chad's visit

On Thursday James’s friend Chad flew in a for a long weekend visiting in Montreal. It was quite a godsend, because he planned it so that he could watch Jeter while we were gone for a weekend of baseball games in Toronto. So Thursday night we took him around town and got some burgers and poutine at La Banquise, and stopped by the St. Sulpice Bar in the Latin Quarter. That night I also had a major milestone in my usage of French—I argued myself a discount while buying toothpaste at a pharmacy. They tried to overcharge me 50 cents (outrageous, I know!), but I caught their mistake and was eventually proven to be the victor. James and Chad thought I was pretty ridiculous for causing such a scene over 50 cents, but I was just trying to be treated fairly!

Friday after I got home from work we headed to Percival Molson Stadium at McGill University to catch a CFL game between the Montreal Alouettes and the Toronto Argonauts. It was a packed house for the game, as they were honoring one of their great receivers, BYU grad Ben Cahoon, at halftime, and the Alouettes’ QB was one TD pass away from breaking the CFL career record. He did indeed break the record right in front of us (we sat in the endzone), and it was pretty exciting even though I had never even heard of Victor Calvillo before J. Tickets were pretty reasonably priced ($28 a piece) and although the food was not (typical of stadiums) we still really enjoyed ourselves. (And the Alouettes won, 40-14.)

hmm.

I've officially taken over all the French classes at WHS for the next two months! It's kind of crazy, the kids seem genuinely happy (so far, haha) and I actually had the surprise of my life today when I announced in one of my French one classes that I was going to be speaking uniquely in French (crap, that's French syntax right there...but I'm not changing it) and I had one girl say, "Yes! This will be great! I'm going to learn so much!" and a boy say, "Sweet! It will be fun to see if you can do it." Oh boy oh boy, can I do it :). It was nice to get a class that didn't meet that announcement with looks of sheer horrors and sighs of disgust...which I'm sure is what I'll get tomorrow when I announce to all those French II slackers what I expect of them.

But so far the teaching has gone well, I spend hours every night brainstorming ways to make things interesting for these kids, and they seem to appreciate the effort...mostly because that extra effort usually results in me thinking up elaborate games for them to play...EDUCATIONAL games, but they forget about that part of it.

But this brings me to sort of a crossroads...I love teaching, I really really do...so maybe I should just jump into the real world and get a job? I definitely could do it, and do it well, I've had lots of diverse teaching experiences to learn from, and the teacher whose classes I'm taking over has even mentioned that if I want to stay in the area she would help me put together an argument for why the district should hire a second French teacher...I could start a French program at the middle school and teach a section of French I and French II, which are the levels I enjoy the most anyway because they're so high-energy. Bah, who knows, I'm just rambling now...but it is something to think about. I started an application with the Clark County SD in Las Vegas since I saw on the USREAP.NET site that they are looking for a French teacher. So now I guess it's just time for me to be patient and see where God leads me.

allez, allez, allez...

So today was my first real teaching experience of student teaching. In French III I got to sit with some kids and talk them through the corrections they needed to make on their introductions...I think that is seriously one of my favorite things to do, because it's easy for me. For some reason I can read a paragraph in horrible French but find a way to change a few little things and make it perfect...thereby not totally making an idiot out of the student by changing their entire work. Then in French IV I got to do the oral part of their exam, meaning I had them each read a couple sentences from Le Petit Prince, then I asked them questions about the meaning and symbolism in the book. Two of my students did really well, but the other two were super nervous for some reason and it showed. Then French I, White 4, my favorites....I got to do an activity that had been brewing in my mind for the past week, and my supervising teacher loved it and wants me to do it with her other classes tomorrow. I have a feeling these weeks are going to fly by, at least I hope they do, I love these kids but I'm just really anxious to have a real job, my own students, and hopefully be doing it with Teach for America (one week til the news comes!)

Day one...check.

Well, I am still alive. My first day was pretty uneventful, it was the first time I'd seen the French III and IV kids for a long time, and it was kind of fun to see the looks on their faces when Mme. Wilson told them I would be teaching them for the rest of the semester :). I think French III will end up being one of my favorite classes because the kids are actually excited about the language, and they're pretty smart as well. There are a couple of aspiring French teachers in the bunch, so they are definitely hoping to learn a little from me, which is a sweet thought!

I also got to interview a bunch of random people around the school, which was a good way to meet some people that I'm sure I will be asking for help from in the near future. The day ended with my favorite class, White 4 French I, and I got to spend half an hour just running around the room fielding questions from the kiddos. I love that the slackers who really don't even want to be in the class are comfortable asking me for help and laugh at my jokes...pretty much I just enjoy seeing all those kids' smiling faces every other day. I love teaching.

Now it's time to refuel for another day...Red Day, with two French I classes and one doozy of a French II class...all in a row. I love having a routine again, even though it doesn't include working out with Megan everyday :(.

The pre-first day post.

The day has finally [almost] arrived...February 12, the first day of student teaching. I wish that my methods class had required more of me, but once again, I prove to be the exception to the rule. As a French Education major, I have made it through my entire college career without ever being explicitly taught how to teach a single French lesson or unit. I have no fellow classmates to steal ideas from, because all my classmates are Spanish teachers who honestly seem pretty incompetent and rely on Selena and Dora the Explorer for cultural lessons.

But I start tomorrow teaching one of the most important verbs to a French I class of 25 students. I have some tricks up my sleeve, some ideas brewing, but it's all a matter of seeing how much my supervisor will let me break away from what she normally does. So these first few weeks will probably be rather interesting, as I hope to get clearance for not using the textbook exams or worksheets in order to make my instruction more contextualized and have my assessments reflect what the students are actually learning. I anticipate lots of grumpy students at the beginning, but hopefully my never-ending positivity can aid them in getting past the "this isn't how Mme. Wilson does it" phase. Details to come, stay tuned.

rrrrrrrrr

So I'm sitting here between classes trying to find something productive to do...and I end up browsing some random blogrings. For some reason this one kid's little summary of himself really stuck out...it was something like, "Hey, I'm 13 years old and single (I know it sucks)....blah blah blah."

Ok, this kid is 13 years old, and already complaining about not having a girlfriend. Does he really feel like he's a complete loser because he's 13 and is still single? I feel like I should clue him in on how dumb it is to have "boyfriends/girlfriends" when you're 13. But then I'd probably just be sounding like his mom, huh?

My happy moment for the day: today in my French phonetics class, my professor had me read this paragraph, and when I was done he said, "MALLORY! Felicitations! Tes "R"s sont parfaits! Je suis vraiment fier!" which translates into, "MALLORY! Congratulations! Your Rs are perfect! I am so very proud!" He had been trying for about a year now to get me to have that little phlegmy sound when I pronounce my Rs so I could sound like a real French person, and I had been resisting forever, because I like my American accent, and because it requires more brainpower to phlegm up the Rs. But today, they just came out, so maybe I'm learning something in this class after all! (I sure did just realize that that paragraph will be utterly meaningless to most people, but oh well, it's my moment of glory, deal with it .)

My second happy moment of the day: I know how to spell phlegm.