bon, cette semaine devait ete celle ou je deviens une "vraie" prof...maaaaais. ce n'est que le chaos. ok, so first, commentary on the rest of the weekend: we had a nice english-assistant bonding day on sunday - it was beautiful weather, warm and sunny, and everyone met up for a picnic in Valence before heading out to St Peray to climb up to the Chateau du Crussol. We can see the chateau from town, but it's on the opposite side of the Rhone, atop some hilly-cliff whatevers. It was a decent climb up, and the views were totally worthwhile - you can see for miles! The chateau itself is in more ruins than i expected, but we had fun running around what remains of the fortifications (it was built in the 13th century).
ive decided that at this point, i like Marcel Pagnol, my so-called bronx school, the best. the kids are just too fantastic. julia was still sick, but i went in anyway, to hang out with Emily's classes again (les 5e) ... i didnt have any lessons planned, since i never really had the chance to observe last week, and i had told julia that i would just come to watch for a bit. but emily didnt let me off the hook that easily! apparently the kids really liked me when i visited last week, and she said they'd have been disappointed if i was there but didnt work with them...so she busted out a recipe for cupcakes, and i just read through it and we worked on cooking/food vocab and understanding american accents. it was a great idea, and took the entire period, between explaining words and then having the students recall all the ingredients and utensils needed. fun times. when the second period class came in, one girl (i need to lesrn names!!) walked up to emily, whispering furiously. emily laughed and told me that the girl was upset because she wanted to bring my cake, but emily hadnt told them ahead of time that i was coming...so i promised to stop by the class next week, in case she remembered to bring me cake. too cute.
monday night i was chilling, watching some french flick on tv, when i received an email that sent me spinning - mme conte, the prof i was supposed to co-teach with at Jean Zay the next day was sick,so id have to do the class alone. merde. over the last week ive realized that i definitely did NOT bring enough stuff with me from the states, and thats not just referring to all the wonderfully warm sweaters that are now sitting in endicott. id opted not to bring a whole pile of newspaperes, etc, bc i just didnt have enough room, and i figured i could always find what i need on the internet. BUT. i still dont have computer passwords and copier codes, so i cant actually print/copy anything at this point, and it's not as easy as you would think to catch these teachers during a free period. everyone evaporates as soon as they dont have a class to teach. [side note: these schools are kinda like mini-prisons, i swear! you have to find the right door at the right section of heavy-duty fencing and ring to be let in! it's soo weird!] soo i was like oh shit, what am i going to do with these kids, have i met them yet, what does 5e mean as far as vocab??? oh lord. so i found some activities that i figured would be ok not matter what (a worksheet questionnaire thingy and some creative-conversation starters) and centered myself for the next day.
i arrived well before the start of class and begged the grumpy secretaire to make some copies for me, and headed to the teachers lounge to chill before class. i ran into some of the other english teachers, very nice, then went to my room. there was no one there. class started at 13h30. it was 13h35...ok...so i went to "la vie scolaire" where kids are supposed to go when they have a free period and asked the surveillant if my kids were there. not so much. apparently, kids can just peace out when they want if they dont have class (this was a shocking realization to someone who never even had that luxury senior year of high school!)...there were three girls in study hall, three!, from a class of 30 (i was planning on working with half the class). at first i was like, it's prob not worth it to do anything with them, but they were willing to come with me anyway, sooo the 4 of us hung out for an hour, filling in my little questionnaire and talking about pop music. whatever, it was certainly a letdown (i mean, i was dressed all teacher-like and everything!), and i didnt want to put the girls on the spot since there were so few of them and i still have no idea what im doing, but at the end of the day, they spoke more than they would have otherwise, so whatevs. i did my job.
today i screwed up - apparently i missed the memo that i was supposed to work from 8h - 10h, the 11h-noon, and i came in at 9h, which is when i thought i was going to start. oops. i was on my own again, for an hour, with some very chatty 3e (14 yrs old)...it was fine, they def spoke to much in french (i probably was too lax on my first impression and will suffer the consequences next week), but starting next week, when i have them for 2 hours, we'll b working on projects, so that will be better. it's pretty hard, preparing for a class where you dont know their level or how much they like talking, which is what ive been doing all week. so im looking forward to next week, when i'll just be helping them with writing and whatnot. and i do have more of a sense for where each level is at (i observed a 6e class today, too - like 11-12 yrs old - and they were barely grasping numbers), and im definitely going to bring articles for the olders ones, so that they stay focused and then we can have debates or something...i dunno. Pagnol teachers are younger and more fun, and seem to understand that i dont have a teaching background, so they have anticipated co-teaching for the first few sessions - i mean, im excited to work on my own with the kids, but i need to be comfortable with them first, and at Zay the teachers were like "no, no, you dont need to bring anything, no worries" so i thought id be co-teaching, but no! i just had to wing it sans fiches. ooh la. we'll see.
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