Happy Halloween!!!!

The candy bowl, post-trick or treaters. Yeah, you read that right. 

Starting a couple weeks ago, my Leclerc put out bags of candy at the front. Could it be? Bonbons for a Strasbourg Halloween? I got really excited until I remembered that I would probably not be in town for Halloween, given that Halloween naturally falls during the Toussaint vacation (when I had planned to be visiting friends elsewhere).

Well, plans get made and then plans change. Last minute, I had to change my travel schedule and that change meant I could no longer afford the Ryanair flights to take me to the UK. That sucked, but it was probably for the best because: (1) the generous, sharing child that I babysit passed on his fever/malady and it hit in full force the first day of Toussaint, (2) I saved money, (3) I got to see GORGEOUS snow in Strasbourg and (4) (probably the most important) it has given me time to work on a bunch of school things I'd been putting off. We're now past the halfway point of the semester and I'm probably quite a bit further behind on my reading than I care to admit (it doesn't help that every time I read the reading for a class on time, the professor acts under the assumption that no one has read it yet. It's confusing).

I also got to babysit today. Knowing that I'd be babysitting on Halloween, I decided I would buy some candy and a little extra, just in case there were trick or treaters. Babysitting was a lot of fun (I should write more about that at some point, but nothing is certain with me and getting things posted). Just fyi, the kid would be batman for Halloween if he ever did Halloween. And apparently he could've.

Tonight around 7:30pm, I had begun to despair that any trick or treaters would come. I knew from last year, that sometimes the trick or treaters here (and they are not a common occurrence) go into open businesses to ask for candy. I put out the bowl seen above by the front door for my flatmates when they would get back from work/Toussaint. I was a little sad, but not too sad, because on my way home I saw the great sapin de Noël (Christmas tree) of Strasbourg getting put up in Place Kléber. Screw Halloween, it's already Christmas time in la capitale de Noël (the capital of Christmas). Seriously, next to the paltry display of possible Halloween candy were a bajillion advent calendars and the start of a little Christmas toy section.

Le sapin de Noël

So, anyway, I was prepped for a lack of Halloween on my street. A little after giving up, I heard voices in the street. Children's voices. Could it be? Charlie Brown and Linus, could it BE? So when out on the street there arose such a clatter, that I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter! Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. 

And what did I see? The most beautiful sight of all (okay, not really), children dressed up for Halloween. Sadly, they were down the street and walking the wrong direction. So I felt sad again, now convinced that all the children were just going to centre-ville to trick or treat there. Just in case, though, I left my window open. 

After messaging a friend that I thought I had missed my opportunity to give out candy, I heard voices anew! I looked out the window and, sure enough, there were dressed up kids leaving next door! So I ran to mine.  Opening the door, I was greeted with a "BONSOIR!" TRICK OR TREATERS! I was so pleased. After that, there was only another group. But I didn't really care, I was just so happy to help French kids have a Halloween somewhat similar to those of my childhood. 

Since it's 9:20pm now, I'm guessing the trick or treating is over. Ah well. It was fun while it lasted. Now, back to work. 

Bisous, mes amis, and a VERY happy Halloween to you all!!!

MCJ

Goodbyes

I had to stop by the primary school today to pick up a flashdrive I left behind, so I tried to show up a few minutes after school let out to minimize the amount of crazy I stirred up. I still managed to pass many students along the way and I suspect there are a lot of parents that now know who that Mais-oui character is. I'm gonna miss hearing "AH! YAH MAIOUI!" English r's are super hard for French kiddos. The few students still in the school courtyard literally chased me down (as I ran after one of the student-life assistants myself to give them something back) and demanded bisous. No longer being an employee of the académie de Rennes, I complied and received bonbons and more bisous for my pains. I'm going to miss them.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share some of my favorite student notes (there's good chance I'll share even more as time goes on. I haven't gotten through them all yet.....) :

From a CM1 (a 9/10 year old), unprompted and all on her own (I love my job):

Mary, I loved doing English with you, you were very smily and you taught us many things. And to help us learn, you had us play games. We had a lot of fun with you. I thank you very much for everything. To have you with us was too great. I hope that we weren't too difficult with you. (As if, you were all angels, angels, I tell ya!)

Thank you for everything. 

I adore you Mary. 

Thank you very much. 

From (student)

I adore you.

(British flag) (Breton flag) (student name) (My students were never too clear on the fact I'm not English. I probably should have done more drilling on how, though I speak English, I am not in fact English.)

From a 4ème (in fact, from the good half of my worst class):

(English parts I think you can read)

I will miss you!

(est-ce que tu baise[s]?) <-- I'm not translating that here, but don't worry, google will translate it for you. Yeah. A student wrote that. OH KIDS..... This class is the one that has a kid "amoureux" de moi. (Edit: It looks like that might be some sort of cultural thing. There was a Ze Inconnus sketch called that... but it was about picking up chicks, from what the quick google description tells me. My connection is pretty slow, so it'll be a while before I can fully check up on this. Feel free to tell me if you know.)

 From a CM1/2 in the class that had a farewell party for me. I was depicted as the statue of liberty in a lot of these images....:

 Statue of liberty: There are skyscrapers that make the letters of my name! And people that say they will miss me!
Crowd: You will be welcome... in FRANCE! 
Oh SNAP! kiddos, I see what you did there. I love y'all. There are little people on all the buildings that have signs spelling out "we will miss you."

From the same class:

You were my best English mistress. (hehehehe, in France, primary school teachers are called Maître/Maîtresse)
When you leave, my heart will hurt. Thank you for everything. 

Thank you for the English. (I just really, really liked this picture.)

BEST THING EVER: THE SONG MY CM1/2s WROTE AND SANG FOR ME. Sung to "We Will Rock You." I'm sorry I didn't record it. So very, very sorry. It was really frickin' adorable.:

(In case it's not legible....:

Mary you're a girl make a good job
Teaching in the class gonna be a big girl some day
Can have a smile on your face
There's no disgrace
We speak English all over the place


We all, we all thank you
We all, we all thank you


Mary you're a young girl, good girl
Being under your feet, we give you our word today
Don't have tears on your face
There's no disgrace
Giving us fun all over the place


We will, we will miss you
We all, we all love you)

Okay. I'm gonna get back to packing and not thinking about how much I'm going to miss all the people here.

OH ALSO, any future assistants that may find themselves here, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions. :)

What a day!

This morning started out... badly. I woke up two hours before intended with stomach pains. Evidently, munching on lettuce before bed was a bad idea. I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure out if things had stopped enough to make it to my last day of classes at the collège. I was dehydrated, a little faint and not all-together. Still, it was going to be my last day and I couldn't miss it. I left my apartment a minute before class and thanked my lucky stars that I live on campus. For the first time ever, my students saw me in a t-shirt with more disheveled than usual hair. I told them I was dressing comme une américaine (sorry USA...).

First surprise of the morning: a teacher had made a mistake and my 4emes became 6emes. Not gonna lie, I loved this change. I love 6emes. Following the adorable 6emes who gave me thank you notes from all the students of their teacher (aaaaawwwwww) was my worst class. Rather my worst half of a class. I dreaded the thirty minutes I spent with the students every week. We made it through with minimal discomfort. I actually had a lot of fun with the second group (I usually do, it's just the first group that was penible). It might have helped that the second group came in with a paper they had all signed. (Granted.... one of the things written on there asked about my sex life.... er.... Well, the nice thing is knowing that this paper came from them and had nothing to do with their teacher.) I had planned on going to lunch with the teachers after that, but my stomach was protesting loudly even to the idea of water so I sat and waited for my last class ever at the collège.

My last class ever was with 5emes. 5eme is a funny age where some kids are still adorable children and other are awkwardly on their way to teenage years and others yet are all-growed-up. I made the hour into a Q&A session whose success was varied but overall positive. It was a good finish.

Second surprise of the morning (er... I guess I should say day. One week in Spain and already I think everything before 3pm is morning): I got called to see the gestionnaire. Whoops, I assumed, I should have told someone when I'd be quitte-ing the apartment. Mais non. It turned out the administrative team at the collège wanted to thank me and give me presents! So sweet! They told me that all the students and teachers had just been so happy with me. It was wonderful to hear as I had at times doubted my really being helpful to the students. I'm also not going to lie, when I was brought in to the principal's office, I thought I was in trouble. My mind is extremely inventive in times like these.

I'm gonna miss my little big monsters.

One more day at the primary school and I'm done. So sad, so sad, so sad. I've got quite the day planned out, however. My little monsters are going to have an English treasure hunt and taste PB&J. I'm pretty excited.

Much love,

MCJ

Back for the goodbyes

It's really weird coming back from vacation only to be saying goodbye constantly to everyone. Spain was fantastic, but I'll probably save talking about it for this summer when it seems like I'll have a looot of free time.

This Monday, I took the TCF exam (test de connaissance du français). I don't think it went as well as I would have liked after dominating my practice exams, but I'm reasonably confident I still got at least a B2 that would allow me to study in France. We'll see... in like two months. The only way I could see it turning out to be less would be if the optional tests weighted into the final score and my scattered responses to the oral expression were completely unsatisfactory. ANYWAY, not worth thinking about now. What will be, will be.

The test, despite its late beginnings, actually finished nearly on time, meaning I was able to make it to work on time. Yeah! Well, technically a minute late, but I had warned I might be much, much later so let's say I was early. What I walked into was my 9-11 year olds' spontaneous sex talk. It went somewhat overtime, so basically I sat in the back of the class for an hour and a half listening to my lil kiddos say what they already knew and learn what actually happens. (They anonymously wrote down what they knew and what questions they had and placed them into boxes at the front. The teacher then went through them all aloud.) These kids were actually pretty savvy. Unlike in America, you didn't hear anyone spouting off nonsense about storks. I was so impressed with how the teacher handled the subject and the class. It probably helps that the subject is not so taboo here (one discussion I overheard at a teacher lunch table here was on different foods' effects on erections). At first, some kids would giggle when hearing zizi or pénis or foufon (I'm not sure of spelling here since it's kiddy slang) or le sexe, but the teacher said "Okay, we're going to hear another word that's going to make you giggle.... Foot. .... Ear. .... Penis. See? It's just a scientific word for the anatomy. It's okay if you say zizi, because we can use words even like zizi to speak about things scientifically."

My kiddos also discussed periods which meant at recess, this conversation occurred:

Girl A: Mary, do you have your period?
Mary: Yes.
Girl B: Duh she has her period, she's not a child.
Girl C: Yeah, but she could have problems and then she wouldn't be able to get pregnant.
Girl A: Would you be sad if you had problems and couldn't have kids?
Mary: Well, yes, perhaps at first, but there are so many children without parents and I think it'd be a good thing to adopt. I could still have kids.
Girls ABC: But still....
Girl B: Have you got an amoureux?
Mary: No.
Girl B: Oh, that'd be nul to not have an amoureux.(N.B. Nul means lame here.)
Mary: hahahaha

Sadly, my next work days were less exciting. I had my last 3emes class (those are the oldest at the collège, freshman in high school aged) and just had a charming bunch of 5emes. We discussed differences between France and the US. (YOU DON'T DO THE BISE???) Apparently I say bisou funnily.

Last night was my last Breton class. The next two Tuesdays are French holidays (oh France...). We've decided to organize a little goodbye soirée which is nice since not everyone was able to make it to the class yesterday.

ELECTIONS!!! My goodness, they have been so much fun to watch. Perhaps I'll write something more about that later, but right now I need to prepare for 5emes, round 2. Wish me luck....

Bisous (said funnily) and hugs (said and executed properly),

MCJ

A million emails

My head is full of things like:

En espérant..., en attendant..., dans l'attente de votre réponse....
je vous prie d'accepter... agréer... l'expression de mes salutations distinguées.

School's out for... easter! I'm the last person in the school, save one. I've got to get in -- or rather OUT-- my last emails and print out last letters and CVs. Phwew.

This last week has been utterly amazing and a constant reminder that I am going to miss this place

And now I've got to leave before the alarm

During winter break, I'm gonna go to Belgium.

And you?

Why yes, the winter break is in February and, yes, it is this soon after Christmas break and, yes, it will also be two weeks long and, yes, I will have another two week break in April.

France is full of win.

So tomorrow morning, in the wee hours, I'll be heading off to Brussels where I hope to drink beer and eat waffles and fries. In the meantime, I'm going to teach another 4eme class about gonna, gotta and wanna. I wanna go home and pack, but I gotta teach this class. JK, I love hanging with the kids. Especially now that I've decided to teach them awkward turtle as a way to signal to me that they don't understand.

Random assistanting tip, if ever you are faced with a class that just won't stop talking, start doing something like the awkward turtle that they don't understand. They will fall dead silent trying to figure out what you're doing. It works like a charm. Also, if it actually has cultural significance, they really enjoy learning about what it is.

Last weekend, the roadtrip that wasn't, was a lot of fun, even though I finally caught the cold that my friends had been passing around. Much ligretto was played, cafés were frequented, Port Louis was visited (again) and a lovely dinner with a visiting Moroccan family was had. I didn't make it to the Super Bowl due to the aforementioned sickness, but my diligence in resting means that I won't be sick in Belgium. YAY MCJ! A sickness that lasted less than a week! I literally can't remember the last time that happened. Thanks mono, you bastard.

I'm hungry.

Big bisous,

MCJ

Il fait fucking froid

Bonjour les amis,

Winter has actually come to Brittany now and it is cold. This weekend it might even snow (extremely rare for this part of Brittany -- it can get cold, but rarely below freezing). While I am excited for snow, I am saddened because this means the roadtrip this weekend was cancelled. Sad faces all around.

It's probably for the best however, as I need to get serious about l'avenir. It also looks like I'll be going to a Super Bowl party (starting at midnight on Sunday, lasting until 4am... oy.). Luckily for me, the primary school is going to the movies on Monday so I won't have work. I just need to make sure I get on a bus home before my students start heading to school. I've taken an early morning bus home with them as they went to school and it was not quite pleasant.

I taught my classes awkward turtle today. This is now what they'll do if they don't understand what I'm saying. I'm actually very okay with that, seeing as I'll have a clue other than their blank faces. It's also a clue that makes us both laugh. Awkward turtles all around. I also had to try and explain awkward. They understood the hand gesture better.

It had better snow, is all I'm sayin'.

Bisous,

MCJ

ps Sorry I never post pictures.

Being sick

Bonjour à tous!

I've been mildly sick for the last couple weeks, until last Thursday when my throat started to hurt. And then this weekend when I started to cough. I should prooooobably go to the doctor, but I have a special case of laziness about these things (see: last May when I had bronchitis for three weeks before going to the doctor or this summer when I had mono for two weeks before seeing the doctor because of the all-body hives that broke out). Being sick, however, has not prevented me from doing things. Except it's gotten me out of a lot of bisous (AH NON NON NON NON ATTENDS! JE SUIS MALADE). (I apologise to S whom I bisoued despite the sickness.)

This weekend was very fun, rather relaxing (all good given my sickness' turn for the very present). Friday, S and I went over to Port Louis where we discovered that entrance to the citadelle was free for us. On the way there, we accidentally took one boat to and from the other side of the river because I thought it made two stops, the second at Port Louis (which is what it does on Sundays, the other time I'd been there). We did not walk into the water and we had to run after our bus because the busses switched numbers at the roundabout where we were waiting. The museums at Port Louis turned out to be rather fabulous. In fact, I have been incredibly impressed by all the Lorient-area museums I've been to. They are very well done. We also had lunch at a really lovely crêperie, where the lady gave us maps of the island and we had shrimp curry crêpes. Delicious.

Saturday, S, D and A came over to Quéven to visit me! My first visitors! Hahaha. Unfortunately, it was raining out which pretty much cancelled out everything I had planned for them. Instead, we bought tea and cookies at my Leclerc and watched music videos in my little room. Afterward, S, A and I went to the movies to see L'art d'aimer. There was some miscommunication, however, and two of us ended up with tickets to Les adoptés. We did not realise this until later, after the movie. We ended up watching Les adoptés and it was so, so good. It's definitely up there as one of my favorite movies I've seen so far.

Sunday, S, A and I went to Le Gandhi, a delicious albeit expensive authentic Indian restaurant. Samosas nom nom nom. I tried a hot sauce which irritated my throat and caused a coughing fit that led to tears. It was apparently very attractive.

Monday was the second stage for the elementary school assistants in Morbihan. I brought along a box of tissues and used them up during the all day stage. I also sneezed and coughed a lot. Luckily, the stage leaders are very very sweet. It was a lot of fun and gave me a lot of ideas for what else to do with my elem kids. Though I was sad to miss out on a day of working with my elem kids by doing this, I was very happy with what I learned.

Today, I'm still sick. Womp. As soon as I walked into the school, the lady at the welcome desk (who was talking with others at the time) said "Mais tu as l'air malade!" Me: Oh yeah, I'm a little sick, but it's not a big deal. The people she was talking with turned out and stared at me. Fun times. Then I went off and ad-libbed a lesson on Christmas with some 6èmes. Luckily, I had a nice long break between that and my second class of the day, so I went back and slept some more, apparently making myself look far less sick. Yay! In fact, at the end of my second class a student (a 4eme) came up and said I was very beautiful. Brown noser. I know I look like shit right now, but merci quand même.

Coming up today: more sleep and Breton class, where I will continue to not bisou people (I was sick enough last week not to, now I apparently look sick enough that no one will want to).

Friendly, germ-free smiles,

MCJ

This post was supposed to be about Fest-Noz

But I failed in transferring the folder with the pictures and videos onto my usb this morning, so Fest-Noz will have to wait. Probably for the best given that I've got a little sickness going on.

Some scattered thoughts on teaching:

Teachers make an incredible difference. Without going into detail, how the teacher treats their class is fairly evident from how the class treats each other and how they treat me. This also tends to translate into how much time they give me to prepare something for the class. On the fly creation of lessons does not go well. When I have time to prepare something (and this really doesn't have to be a lot, it can just be looking up of games and such), the class goes much much better.

Rowdy kids can either be a blessing or a curse. When I've got a super energetic kid, I try to harness their energy and enthusiasm into something productive for the class. Let's be buddies, rowdy kid, work with me! When this works, it's a beautiful thing. Sometimes, however, the student just really doesn't want to do this. They don't give me a chance and frankly I don't see the collège kids enough to establish a rapport that could lead to fixing this.

Primary school kids are incredibly well-behaved. This is in part because there is zero tolerance for misbehavior. Primary school is where the children learn how to be students. Some collège kids decide to casually forget this once they've changed schools, plus there's the fact that they're becoming teens. Oh teens. Les ados. In my CE1 (first grade ish) yesterday, a storm started up outside. The classroom has a wall of windows that look out onto the playground. The teacher noticed that some of the children were distracted. "Oh is this the first time you've seen rain? No. This is unacceptable, you don't stare out the window for rain, for snow, for anything." But then he had all the class stare out the window for a few seconds so they could get their fix. "C'est trop beau!" one child cried. After that, the kids weren't distracted by the rain. Impressive.

Kids that don't try make me sad. Instead of trying and making a mistake, they just go straight to "sais pas" with puffed out cheeks and a little pop sound. Especially when it's something simple like "what's your name?" that all the other students have attempted and succeeded at before them. They're definitely able and the fact that they're not trying now only spells out a future of continued lack of effort. And that makes me sad. One day they'll probably just say "bah je suis nul avec anglais" or "I've just never been good at learning languages." Bullshit. You just turned yourself off to the idea out of fear of messing up.

And because this amused me a lot and hasn't been posted yet...:
Student [rifling through glossary at the back of her English book]: Miss, are you too' 'all?
Me [mightily confused]: too tall? How tall am I? [Gestures height]
Student: Uhhhh non non non uhhhh are you uhhh TAOWN ALL
Me [goes over to glossary, sees what student is pointing at] AHAHAHA
Student was pointing at mairie = town hall, trying to ask me if I was mariée = married.

Nope, I am neither town hall nor married.

Gros bisous,

MCJ

I have no idea

Today, I was working on lessons at the collège when one of the teachers came up to me. You need to go see l'intendance right now! There's a man coming to look at your heater. Oh... okay? I haven't tried to use it yet so I have no idea if there's something wrong with it or why this man is coming.... It's kind of like when someone came to put in a telephone line and then it was cut because I really don't need a fixed line.... Bizarre bizarre bizarre.
So I meet the guy and we go to chez moi. It turns out I do not have a heater, I have four. For my one room apartment. I have no idea. It's not like we're in a super cold place... it's supposed to rarely go below freezing. So from best I could understand (not because of the French but because no one really seemed to know), I'm getting a new heater so I don't use the water-based heaters as that would be using water from my neighbors' and I'd be adding to their bill. And then the electric heaters are apparently in crap places where they wouldn't help me at all... so I'm getting a fifth. For my one room. Five heaters. I have no idea.

Good stuff: http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving
Also, looking at Thanksgiving food when hungry is a terrible idea.... So hungry now.

I have Breton class tonight for the first time in a few weeks... wish me good luck, I haven't been studying and there's going to be "la presse" there tonight.

In which I ramble... a lot

I forgot to say a lot of things in this video... but I managed to fill up over ten minutes anyway. Sorry not sorry. I'm alive and slowly making a few French amis. It has become time where I need to stop acting like a newb in front of the actual teachers.

Classroom things:
- Currently preparing a lesson on Thanksgiving for the 6èmes (the littlests at the collège)
- Had a semi successful failure at teaching family words to one of the primaire classes. In class, it didn't seem like they were getting what I was teaching at all... but then they remembered everything today! I was amazed!.. and very, very happy. *
- Learned another baller Hello/What's your name song. I'm so cool.
- May have been exposed to a French form of pig latin.... the girl asked me if I spoke, what sounded to me like, Javanese. Uh... non. I am the English assistant. Then she started going off in something that her friend could understand. They looked pretty typically French, hence my doubts.

The Bordeaux pics will (or won't) be posted eventually. It was raining most of the time so they're not quite as jolie as I'd like.

I am now a card carrying member of the Leclerc loyalty family. It's like having a Kroger plus card only I'm not sure when the savings start to kick in.... Ah la France.

Massive bisous,

MCJ

I have a French social security number

Working at the primaire is definitely making me rethink what age group I want to work with after France. I am so so in love with my primaire kids. Of course, here in France, I'm exotic and fun and only see them twice a week. As a speech language pathologist, my role would be somewhat different. It's something I'm definitely thinking about right now heading into application time.

Today was day 2 of teaching Halloween. It was a definite homerun. The six box game took the kids a bit of time to figure out, but hopefully later on they will remember and it will be a bit easier. We shall see. "Lazy" bingo was a success, like last time. Yesterday, I was at the collège and it went like -- pardon my French -- complete merde. Well, the first class anyway, the others were just meh. Yesterday, I worked with a class that has specifically been identified as learners with challenges. I won't describe it too much more because I don't want to inadvertantly harm any of my students or the school. If you work in a French school, you probably know who I'm talking about. Anyway, before yesterday morning I did not know that that would be the class that I'd be working with. I took half the class on my own. It went... okay? ish from my perspective. They stayed calm and in their seats. The only loud outbursts were from one that possibly can't help it. Anyway one of the students had forgotten something and had to go to the administrative offices to find it. I allowed a different student to go get it. Evidently, some of the things that had been muttered in the back of the class where less than savory and the student told one of the administrators. So, said administrator came and gave a talking-to to the class (NOT yelling and it was a very productive/positive-oriented talking-to). The final point here is that I will not be left alone with such a class again. A couple of the students in that class, I really feel for. For various reasons that I don't know, they are in that class and the unfortunate truth is that their peers won't allow them to get their full potential. Yesterday made me really sad.

The other classes yesterday were with older students. It seems that the older the students get, the less willing they are to go out on a limb and attempt English. I was asked to teach about cliques. I've got to say I don't know a whole lot about them, but I managed to put together a lesson on them. Unfortunately, the projector in my room didn't work so I wasn't able to show them Jena Lee's US Boy to start off the discussion. Luckily, enough of the classes watch/have seen Glee/High School Musical/Mean Girls so they had some sort of base to go on. I taught the word hierarchy. I think I also have made them all think that American high schools are the worst.... I tried, but I'm not sure I managed to convey that they were exaggerations of reality and not necessarily typical.

Today, however, today was just awesome. One of the teachers at the primaire had been an assistant in the UK and he said that I did a great job. It also just felt really right and good. Before leaving for France, a veteran teacher I know told me the secret to teaching children is to always have enough material for an entire class. I've been striving for that. I try to have a few activities during the time I have with them and switch them up enough that kids don't get bored. We'll see how it goes after Toussaint when I'm talking about non-Halloween words. Monsters are really easy to imitate, mothers less so (hi Mom!). Oh man... we are going to have a field day with the interdental fricatives oh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Muzzer, fahzzer, bruhzzer and then of course we shall return to the problem of the short i with seeeester.

Also today, one of my students (now not so secretly my favorite) gave me Breton caramels (see start of post). My heart melted oh so so cute. I wanted to give him some extra stickers in return but unfortunately (or fortunately?) the students have a VERY strong sense of justice. If you give a sticker/candy/whatever to one student, you sure as hell had better have enough for all of them. I gave out candy corn during all of the Halloween classes. In the first one, I accidentally missed one kid and he was about near tears. Today, seeing as I had only used three quarters of one of my two bags, I decided to tell one class to take two candy corns. This was as they were exiting for recess. The kids from the prior class got wind that they were getting more candy corns and I began to hear little exclamations "mais POURQUOI are they getting TWO? We only got one!!" I decided to be gentille and give them more, because really I had more and it's better to give them away. I have discovered that I actually like candy corn. I never did before. Perhaps it's nostalgia?

I tried to get the kids to actually apply "I'm scared." The kids understand It's raining/it's NOT raining, but they haven't begun extending that to I'm happy/I'm NOT happy. So I put up the pictures of the monster/witch/ghost and also the fireman/mailman and cowboy. And started with an example, "When I (point to self) see (point to eye) a monster (point at monster), I'm scared (mime being scared). When you (point to student/s) see (point to eye) a monster (point at monster), how are YOU? (put up hands in questioning position)" I did this a few times with the witch and ghost. The students began to catch on, then I tried the fireman. It took a bit of time, but eventually they figured out "I'm not scared." We'll see how much they remember after Toussaint.

The primaire school is set up around a courtyard. Most of the buildings are one story (all of the classrooms are on the groundlevel) and you can pass from one classroom to the next in one long stretch (for most of the classes, the itty bitties are in another building not connected). So when I walk from one class to the next or to go to the teacher lounge during recess/before class, the little kids will see me and follow me outside. Then I'll hear "Maryyyyyyyyyyyyyy Maryyyyyyyyyy Maaaaary HELLOOOOOOOOO Maryyyyyyyyy!"

Today during the recess, one of the teachers taught me how to laminate so I could protect the drawings I've made for the classes. I was working at this when I realized that it had suddenly gotten very quiet. Whoops. Recess was over and I was late. Heureusement, it was not a problème.

Basically, right now, I'm really enjoying working with the primaire and thinking of ways to help them with English. It's a fun little puzzle. AND I feel really proud because a couple of the students in the primaire that have studying problems are really getting my lessons. When they figure out/remember things before the rest of the class that melts my heart as much as getting the caramels. French kiddos ftw.

Bisous,

MCJ

I'm very very very very vewy vewy vewy 'appeeee

Teacher: How are you?
Students: I'm very happy.
I'm so-so.
I'm cold!
I'm sick!
I'm fine.
I'm really happy!
I'm very very happy.
Student Z: I'm very very very very very ... vewy happy!

Today was a primaire day. I love primary school days, the children are so 'appy and enthusiastic. I met two new classes today (a CM1 and a CE1) and met up with the class that I did professions with last time.

The first class, a CM1 went fine. I hadn't really hit my stride yet. My CE2 (the class I taught professions last week) was fantastic. For today, I planned and prepared materials on Halloween (as this week is the last I'll have before Halloween... next week is vacation, hollaaaa). The tricky thing with the primaires is that they can really only learn a few words at a time. By that, I mean six is pushing it. So for today, I chose: scared (as a new option to How are you?), witch, ghost, monster, pumpkin and CANDY (or, alternatively sweets... which I think is how I will say it Thursday).

After the English class ritual of How are you?/What's your name?/What's the weather like? I reviewed the professions from last week. Then I busted out the awesome drawings I made of the aforementioned six. I've taken to trying to portray sounds with my whole body. I think it's only semi-effective in improving accents, but it's hella-effective in making kids happy. Cowboy now has a jump (like a boiiiiing) at the end. We shall see if it helps them remember on Thursday.... For with I did a scrunched up face and tried to bare my teeth a bit to show them how to make the short I sound instead of weeeetch. Pumpkin gets two jumps for its two plosive ps! Scared comes along with mimed biting of hands and exagerrated s's. In presenting the words, I tried to jump back to the prior ones fairly frequently. Otherwise, they really don't remember.



After that, I drew a super basic Halloween story. And pointed to the objects/ideas they had just learned. What's that? Yes, PumPkin! very good! I wanted to show with the story how the kids go up in costumes to get candy without resorting to explain it in French. The first week at primaire, I spoke a lot in French. From here on out, I'm trying very hard not to. This will be a lot easier once they've learned how to play the different games I'll be using.

Speaking of games....


For the CM1s today I tried the game jeu à six caisses. The students are in pairs with the same six images. One student arranges their images from 1 to 6, the other asks "Number 1, what are you?" I made mine for if we had extra time I could quiz them on numbers. How many eyes (points to eyes) does the monster have? *I* have two eyes. How many does the mooonster have?

With my CE2s (who studied professions last week), I brought together the professions vocab and some of their new words from today for a modified bingo. Each kid chose three images and then I called out different images. The first to have all three called wins! Then they can either be they one to call out professions or whatever you like. Each student got one candy corn. I would have given them more but they all only took one. Mysterious kids. They were also all super well behaved and waited until the end of class to have their one candy corn. They also each got at least one sticker. Some that responded well got even more. Whoawhoaa. Even more mysterious, the kids *liked* the candy corn. I'm glad I brought it. Haha

My last class of the day was with the CE1s. This was literally their first English class EVER. Luckily, the extremely talented teacher did the lesson that day and I was more of a prop. It was so great to watch. Unfortunately, I've got to get off the computer/leave the school now, but I'll update more on that in the future.

Coming soon... la plage. Ah, the beach.