saying goodbye

Today was my last day at Arion, and although the past week has been filled with annoying mundane tasks, I have to say that I am going to miss the girls that I work with. They took me out for lunch yesterday to celebrate (or maybe mourn?) the end of my internship, so today I bought them cupcakes to thank them for all their help this summer. They have talked about visiting me in Nashville, and I hope they do--it's been really nice to get to know them, and I hope that I will be able to stay in touch with them.

The orchestra gave me two Arion CDs as a thank you for all my work, and they all said very nice things about how great I have been, how much I helped them, and how sad they are to say good-bye to me. It's always nice to know that you've done a good job, especially in a world that is so foreign to me--seriously...what do I know about non-profit arts organizations?

The other highlight of my day is that James swiped 20 Montreal phonebooks for me that had been sitting on a stoop for a few days. I'm excited to use them for simple reading activities in my lower level classes--I might even start every day off with a little phone book challenge--so awesome!

i love the freshies.

Today was my first day teaching without my district supervisor around...which I was honestly looking forward to because it meant it would actually feel like my own classroom...but I found out how much kids will try to take advantage of someone who appears to be kind and understanding. I had everyone from the shyest freshmen to the big burly football player seniors lying to me today, and I seriously wondered if I looked that dumb, seriously, like I'm going to say, "Sure, you can use your notes and your books during your test....you can leave class ten minutes early to go smoke pot in the parking lot...of course you can sit by the kid that you've been separated from all year long because all you do is talk about getting drunk on the weekends..." PLEASE!

But really, it was a pretty good day, I had lots of students come up to me at the end of my classes and tell me how much they're enjoying my lessons...even when I give them bad grades they like me, so I must be doing something right. Tomorrow is my first visit from my university supervisor, and I'm so ready for it. He decided to come for my best class, where all the kids actually pay attention and participate, so I'm hoping for a great class period!

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!)

judgment day looms ahead...

I will be leaving the burg in about an hour to head to Grinnell, Iowa for my final interview with the Teach for America folks. Some moments I feel so prepared and ready for this challenge, while others I wonder how I'm going to make it through the day. I just spent an hour re-reading all the pre-reading materials, and finding some more articles on the Internet to heighten my understanding of the achievement gap and standards-based testing, so hopefully I will have enough fodder to spout out during the group discussion. I haven't practiced my five minute lesson, but maybe I can do that on the drive up.

On a different note, check out my first week of student teaching:
2/12 Regular day, meeting everyone around the school
2/13 Snow day
2/14 Snow day
2/15 Day off to attend interview
2/16 Teacher Inservice Day
2/19 President's Day--No school

So I'm gonna have to say that week 1 went pretty well :). I'm about halfway through planning my unit for French I, for some reason it takes me forever...probably because I'm over-planning...but hey, that's what I do. Anyway, I'll talk to you all on the other side...Teach for America here I come!

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.