Teaching, Training, Terrible Teams, Thanksgiving, and Terminales

The week after I went to Nice was my very first “normal” week of class with my complete schedule.  I’ve already said this, but I can see that teaching is going to be a definite challenge!  I’m quite sure that I don’t want to be a French (or English) teacher as a career, but I’m looking forward to learning as I go.  Some highlights from the time: teaching the RLHS fight song to groups of students and some interesting discussions about our Homecoming customs.  It brings back fond memories to hear so many people singing the “Blue and Go-o-old, Hey!” but also creates new memories… I don’t recall my peers ever having a problem remembering if it was “march ON to victory” or “march AND to victory” or turning “quite a sight” into a tongue twister J  Everyone enjoyed the Powderpuff tradition and there were quite a few students intrigued by the ideas of car smashing, which I understand is not necessarily a universal tradition.  I had a ton of fun preparing for lessons and finding pictures of my class members and I decked out for class colors.  Our French 5 class was particularly intimidating!  I wonder what ever happened to Coco, the Belgian foreign exchange student… Anyone with info, feel free to contact me J 

French 5- Fall of 2005

Cirino in fine form :)

We had one more day of “formation” (aka training) in Avignon on the 17^th.  To be honest, I don’t think it was that helpful for us, but it was  nice to see the other assistants in the area again.  I got to meet Gavin for the first time- a Canadian girl never showed up to take her position in Orange/Bollene and Gavin came in from Ireland to fill the spot.  On the 20^th, I joined Caitlin, Laura, Catia, Belina, and Gavin in Orange to watch Cirino (my Sicilian friend) perform in a play.  I didn’t understand every single word of the play, but it was made up of a bunch of different short little skits and they were pretty hilarious for the most part.  We especially loved watching the parts that Cirino was in.  He did a great job!  It’s so much fun to spend time with such a diverse group of people- Italian, Sicilian, Spanish, British, Irish, German, and American cultures all blended together.  It’s my opinion that you can learn so much from others if you just keep an open mind! 

Smoke on the field

I had to keep an open mind the following day when I went to my first every European soccer game.  Arles-Avignon, “our” local team, is pretty terrible.  I’m not sure if they’ve won a single game yet this year.  They were playing Bordeaux, and there weren’t many Bordeaux fans, but the ones that were there were hard-core!  I have no idea how they did it, but every time they were excited, they lit fires and had fireworks.  At one point, I couldn’t even see the field because there was so much smoke from the fires the fans had set up.  It’s also a very different feel than sporting events in the US.  Rivalry is one thing, and wanting to literally rip out the other team’s throat is another.  At one point, about 30 security guards had to physically restrain Arles-Avignon fans who were trying to cross a section of seats (purposely left empty to prevent fights) to physically assault the Bordeaux fans.  My host dad told me that the people who come to soccer games are people who love to shout and get in fights- hence why the three other girls and I were definitely the minority in a crowd that was approximately 90% male.  In case you’re wondering, Arles-Avignon lost.  Big surprise!  But quite the cultural experience. 

Speaking of cultures… I know few festivities that remind me of the good ol’ US of A than Thanksgiving.  So… Thanksgiving in France.  I thought that since I’m living in Europe, my Thanksgiving experience would be less than exciting.  Guess that goes to show what I know!!  (Not much, in case that wasn’t clear…) I actually ended up fully celebrating the holiday not one, not two, but THREE times!  Wednesday night I was in Avignon with American, British, and Spanish assistants and a scattering of ‘real’ French friends that people have made, Thursday I was with the Patris family and the IAU students in Avignon, and Saturday, I was in Orange with friends from all over- mostly the same crew that was at Cirino’s play the week before.  It was a challenge to find all of the necessary ingredients, but I think we were pretty successful!  I had brought back a can of pumpkin from the states, which I used to make pumpkin bread- yum J

I taught Thanksgiving lessons in all of my classes, varying the difficulty and vocabulary based on the level of the students.  There are a lot of things that can be done with Thanksgiving lessons and a lot more complexity than the original “Pilgrims and Indians” version that we learned when we were little, but I stuck with just the basics, showing students short clips from “The Mayflower Voyagers” which features Charlie Brown and company in the roles of the Pilgrims.  It was so fascinating for me to see what students thought Thanksgiving was!  I heard everything from “it’s celebrated in America in fall and you give thanks with family and friends and eat turkey” (pretty good!) to “it’s celebrated in the UK after December 25 and you give each other more gifts” which is not exactly the holiday that I was thinking of…  Overall, students thought that they would like to taste all of the different types of food that we eat for the holiday.  Can’t say I blame them! 

The spread at Wednesday night's potluck Thanksgiving

As far as teaching goes, I feel like I’m finally starting to get into some sort of rhythm- just in time for the Christmas vacation… ah well.  Better late than never?  I’ve almost met all of my students at this point!  Teaching during the week before Christmas break wasn’t too stressful- I ended up going to the movies with one of the Terminale classes and with other groups, we talked about Christmas traditions, what gifts students hope to receive, and where/how they’re going to celebrate the holiday, It’s tough that I see some of my students so infrequently.  I really do think that the extra practice in talking with a native speaker is helpful, but it’s hard for me to see much of a difference when I only see some of the students about once every 8 weeks.  I think that January is kind of a turning point in many of the classes, so hopefully I’ll have more direction from both the students and the teachers as far as what they want from me so that I can best prepare them for the bac or any other exams that they may have to take. 

A plus!