of it... or Will Ferrel for that matter. I can't believe they don't know who he is because almost all American films are shown in French theaters, either dubbed over or with subtitles. So I did some research and found the French movie titles and sent them to my teachers. We shall see if they figure out who he is. One teacher did like the sound of the movie "Elf" and wanted to see if we could show clips during class to see how much the kids could understand. I like this idea.

After lunch, I went to visit Laurence who asked me over the weekend if I needed any snow attire.... which was a huge YES. I'm having shoe issues with the snow. And wouldn't you know it, she wears almost the same size and had an extra pair of boots. Now I don't have to worry about buying a pair before I go to Switzerland, where it is sure to be very snowy!

Anyway, after talking to her for a while, I stopped by the boulangerie, where the shop lady knows me and greets me like a regular:) I took my baguette and croissants home... to find Mr. Electrician working hard... with dust everywhere. He was very nice, though, in explaining again that he was sick, when he should be completely done (Thursday hopefully because the painters are starting then), and asking where I would like my phone jacks. He left at about 3, explaining he had gotten a call to repair someone's electricity that was out about 45 minutes away. He will be back tomorrow at 7:30.

I did a little sweep sweep of the apartment because even though I know he's coming back, I can't stand to walk around and hear the crunch of dust under my slippers. I warmed up some of the last macaroni and cheese I froze from Thanksgiving and tried watching Elf again (I had it on the brain)... and my computer crashed (4th time today). Every time, I reboot and it works for a while and I think it's ok.... but then it happens again. I just don't know what I'm going to do about that. AH.

Anyway, if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it!

Reste cool:)

one-orse open sleigh, ay!

This morning I was a little scared to go out into the snow, and if my bus would be running, but it really wasn't so bad. The streets had been plowed.... the sidewalks had paths walked into them... and my bus was only a few minutes late.

I wish I had brought my camera to school because it was a quite sight to see all the kids in the snow-covered courtyard where they have recess. They were running and throwing snowballs left and right, their cheeks were all rosy red, and they all had huge grins on their faces.

Murielle, on the other hand, didn't look quite as in form.... but she was just as welcoming and nice as usual... asking if Amy had gotten home safely. When we went inside, the kids had a ton of questions for her because they hadn't seen their maitresse in several days.... but when we got on to English, the first thing Murielle wanted me to do was to sing Jingle Bells for the class (just the refrain). So I sang, then we had the kids sing a part of the line, then I sang another part, then they sang.... until we were able to sing all 4 lines. For the end of the second verse, (in a one-horse open sleigh) Murielle wrote the words on the board to help guide students who were kind of mumbling through that part (it's a hard group of words to say). However, when she read the line, she said "one-orse open sleigh," which then lead to all of the students saying "orse" when singing. Oh well.... that darn, non-existent French "h" can get you sometimes. Otherwise, they did quite well and for 9-11 year olds, they actually looked like they were enjoying themselves:) Murielle had them all stand up to practice how they will sing at the winter festival on the last day before winter break. We will need some more practicing:)

I then read a Christmas story to them... that wasn't very complicated, but I guess with all the new Christmas vocab, they were a little lost... so I had to explain a lot in French. They also asked me questions about what I do for Christmas and told me what they do for Christmas. Many of them leave their shoes out for Santa to put goodies in them (I guess in lieu of hanging stocking like we do). For the next time, we will be playing Christmas vocab bingo. This job is so fun sometimes:)

In the second class, we sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and the kids LOVED it. I feel like this class is easy to entertain:) I also read the book and went over vocab so that we can play bingo next time as well.

During recess, I talked with Salima, the special education teacher who has a child in the crazy class at the Marendiers school. I told her how things were going and she was shocked to hear that they were giving me (and the sub) a horrible time. After we got talking more about it though, she said she had wondered if something was up because her son comes home crying many days, not understanding the homework.... it probably has something to do with the fact that the kids talk so much no one can hardly hear what's going on! Ah! She did say that regardless of the teacher, the class has a few students that are really tough cookies...

With Anne-Laure's class, the CP/CE1 class, I did the number/color activity (they had to color in the number I said with the color I gave in English). They did the best by far of any of the other classes I've done that with. Then I taught them Jingle Bells and that was that for them. At lunch, I told them about my Electrician, and they said, oh no! I bet you'll have dust everywhere for months! I was like.... yep, I would believe it (although as of right now, I'm doing pretty good... I mopped yesterday and got a lot of it up!).

After school I got to talk to my mom:) and then went to the post office to make a few copies of travel books I got from the library and to mail a few things out. I also went to the bakery and bought a demi-baguette (small one), a praline brioche (which I ate immediately), and 2 pain au chocolats.... I've kind of missed having them for breakfast!

The plumber showed up at my door at about 4pm.... he was supposed to come tomorrow at 8:30.... although now I'm wondering if I've misunderstood something and someone else will be here tomorrow morning..... However, the main thing here is that my toilet is finally fixed!!! Thank goodness!

Now I'm just hanging out.... going to do real laundry tomorrow morning and then meet Hannah in Lyon to see Harry Potter again (like we had planned on doing on Wednesday). Then, she's coming home with me to spend the night before we go to Colmar on Saturday! Yay! More Christmas markets!!!!

Reste cool:)

Ice Cream Corn, the Nouveau Beaujolais, and Audrey Tautou

So much to update you on!!! I just got home from spending the night at Lindsey's house, which is why you didn't get your daily post yesterday... but now I can tell you all about my avant-premiere experience!

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I went to school (Berliet) and did two lessons on Thanksgiving and one with the number friends (in the youngest class). Murielle, the directrice, did most of the work for the first 2 lessons, creating flashcards and laminated pictures from the book I brought... I merely read the English while she went back to reexplain with pictures and French. I had talked a little about Thanksgiving last last week (since I didn't have work last Thursday for Armistice day), and so yesterday was mostly a Thanksgiving story recap and review of key vocabulary (Pilgrims left England, didn't have much food when they got the Plymouth, Squanto saved the day and taught them how to hunt turkey, fish, and grow corn and pumpkins, Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoyed a 3 day feast, which us Americans recreate in one day). With the middle age-group, when we asked what food the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow, they said "cones? Like ice cream cones?" and of course laughed hysterically.... I guess corn and cone would sound similar. They did fairly well with all of it considering how random this group of vocab words seems to them... and how difficult the words are in general to pronounce. Plymouth was never really achieved... but that's ok... I can't imagine when they would need to say Plymouth any time soon... or ever for that matter.

My lesson with the number friends went over well, as it has in the other schools. Who wouldn't like numbers with faces and names??? I also taught them the songs... which are just so cute to hear them sing with me. And then I gave out stickers that had little English expressions (Good Job! Wow! Excellent! Super! Super star! Goal! Touchdown! etc.). This was very funny...I'd give out a sticker, they'd say merci, and then I'd move to the next kid. After they said merci to me, they'd turn to their teacher and say... maitresse.... what does this mean??? Lol, and then she'd explain, even though sometimes the words would be/mean the exact same thing in French (super, excellent). And then they'd go ouuuaaai!!! I'm a crowd pleaser, what can I say.

After work, I ate lunch with the teachers. Murielle invited me to a Christmas festival thingy for the last Friday before the winter break. Apparently the teachers and parents bring in holiday goodies from around the world and the kids go around and try them all. So of course they want me to bring something American. I told them I'd try to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (even though I don't think they have quick-oats in France, my mom is sending me a mix). But then, right before I left, Murielle asked me to send her the recipe so that she could try it before we made it as a class.... I was like... oops... now I have to dig up the recipe and translate it. So I did, and I threw in a translated recipe for pumpkin pie too because they kept asking what was in it (I guess it sounds so foreign to them to put pumpkin in a pie and eat it for dessert). After translating the ingredients for both recipes... I realized... there are very few Christmas cookies I can even make here! Hershey Kisses... non-existent, peanut butter sparse, crisco... non-existent, quick-oats...maybe.... Ah! I guess I'll just have to live with French pastries this year.

After a quick gchat with my mom and Vic... it was about the time I needed to head out to meet Lindsey at the tram stop. I went with her to her house to drop off my stuff to spend the night, we watched some French tv, and then went out into Lyon for a quick dinner before our advanced screening of De Vrais Mensonges (True Lies.... maybe ?) with Audrey Tautou. I realized as we were on the bus coming down the hill that I haven't really been in Lyon much, if at all, after dark... so I haven't seen how things are lit up. Thankfully I had my camera to show you some pictures. It really is a very pretty city, don't you think?

We were a little early for restaurants to be open (it was about 6:45, they open at 7ish). So we walked around a bit and decided to take respite in a grocery store.... which just so happened to be having wine tastings of the Nouveau Beaujolais. The wine comes from this region, so there are big festivals all over town and in the little towns of the Beaujolais region. Lyon residents are often quoted as saying Lyon has three rivers, the Rhone, the Saone, and the Beaujolais (as in...the wine is a-flowin'). Apparently it isn't known for being a particularly good wine, just a tradition.... but I thought it tasted alright.... but what do I know?

After our wine tasting, we went across the street to a cute little italian restaurant for pizza. Lindsey and I shared a yummy tomato/mozzarella salad and each had our own cheese pizza... that was big enough to feed 2-3 people. We both kind of made ourselves sick trying to eat it all (we didn't succeed, although I got pretty close). We figured we wouldn't be allowed to waltz into the advanced premiere with our cheese pizza... so no doggy-bags... if that's even allowed in France.

We ended up finishing our dinner at about 8:10... running to catch the metro... and running to get seats. We got pretty good seats considering... although the people by the aisle glared at us as we scooted in a little late. Had I had air to breath I would have said... oh don't glare at me, at least the lights are still on!

The movie was hysterical... I laughed out loud for 3/4 of the movie... got a little teary eyed at one moment... and thoroughly enjoyed being able to understand a movie entirely in French. (Quick recap of the story line: Audrey Tautou's character owns a hair salon, has a guy working for her that writes her a romantic anonymous love letter, she sends it to her depressed mother, who figures out it was from the guy at the salon, who figures out that Audrey sent it to her mother, who is now in love with the guy.... all while Audrey and the guy are falling in love with each other... kind of a weird love triangle story, but very funny as you might imagine... the mother's character especially was hilarious, as was Audrey's.)

Then, as if seeing a cute little film in French wasn't enough, all three main characters and the director came out for a question and answer time. The actors were very nice and funny answering questions about their roles, getting along on set, working for the director, etc. But about half-way through, I started to zone out a bit because I was really tired as it approached 11pm. They answered one more question.... and I thought, well surely they'll just escort them out, but no! They stayed down there to take pictures and sign autographs with people. We awkwardly followed Audrey around until she just about left the cinema and finally got a chance to ask for a picture. Obviously, as you can tell, she is a super tiny person... and we were really excited, haha. Then, we thought! Yes success, we can leave now. But, we saw the male actor and thought, why not, let's a get a picture. A guy had us take his picture with him, so we asked if he wouldn't mind taking our picture. The guy took the picture and said... oh it's perfect. The guy must have been drunk, because the picture is blurry... but oh well. You can still sort of see (up top).

We left the theater at about 11:15.... and the next bus didn't come until 12, so we went to see about taking the funicular and walking... but once we got there decided it would be quicker to walk back to the bus stop and take a more direct route home in the end. But... it wasn't that bad. There were tons of people out... maybe for the Nouveau Beaujolais... maybe that's just how it is on Thursday nights... but it wasn't too cold and we enjoyed looking at the sites all lit up.

We got home exhausted! I left pretty early this morning so I could get home to start cleaning the apartment for Amy's arrival tomorrow... and I'm still pooped! I see a nap in my future... among the other things I need to do!

Reste cool:)

les trois petits cochons

I woke up with a renewed sense of confidence in myself (in terms of teaching English in this unique teaching position I'm in). I need to keep in mind that what I do doesn't matter, but that I do it is important (thank you Gandhi). I have 30 minutes with these students, and I may not always have complete respect or attention from the class, but I can do my best to entertain the kids with English experiences that their regular teachers wouldn't normally give them. And that's that! (Amazing what a good night's sleep can do!)

Anyway- I was at Simon Signoret today, and much to my surprise, I didn't have my regular morning talk with Pierre... so I took advantage of the extra time and made copies for another school for next week (shh, don't tell them I used their ink for another school!!!). I met with the maternelle first (Corinne's class) and worked with a small group of students on numbers and colors. They're so adorable... I would ask them what a color was in French, then say the color in English, then ask if they could tell me the color in English, and they'd give me the color in French like they were so proud of themselves for knowing the answer haha. Oh well, I'm sure it's confusing to them on the whole. I also sang my good morning song with the whole class and they're getting pretty good at mumbling along with me.

In my CP classes, we reviewed the numbers and number songs (they're actually really good at mumbling/singing along to 1 little, 2 little, 3 little pumpkins...). Then I read the Three Little Pigs with them (trois petits cochons in French). They already knew the story, so I was hoping they'd get to focus a little more on the English. They picked up on "three" and "house," but when I'd ask if they were big or little pigs, they'd say big first... I guess I didn't think about how "big" and "pig" sound alike, so they got confused. They were cute though, especially when I couldn't think of the word for straw or chin in French to help translate a page (paille and menton, fyi).

In my CE1 classes, we did basically the same thing but had time to play telephone at the end. Telephone was one of the activities they mentioned at the in-service for helping children learn to listen and pronounce words in a foreign language. It turned out to be very entertaining... I only used very short 1-3 word phrases (seven, little pumpkin, three little pigs, five, etc.). By the end it usually ended up sounding like made up words (seenin, lilly pumd, fee pids, hive), but once I repeated a few, they got better and better at taking their time to pronounce the words and come up with something they had heard before (that was English and not gibberish). I've decided it really is a good game to play... and I could change it up.... like by showing them the picture along with telling them the word or just showing a picture and they have to come up with the vocabulary to pass along or they can find the right picture that corresponds to the thing they hear instead of having to pronounce it at the end.... the possibilities are endless:)

So, all in all, a really good day! Granted, most of my classes were missing several students because today is the last day of Ramadan.... giving me class sizes of 12-18 instead of 25-30, but... I'll just go ahead and attribute it to my fantastic lesson planning skills!

Speaking of lesson plans, I'm getting really excited for all of my Thanksgiving lessons. With this school, I'm going to explain Thanksgiving with pictures I copied from the books my mom sent and then have them make hand print turkeys to put on thank you cards to give to their parents. With Les Marendiers, I'm going to read the books I got from my mom to help explain Thanksgiving, and either have them organize pictures from the story in the right order (for the older kids) or color by numbers a turkey to review their colors in English. With the Berliet school, we're doing some of that stuff this week and next week we are making place mats (Amy's coming in to help). The mats will say Happy Thanksgiving and they'll draw thanksgiving pictures and write what they are thankful for... plus Murielle is going to take pictures of Amy and I working with the kids so that later she can put the real pictures on the place mats before she laminates them and gives them to the kids to remember the day! She's so great to work with:)

Bon mardi a tous! (Happy Tuesday to all!)

bonjour free!

I had an excellent teaching morning at the Signoret school. I got to school and had, what I'm sure is becoming my usual morning chat with Pierre (the director), in English. He enjoys "showing off" his English skills, while correcting my poor, back-of-the-throat French "r" sound. When he gets an English phrase right, he snaps his fingers and sways his arm, as if to say- hot dog, I gottit! And then at about 8:15 he says, "It is time to go to my desk," and I assume that is also my cue to get to my first class.

This is the school that has me working with the Maternelle (preschool). These little ones are especially adorable... While they get settled in, I walk around and talk to the kids in French. I met one little girl who's name is Gayard (or at least I think that's how it's spelled). She told me all about how she likes to eat carrots and watch Winnie (Winnie-the-Poo) on dvd.

Once most children are present, all the kids gather around me on these little benches while we sing songs in English (well, I sing... they sort of mumble along and giggle). It's funny- some kids know all their numbers and can say, "Good morning, my name is...." while others, I'm sure, have absolutely no clue what I'm saying because this is the first time they've ever heard English. I'm only with them for 20 minutes... so we sing for a bit and I'm on my way. (On my way out, this teacher actually asked me if I gave private tutoring in English and gave me her number/email to meet with her 13 year old. Woohoo unexpected job opportunity!)

In my next 2 classes I work with the CPs... who seem older to me than the CPs kids at Les Marendiers (from yesterday), but younger than the CPs at Berliet. I'm not sure why... but anyway... I introduced them to my "number friends" by saying, "This is my friend, number one..." and so on. They would consequently say, "Bonjour one!" and comment on how cute or silly the number friend looked (because I gave all the numbers eyes). (Cute side note: French children, and adults, have a terrible time pronouncing the "th" sound. So, when they said bonjour to the number 3, they would say, "Bonjour free!") After saying hello to all the friends, we played a few games and sang a few number songs... much like yesterday, the kids can say all the numbers really fast in order but have no clue which number is which...

In my last 2 classes, which I've decided I like the best, I work with 2 really sweet teachers (and the kids are in the CE1 level...7 or 8 year olds). Both teachers wrote down everything I did and told me afterwards how much they enjoyed the activities I shared (they wrote down the activities to do with future classes). One even said that I was "top" at timing... because I miraculously finished my lesson at exactly the same time I needed to switch classes. They also told me that they had learned something too... that the saying "Give me five" actually comes from the fact that you are holding up 5 fingers... haha. (Every time I had the kids find me the number 5 or show the number 5 with their fingers, I would find someone to "give me a five" which they just thought was SO cool...and apparently so did the teachers).

After classes, I ate my lunch with 3 of my 5 teachers at this school and felt like one of the gang (almost). They included me in most conversations or at least checked to see if I was understanding most of it. They offered me construction paper, tea, and candy before I left... and I went home feeling very happy:)

When I got home, I checked my mail and found my rent bill (finally) waiting for me. I could either pay by check (which I don't have) or go to the Tresorier (treasurer... or place to pay for government bills?), which is just down the block, to pay for it. I have had a suspicion that I live in government funded housing... I mean, how else could I be living in a 3 bedroom apartment for 50 euros a month... and my suspicion was confirmed upon arrival at the Tresorier... there were 2 lines, one to pay your bills and one to sign up/ask questions about the HLM or habitation a loyer modere (or government reduced housing). I'm very lucky to have housing at this price, regardless of the label, so it certainly doesn't bother me... just interesting to know.

On my way home, I had the sudden inspiration to go to the library and see if they had a travel section. They do and I checked out 6 books (on Italy and Switzerland). I can now fully obsess over my upcoming trips:)

Tomorrow, speaking of obsessing over trips, I'm meeting up with Lindsey to plan our December trip to Switzerland (we figure the best way to get missing Christmas in the States off our minds is to go somewhere really cool).

Hope you're all having a nice week!

Reste cool:) I know I will on my 5 day weekend.... hehe!

Hhhhaunted Hhhhhouse

This morning was my first day back to school since October 21... and although it was a little rough getting up so early and switching my brain back into French, I had a great time at school with my kids and colleagues.

With les CMs (my oldest group, the combined CM1/Cm2 class), we went back over some Halloween vocabulary (ghost, bat, witch, broom, haunted house, mummy, skeleton, etc.), and played the game memory (which they love... and subsequently cheered "ouaaai" upon finding out the activity for the day). It was weird to be doing Halloween again, after Halloween was over, but I guess the teacher didn't want to start right off the bat with something new (since I was their very first lesson back at school). They had to match the picture with the word and pronounce the word when they flipped it over. Listening to them try to say "scarecrow" and "haunted house" was so funny. I tried to tell them at the beginning of the lesson that in English we pronounce the "h" sound at the beginning of words, whereas in French you do not (at first they were all saying "aunted ouse"). So they ended up saying "Hhh, hhhaunted Hhh, house." They couldn't get the "h" out in one full breath lol. And "scarecrow" was just hard because they had nothing to connect it to. At least the other words are sort of similar in French or are familiar from American movies (skelete=skeleton, spider reminds them of spider man, bat reminds them of bat man, broom sounds like the sound a car makes... and a witch rides a broom, etc.). But, I couldn't think of a good way to help them remember scarecrow... even after explaining that "scare" is like scary and a "crow" is a bird, they didn't get it. Oh well, maybe I'll show them the Wizard of Oz sometime:)

In the next class, we did essentially the same activity. These kids actually remembered the vocab and could pronounce the words better than the older kids for some reason. (Except, they were even cuter trying to pronounce "hhhaunted hhhouse.") The kids were so sad when the bell sounded for the mid-morning break.

At the break, Murielle, la directrice, reminded me that the CP class was on a field trip this morning. So... I did not get to teach my lesson on numbers after the break. Instead, Murielle asked if I had brought anything for Thanksgiving. She decided that she'd rather take advantage of me being there than have me just sit and observe a lesson in French, which I thought was really nice of her. Thankfully, I had brought the 2 books my mom sent me for Thanksgiving, just to show her and the other teachers at the lunch time. I showed them to her before we went back inside, and she and the other teachers were so funny... they thought the pictures of the pilgrims and Native Americans were great and enjoyed hearing about what we eat at Thanksgiving.

Although I hadn't really prepared for how I would explain Thanksgiving, I did so in French first because I figured the kids would be completely lost if I had just started with the book in English. My explanation was probably painful to listen to... it's hard thinking of the words for pilgrims and religious freedom and starvation and squash... but we got through it. Then my 9-11 year olds all gathered around my little board book, the kind you read to really little children... and they were so engaged. I thought, hah so funny. This book is so simple, but then again, even the simplest explanation of Thanksgiving in English is really, really difficult for them. They thought the pictures were cool and asked if we still dressed up like Pilgrims and Indians. (Murielle actually asked if I'd be dressed up on Thanksgiving lol).

And then to finish up with this group, we switched gears to explaining the regular American school day because we got into a little discussion about how many days we get off for Thanksgiving... and the kids realized that American children go to school 5 days a week instead of 4 on a regular basis. Murielle was appalled that we only got 30 minutes for lunch. The kids thought it was so cool that American children get to bring their lunch to school (one kid even shouted out, "It's like a picnic!"). And even though the kids in America get much less break time during school hours, my French students thought it would be pretty awesome to end the day so early (they don't finish until 4:30 here, but granted they do get a 2 hour lunch break and 2 recesses).

At lunchtime, Murielle showed me all around the maternelle (pre-k classrooms), which becomes part of the after school childcare. She said that children start here in preschool as early as 2 and a half! She also explained that her own kids (she has 3 ranging in age from 2-6) have to go to the babysitters until 6:30 or 7pm because she gets paid to stay much later than the other teachers... which lead us to talking about if I was ever free to babysit (which obviously I said yes). So we'll see if she ever needs me, but I've already met her kids and it would be so much fun if I got to babysit them. I'd even work for free, if there was some sort of French meal involved of course:)

Besides the tour of the maternelle, I thought lunch was much less awkward than usual. Even though I mumbled through a few comments, I was at least involved in the conversation, as opposed to just pretending to understand what was going on. I also shared some of my pumpkin bread with them... which got them talking about all the things they were going to make for me:) What a great idea it was to share such an American delicacy: Pillsbury Quick Pumpkin Bread Mix. Yumz!

And now I'm home... I don't want to go back out to make more copies of my very important documents, but I need 2 more for tomorrow, just to be safe. Ugh, I can't wait until this darn visa process is over!

Reste cool mes amis:)

i guess this wouldn't be france without a frustrating strike

Just got some sad trip news- our train to Amboise (in the Loire Valley) has been canceled and there are no trains for the rest of the day there or to Tours, which is a city near it. We could take a train to Paris and then take a train to Tours... but it will cost us a pretty penny to do so. SNCF, the French train provider, has joined the strike full force now (whereas before 2/3 trains were running, they're only running at 50% now... guess our train was in the glass half empty part). They have on their website that they will be striking until the night of the 23rd.... so I'm just praying that they'll stop by the morning of the 24th, making my train trip to Paris on the 25th on-time and on-schedule!

Anyway, I'm still getting up early to at least refund my tickets, if not try to find a cheap alternate route.... but at this point I'm getting a little worried I'll get stuck in Tours/Amboise if I do get there and then I'd be a nervous wreck about getting to Paris on the 25th. So- we shall see.

My day at school was good- lots of Funnybones reading and Halloween vocabulary going on. I have an adorable little boy, straight from Jerry Maguire, in my CP class. His name is Owen and he's always getting into trouble. But I want to tell the teacher, he's so little and so cute with his disheveled hair and glasses! Don't be mean at him!

When I got home I made number people to use when I teach numbers via the song: 1 little, 2 little, 3 little monkeys... etc. Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Brown would be proud of my number people.

Anyway... I need to go attempt to lay out clothes for my bag, just in case something opens up and we do end up going. Send happy thoughts my way please!

Reste cool...

La Maternelle... and more striking.... (UGH)

This morning I got ready to go the Simon Signoret school. This is the one that was so unorganized the first time I was there. Thankfully, this morning I a) got to school no problem with the strikes, and b) was handed a schedule upon arrival. The woman who gave me the schedule actually showed me hers and said, "Oh, do you not have a copy?" I was like.... when would I have gotten a copy? I haven't been here in 2 weeks... But, she explained that I'd be meeting with the maternelle first (the preschool), then with her class (CP), the second CP class, the technology class, and 2 CE1 classes. Welp- so much for only having 4 or 5 classes at this school. (My total number of classes is now up to 15). In all honesty though, it's not so bad to have this many classes with only 20-30 minute lessons to plan... and if a class is crazy, I'm only with them for so long. On the downside- for the classes I really enjoy, I only get to see them for the same amount of time and I'll never remember anyones name. (To make it even worse, their names are like Guyard and Aurelien and Aloex.... half the time when I ask for their name, I have no clue what they're saying in response).

Pierre (the director) helped me find the maternelle class (all maternelles are in a different building than the elementary classes). Each maternelle class has about 25 or more kids (there are a lot of little bodies) and they start as young as 3 years old. Most French children start school at age 3, if not age 4... which is why they learn extensive French grammar rules in the CP/CE1 classes... and know how to write in pretty cursive by age 6! Each class has a teacher and a teacher's aid, and these teachers are often seen wearing little aprons, which I think is cute... and very practical when working with germy, glue-y, preschoolers.

The teacher was all in a dither when I got there because the children were arriving at different times. The before-school care workers were on strike, so all the parents were bringing their kids in as opposed to some dropping them off earlier and some at this time. The cantine was also on strike today, so all the parents were asking questions about picking their kids up for lunch. In between talking to parents though, Corinne (the teacher) talked with me about teaching the kids "Hello, My name is..." and maybe a good morning song. So I wrote down the lyrics to the "Good Morning" song I sang with my Kindergarteners.... and tried it out with them (the lyrics were for the teacher, not the kids). Unfortunately, although this song is fairly easy to pick up by 5 year olds who already know English, for 3 and 4 year olds who do not.... it was none-to-easy. They got the first 2 lines, but after that, they were pretty much just mumbling and trying very hard to follow along. So I made a mental note to bring in lots of pictures and easy songs the next time.

In the 2 CP classes, I read Funnybones again, doing the English/French back and forth on my own as both of these teachers know very little English. Actually, the second teacher knows no English, so she had no idea how to help me translate. At the break, the first CP teacher talked about how much her kids enjoyed the book and how neat it was for them to hear English and to have to figure out the story line. The second teacher, however, did not agree. She said it was too hard for even her to understand and her kids told her they had no clue what I had talked about.... lol. Oh well, I tried. Guess I need to bring in big easy pictures for that class too.

I was supposed to have the technology class next, but it was canceled due to someone striking... I'm not sure who... maybe the computer room monitor? So I had a little coffee break teaching Pierre English, and then it was off to work with the CE1's. The first CE1 teacher, Eve, is my favorite at this school. She's the one with the best behavior management ideas, and she has a class pet rabbit. (Funny side note: At lunch, someone was talking about how much they like to eat rabbit and she said she can't bear the thought of eating it anymore now that she has one for a class pet). I talked about Halloween and read Funnybones to her kids. She was very helpful in making sure the kids followed me and watched for context clues. She also had a real Jack-o-Lantern in her class, so they had clearly already worked with some Halloween traditions. After I read the book, she had her kids do the coloring page I made to help learn Halloween vocabulary and colors. It was a great little 30 minutes!

And last, but not least, I went to the 2nd CE1 class. This is the teacher who has to bounce around to 4 different classes to fill in for her colleagues. The class is by far the rowdiest bunch (even more than Carole's class at Les Marendiers), but she is a cute little teacher that has lots of ideas and ways to keep her kids entertained. I'm sure she just has a rough time with them because she only sees them once a week... and it's hard to maintain a routine. Anyway, there are some interesting little kids in this class. There's one little boy that has red hair and a pony tail. He was wearing skull suspenders and walked around like a mummy after I read my story. There's another kid who immediately told me I should say the word "putain" when the teacher had her back turned. I was like, "Ah! I know what that word means. That's not nice." I was shocked! The kid was trying to get me in trouble!

At lunch, I sat and awkwardly ate by myself until the rest of teachers dropped all their kids off. I didn't realize they had to wait for all the parents to come pick them up before they could come eat, so I was practically finished by the time most people started eating! One teacher had no idea who I was and said... "Sorry, but who are you?" It was an interesting morning. And I don't go back until Nov. 9, so I don't have a whole lot of opportunity to get to know these teachers or kids like I do with the Berliet school.

I usually take the tram on my way home, but when I got to the stop it said I still had 17 minutes to wait for the next tram. Stupid strike. So I walked. It was too cold to sit and wait... and it probably took me less time to walk anyway.

I got home and immediately started reading articles about the strike. I'm getting even more anxious about all my upcoming travel plans and visitors. The oil strikers are the most likely to continue striking.... which is bad for people trying to fly here from the United States. They're canceling flights that can't bring enough fuel to get a plane back to where it came from... and of course flights over 6 hours can't store that much extra fuel. Go figure. The high schoolers who are striking are also making a bigger mess because they are getting violent... which is what you see on the news. I haven't seen any violent rioting, but then again, I'm not out there rioting or protesting. But, I think for the most part, there are just a lot of mad people. And for us, it's really hard to understand why they're striking... but because the government runs almost everything, creating a law to say you have to work until you're 62, provided you have worked for 40.5 years affects a lot of people. And the most frustrating part for the French is that there are little loop holes and rules stating that only certain fields have to abide by this... military or police can retire at age 45... teachers who have 3 kids can retire early... etc. So people like the oil workers who have to work 40 years before they can retire are mad that other fields can retire after only 25-30 years. So clearly it's a complicated issue... but still the whole thing is becoming really annoying and frustrating for me. Don't they know I'm here??? Don't they know they're stressing me out?

Hope you're all doing well. Reste cool:)

ouuuaaaai!!!! (waaaaaay!)

It was a Les Marendiers day! This is the school with the most classes and I meet each class for about 30 minutes (6 classes over 3 hours). Today, I got myself ready, with my bus schedule and map in tow.... only to be called about 30 seconds before I left the house by Sabine (who drove me to school last time). She was offering to pick me up! When she picked me up, she said, "It was really cold this morning, so I thought I'd come get you!" How nice:)

I met with the class who has the long-term substitute first. She asked me to read a story about the Loch Ness Monster... which I found funny because, although I speak English, I am not an expert on all things English (or Scottish in this instance). But- I read the book in English and stopped to explain what was going on in French. It was a weird book because it was small, with small pictures, and a lot of factual information- definitely not a book I'd pick to read to non-English speakers (I'll be picking the books from now on though).

In the next class, Carole (the teacher) split the class into 2 groups and I worked with one on pronouncing words used to introduce yourself in English. This class is a little out-of-control for my liking. They're really loud and talk while you're talking and the teacher's way of discipline is "shshing," which is clearly ineffective. But, it was cool to have my own little group and I could use my own mode's of behavior management. The kids were really excited to be working with me, but wouldn't be quiet long enough for me to finish giving an example. So I went into teacher mode, gave my teacher face, and said in French, "I'll wait until you're ready. If you can't calm down, I'll have to ask you to leave the circle." I would never actually make them leave the circle, but this got them to straighten up mighty quick. I was so proud that even with my imperfect French I can still be an OK teacher. The rest of the time working with my group was great! They were so cute waiting for their turn to say "My name is... etc." And next time, the whole class is bringing in postcards to write to my friend Caitlin's class (5th grade in the US).

My next class was with Sabine. She had me explain Halloween to the kids in French, go through some Halloween vocab, and read a little book about witches by candle-light (yes, she actually turned off the lights and lit candles...). The kids were cute when I said spider- "Oh you mean like Spiderman?" Sadly, the time went by way too fast..

After the little pause, I went to work with Sophie's first class. I read Funnybones with them, but this time I was doing all the French/English back and forth. They definitely seemed to enjoy it and got the story. They especially liked when I sang:)

Then, I went to Sophie's next English class (the combined CM2/CP class... the oldest and the youngest level). She had me read a book about a sheep who had lost its sound... and I went through a bunch of other animal sounds before arriving at BAAA. Surprisingly, even the older kids liked hearing the book (I guess even very simple books in English are still hard). After reading the book, we played a little game. When Sophie asked if they'd like to play against each other on teams, they all shouted, "Ouuuuaaaii," which is like saying "Yeahhhh!" But it sounds so adorable and hilarious at the same time. They also raise their arms when they say it, lol.

In this game, they had to make the English sound for the animal shown in the picture. Interestingly enough, we do not make the same animal sounds. Frogs, horses, and pigs especially sound different (wach wach, waigh waigh, snort snort). Sheep say beeeh instead of Baaa. Dog and cat are about the same. Roosters are cookericoo, instead of cock-a-doodle-doo. It was quite the cultural experience.

And last but not least, I went to the CP class to read Funnybones. This group knows practically no English and the teacher knows only a little more. So I was, again, the one doing English to French translating to make sure they understood the story. I feel bad though because I'm sure I'm not conjugating all my verbs correctly... and I'm sure that is something they're also working on themselves in French... so I hope I'm not getting them all mixed up with my broken French! Oh well- we got through the story and they love me:) And I love them, hehe. They all wanted me to sit next to them at lunch... which probably would have been fun.

Like a normal adult, I went to sit with the teachers. Today at the cantine, I had chicken, potato balls, baguette, tomato/cucumber salad, flan, and cookies. After we ate, I showed them the books/materials I had brought in and we got all planned out for my next visit (not until Nov. 8th hah!).

After school, I went grocery shopping.... which is such a pain to do without a car and elevator. I feel so wiped after lugging everything up 5 flights of stairs. But, I did have a pretty delicious dinner, so I can't complain too much (cheeseburger with salad and brie with a pear, yumz).

Tomorrow is the last day of striking before the retirement reform bill is passed. If it is passed, I'm hoping everyone will just accept it and go back to work so that gas stations can open back up and flights don't get canceled (my friends are coming in a week!). But- there is also the chance of another French Revolution, which will ruin everything... so keep your fingers crossed that the French cooperate with me on this one!

Reste cool:) Hope you're having a good start to the week!

The Berliet School: Quite a tightly run ship!

This morning I went to my last new French school, the Berliet, of Cité Berliet. One of the teachers lives near me in Saint-Priest, so he picked me up outside of the Boulangerie that I go to (just across the street from my apartment). On our way there he gave me the history behind this little area of town (which is located much further away from the Saint-Priest village center). Marius Berliet was the founder of the Berliet automobile company (back in the early 1900's?)... which is somehow now tied to Renault, a major car manufacturer in France today. In any event, in this part of Saint-Priest, there are several car factories (Renault being the largest) and 75ish years ago Mr. Marius Berliet decided to build a neighborhood around these factories for the factory employees to live in... which created Cité Berliet. I'm not quite sure, but I don't think Berliet has its own town hall or anything because it is still technically Saint-Priest, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, the school building itself is huge, but in population is tiny. They only have 5 classes (2 maternelle or pre-k, one combined CP/CE1, one combined CE1/CE2, and one combined CM1/CM2). Apparently the area has lost a lot of its inhabitants, but will soon begin growing again with the rise of a few new apartment complexes. The school population was noticeably different than the other 2 schools. Les Marendiers seems to be the most affluent, whereas the Signoret school seems to have a little more mixture in economic status, and Berliet seems to be on the other economic status end.

But, this school is like a well-oiled machine. La Directrice, Murielle, stands at the entrance gates and says Bonjour to every mother, father, grandparent, and child who walks through. She said she does this to reinforce the value of politesse (politeness, respectfulness, etc.). Before the students arrived, she walked me around to every classroom to introduce me to each teacher, and on our way through the halls she even stopped to introduce me to the cleaning women.

To begin the morning, I was in her room (often, with such small elementary schools, the Principal is also a teacher). She has her students write the date and do the attendance in English everyday. It's an interesting class because it is a mixture of Cm1-Cm2, so 9-11 year olds all together. Her CM2 students know a great deal of English. They have been the only class to ask me several questions in English (Where do you live? What's our favorite color? What's your favorite subject? etc.). Her CM1 students aren't yet to that level, but they sat and listened, and then the teacher gave them context clues to help them understand. We finished off the hour (yes, at this school I'm in each of the 3 elementary classes for a full hour) with a question and answer segment in French so that the CM1's could participate.

Then, this class switched with Hossein's class (the guy who gave me a ride this morning) and the CE1/CE2 combined class came over for their English lesson. In this class, there are 2 students with learning disabilities, so they have an aid. I asked if there are ever any other types of special education classes, especially for those students with greater needs, and the teachers didn't really understand what I was getting at... which is probably the most telling answer. I've done a little of my own research, and for the most part, children with any other type of disability besides ADD/ADHD/learning disabilities are dealt with at special schools instead of at their base school or one near home.

Anyway, this class had just read the Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carl. The teacher quizzed them on some of the vocabulary from the book (like leaf, sausage, cupcake, etc). Then, she split the class into 3 groups and each adult took a group to play a memory game with pictures and vocabulary. The kids were very funny trying to pronounce the words in English, but some (especially the CE1's) are still very new to the language. We got through about half the game and the bell sounded for the mid-morning pause (or recess). (Funny side story- The teacher was trying to explain how to pronounce "pear" by comparing it to "leaf," which made it end up sounding like "pier," hehe, at least it's close!)

After the break (which was spent out on the playground watching over the kids and not in the break room making tea like at the other schools), I went over to the CP/CE1 combined class. This group is made up of 6-7 year olds, and I was so impressed with how much English they knew in comparison to some of the other CP/CE1 classes. They asked me, "What's your name?" and they said "Good morning." The teacher asked them how to say hello in the afternoon, evening, and at bed time (Good afternoon, Good evening, and Good night). Then, we played a game where I asked them to show me something yellow (and then with all the colors), and they all had their little markers out to show me their colors! The teacher even apologized that the greetings and colors were all they knew... and I wanted to say- yo, those others schools are still on "Good morning" with their older kids!

Then, Mr. Hossein drove me home during the lunch break (so looks like it's just going to be Mondays that I'm fed at the cantine). The whole experience was so incredibly different than the others, but I really enjoyed myself. The teachers were very professional, the kids were well-behaved, they raised their little fingers when they wanted to speak (they do that instead of raising their hands, it's too cute). And the directrice asked me if I could bring my books the next time so we could start planning. I mentioned that Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday, so maybe we could do something for that, and she was like,"Oh yes, isn't it always the 4th Thursday of November...." I was like, sheesh! This lady's on top of it!

I don't have any cool pictures today, but I'm not planning on doing much exploring this afternoon. I'm to await the phone line installation guy/gal between 15h-17h (3-5pm). So until then, I thought I'd write a quick update while my free wifi works (it didn't work at all late last night or this morning, so frustrating!).

New school, same cute kids, really different experience

This morning I hopped on the tram to Le Signoret, Pierre's school. Unfortunately, my enthusiastic director was not at school today, so I was on my own to meet and greet the teachers. I didn't see any sort of main entrance or secretary to introduce myself to, so I just walked into a classroom and said, Hello, I'm the English Assistant. It so happened I walked into a CP class (the youngest grade, 6 year olds) and the teacher said oh yes, I think you're supposed to be with the CP and CE1 (the 2 youngest grades). She was nice, but older, and didn't really give me much more to go off of than that. So I sat in the back of her room while her kids came in... watched as a little boy (Alox-pronounced Aloe-eex) wrote "Putun" on the board (a very bad word, albeit spelled incorrectly), and then sort of looked at him sternly until the teacher noticed what was going on.

The kids were pretty much adorable though. One little girl said, "T'es belle," (You're pretty) and another told me a story about a turtle. I was a little shocked at how "old school" the teacher's teaching style was. Once she had taken attendance, she pointed at me and said this is our English assistant, and then moved right into her French grammar lesson. For being a class of 6 year olds, it wasn't very colorful and the only posters up on the wall were the letters in print and cursive script (which they learn to use much earlier than in the US). The teacher did a lot of 'shhshing', used a long ruler to point to words, and the kids sat in rows of 2. The children were memorizing lines and words from a story. The teacher would read it, then she'd call on a student to read the same line, and then they'd work on pronunciation/letter combinations... a very different approach to learning to read than how I've been taught to teach children how to read... but then again, I was only observing one lesson...

About 30 minutes into the lesson, I got bored and decided I'd move along to another classroom. This was a different CP class, with a teacher who had a little more color on the walls and a little less old school instruction. She at least showed me the 3 books in English she owned (as opposed to the shelves of books in English they showed me yesterday at the other school) and where to go next... out the building and up an outdoor staircase to the CE1 class (7-8 year olds).

This next teacher had an interesting predicament. She taught in this CE1 class once a week, every Tuesday, when I'll be there. But, she also rotated and taught one day in 3 other classes (of different levels). Because she is a new teacher, her job position is to fill in for the teachers when they only teach part-time (something that is apparently very common in France when Mommies have babies.) When she's been teaching longer, her odds increase for a better job. Actually, this is how all the teaching posts work. Candidates wanting to be teachers take a test to become "certified" teachers, and then they are placed by the State anywhere in a region of their choice (so not exact cities or districts). Then, once the teacher has taught for a few years, they can swap up to better cities and better jobs (like teaching one class, instead of 4).

As you can imagine, this doesn't allow this teacher much continuity in discipline, so the kids aren't as respectful to her, but they were still pretty cute... and she was still pretty with it. I got to sing the alphabet (in English) with them and help walk around correcting one of their French grammar assignments. So even though I wasn't answering a million questions today, I was doing a lot of French speaking! This teacher helped explain the school a little better and then showed me to the coffee/tea room during the recreation break. After the break, I stayed in her room a little longer and then switched to another CE1 class across the hall.

I was the most impressed with this next teacher's classroom style. She was differentiating the instruction for varying levels of readers, the kids were drawing and writing to assess comprehension of a story, and she's been the only teacher I've seen get down on the floor with the kids in a sort of circle time. She also had hand-made posters and drawings for different activities and she always had something up on the board for when the students were done with their activity... so I found her to be a pretty good teacher! She didn't have me do much but observe, so we'll see how it goes later on...

Then, it was lunch time, and I skidaddled with the kids and teachers. (They invited me to eat with them at a restaurant, but I had other plans). I had received an email saying my Neufbox (my DSL box) had come into the store that I was supposed to pick it up from. So I hopped on a bus (my new favorite way to go places, much faster in some cases), and went to the TABAC (a type of corner store, selling all types of cigarettes, cards, and lottery tickets).

I got home, ripped open the box, rearranged my apartment so all the wires sort of fit into the DSL box, and realized... oh don't think this thing works without a phone line (which is being installed on Thursday afternoon). I just read online that once the guy comes to install my phone line, it will take 48hours for the number to be activated. Then, 48 hours after my line has been activated, I can get the login and password needed to complete the installation process. AH. So, I still have until at least the beginning of next week before my tv/internet/and unlimited international calling can commence.

I didn't do anything after my mad dash to pick up the Neufbox and figure the thing out because I was too tired and my mom says I still sound sick (I'm not...really, just hoarse). I did however get a call from the oven guy and they delivered my brand new oven/stove! Yay! No more hot plates!

But, tomorrow's a new day! I'm meeting up with the highschool assistant in Saint-Priest who lives on the Fourviere hill to explore the Roman Theaters! Pictures to come:)

Reste cool!