Teaching!

Bonjour!

Yes, I know it's been far too long, my friends!  I've been so busy this week, I hardly had time to breathe--ok, maybe not, but you get the idea :)

I have 14 classes each week, which means a lot of preparation, and a lot of energy.  Did I mention it's thoroughly rewarding?  The kids love me--before school starts, I hang out in the school yard and usually a group forms around where I'm standing, and they all begin to pester me with questions and correct my grammar :)

Today I taught "les petits"--a group of the youngest (probably 1st grade by American comparison).  I gave them American flags to color and they kept asking me what color stripe came next, red or white, or if they could color the stars green and yellow.  They didn't know much about geography or even about France--but at least they knew that les Etats-Unis is really far away :)

As much as I love working with kids, the one drawback is that they are always sick.  Now, me too.  I think I've been staying up too late doing lesson plans...and whatever...I knew I was going to get sick.  It's inevitable.  One lesson I learned from Study Abroad is that everyone gets sick--better get it over with quickly before it mutates into the Black Death.  I don't begrudge the kids though--it's kinda cute to see about half the class get up every five minutes for a tissue at one end of the room and clamber over backpacks to throw it in the trash at the other side of the room until la maîtresse starts yelling at them--yep, they yell over here.  At first I was surprised, but the kids don't seem to mind--so I guess they've become used to it.

For now I'm just going to lay low, get better, and starting thinking about what I'm teaching next week.  I'm hoping I'll start a rhythm and a pattern for re-using some of the materials (did I neglect to mention that each class is DIFFERENT?)  So far, so good.

By the way, I saw a film recently: Asterix et Obélix--a traditional French comic turned into a live-action film.  Totally hilarious and I was able to understand big chunks of it (not perfectly, by any means). 

Ok, back to my tea!

Cheers!