mardi gras!

Last year on Mardi Gras...I was in beautiful Nice, on the French Riviera, buying sunglasses, taking a day trip to Monaco, and celebrating the end of Carnaval by spraying strangers in the face with silly string and watching fireworks over the Mediterranean Sea, going to some Nordic pub, running into Dan the Australian with the dirty mouth, meeting aerospace engineers from Rochester, NY (translation:GEEKS), and consuming the best kebabs known to mankind.

This year...I will be in surprisingly warm Warrensburg, MO, teaching high schoolers, writing lesson plans, eating dinner by myself, and going to bed before midnight.

Ok, I will admit it, there ARE times when I miss France.

some blagues for this blog

Ice Ice Baby. Do do do do do do do.

the interview reflection...because teachers love to reflect

Well it happened, and it's finally out of my hands and in those of the big wigs at Teach for America. I know, the logical question is..."HOW DID IT GO?!?" And here is where you will hopefully find your answer, in the most boring chronological recap of the day's events.

8:20-Sandra and I go to the caf for breakfast, and WOW does Grinnell College have an awesome new dining hall. It's swank, and I got in for free. Talk about starting the day off well!

9:00-I enter a room with 12 other applicants, and two guys who are Houston Corps alumni. Time for some descriptive language, so you can skip this part if you really don't care what everyone looked like and my first impressions of them all. The first person to introduce themselves, Willa, a FRENCH major from Grinnell. Holy crap, fear shot through my body, she would KNOW if I was making things up and by the looks of her, she would probably correct me during my lesson to embarass the crap out of me. Joy. Then we have Luis, a short math major from Grinnell; Shannon, a red-headed Spanish Ed. major from Knox College; Erin, an English ed. major from ISU and probably the most down-to-earth one (she cracked jokes with me to help ease the tension in the room); Michael, poli sci, student body president at Grinnell; Bethany, Spanish or English or something education from...I don't remember where, probably Grinnell; Terrina, English ed from Grinnell; Dave, another redhead, tall skinny history dude from Creighton; Elyssa, from UNL, she was public relations or something, Kathleen, Grinnell girl; Kate, ANOTHER redhead...from Grinnell, and Jenny, a peppy girl from Drake. Is that 13? YES. Anyway, they were all dressed in black suits, and we seriously looked like a group of lawyers or something. The two TFA interviewers were honestly, kind of awkward. The one guy, my interviewer, there was something a little off about him, he was kind of creeping me out because he stared at me a lot when he was talking, and didn't show much emotion. The other guy was, umm, how do I say this in a PC way...flamboyant? Yeah, you can figure out what that entails.

9:10-10:30ish- Sample teaching lessons. This was the scary part...first when we signed up for the order, it was like a stampede of wild cattle descending on an open plain...ridiculous. And me being me, I'm not incredibly pushy, so although I wanted to go first, I ended up going last. Oh well, it just gave me an hour and a half to freak myself out and think about how great everyone else was doing. HAHAHA, JUST KIDDING! The lessons for the most part were pretty....rough. I guess I have learned something about teaching in the past four years, because I kept thinking about all the things they were doing wrong...especially when it came time for the Willa's French lesson. First of all, I was distracted and annoyed by all of her mistakes in French, and the fact that she spoke it at the pace of a soft-shelled tortoise (I'm assuming they're as slow as turtles), plus her pronunciation...and the fact that she took five minutes to teach us the numbers 1-5...and people still couldn't get it. She went 2nd, probably hoping to set the bar high for me, but I definitely cleared it. I was able to get the entire class to understand how to ask and answer questions related to people's names and how they're doing...haha...small talk, oddly enough. I was the only one who didn't stay planted in front of the dry erase board for the whole five minutes, which in retrospect, I think is really important although I didn't move around the room consciously...I think it does a better job of engaging the "students".

10:30-11:00-Group activity. Joy. Trying to make my voice be heard in a group with 6 other pushy candidates. The first few minutes I was silent, then I gave myself a little pep talk, and jumped in, interrupting people just to show some engagement. Luckily for me, Luis was my buddy and would ask the others to pause so that he could know more about my thoughts...and I was able to through out two major strategies for improving teacher morale and collaboration in under-performing schools.

11:00-11:30 Learn all about Teach for America...hear inspirational stories....etc.

11:30-12:00-Individual problem solving activity. We were given a scenario where there was a mayor who was hoping to improve achievement in her urban school district, a sheet of data presenting different factors affecting achievement in a wide range of schools...and then we had to analyze the data, and create a proposal as to what the mayor should do to address the education issues in the district. I love charts, numbers, percentages, so this was a breeze...but I assume it would be for anyone in the room, so probably not much ground gained in that one.

LUNCH

1:30- Personal Interview. This is the part everyone wants to know the most about, but I remember the least about. They asked me questions about the biggest challenges I've faced, my leadership experience, how I deal with conflicts, how I organize myself, whether I have ever resigned from a commitment, what factors I would consider in setting goals for my students, what I anticipate being a TfA corps member would be like, whether I am physically and emotionally strong enough to endure the two year commitment, how I know that I am an effective leader, and finally I had to participate in a short role-playing activity where I was a third grade teacher wanting to teach a unit on weather while my principal wanted me to start test-prep activities with my students. And I think I won the principal over :). There were a couple of questions that stumped me, mostly because all I could think about were all the variables involved...such as in setting goals for my students, it's going to depend on so many things, what grade, subject, location, level of parental support...so much to consider. Anyway, that was the end of the day...I drove back to Missouri, caught the prayer at the end of life group...and went back to lovely room 107.

la fin. merci. :)

small talk.

Lately I've been contemplating the phenomenon of small talk. It's one of those things that I think about a lot for some reason, and I'm always astounded by how often it occurs and how utterly useless it is if all you get is the "small talk". I mean, if you don't care to really hear how a person's day is going or what they're up to, why do you ask "how are you?" or "what's up?" Why can't we just be satisfied with a simple greeting of hey, hello, hi, whatever you want and move on instead of asking questions for which we don't really want truthful answers? Personally, when I ask someone how they are, I want more than just "I'm fine, how are you?" WHY are you fine? What makes this a fine day? Something must be happening for it to not be a horrible day, or maybe it is, and they just don't want to admit to it because horrible has THREE TIMES as many syllables as fine.

I guess it's just one of those little things that will always kind of irk me, not that I'm going to refuse to engage myself in small talk because of it, but I definitely always try to make my small talk as big as possible...which usually means talking really fast before the other person realizes I'm breaking the small talk code.

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.

yaaaaaaay flashcards.

Because I'm insane, I just spent oh...3 hours making 30 beautiful flashcards for foods for my French I class. I hopped on the Google image search, found pictures that I could draw myself, and drew them in black Sharpie, then colored them with my crayons. Then when that was all done, I put magnets on the back of them so when it comes time for me to teach all I have to do is slam them up on the board and hear the French resounding from my students :). Ok, I know this is weird, but they are really cool. I might use them to decorate my apartment when I'm done with them...who doesn't like a nice Crayola-fied picture of sausages? Huh? Huh? That's right.

And if those kids even try to pretend that they can't tell the difference between my green beans and peas...they are going down.

i like that google is taking over the world.

I think it's pretty cool that my blogger and gmail accounts have merged into one easy to use interface...it really makes this blogging thing a lot easier, and now that I've given in and started using the widgets on Google's homepage, well, I'm hooked.

wooty woot woot.

woot.

a standards-lovin' sorta day

So as much as I have complained in the past about standards, GLE's, performance indicators, blah blah blah, but really....today while I was working on my unit plan, being able to list all the standards and GLE's that I knew my unit was going to cover gave me a strange sense of satisfaction. I like being held accountable, even if it requires more work, because...well...I don't really know why. It's like my own little validation that I'm doing things right if I can abide by these guidelines, which obviously means nothing if I can't actually put them into practice, but it's nice to have that little thumbs-up from DESE staring at me from the top of my lesson plans.

Hmm, let's see...what else can I reveal...oh...even though I put Washington, DC as my #1 regional preference on Teach for America, I think I really do want to go to New Orleans. I honestly can't think of any GOOD reason why I shouldn't be placed there. My only reasons for wanting to go somewhere else are purely selfish, as in...I want to be close to people I know, I want to live on an island, I want to live in a city that's alive with activity and excitement and prosperity, I want to be in Las Vegas and make it as a showgirl (still reading? did i get ya with that one?)...whereas the reasons for me going to New Orleans seem far less superficial. Did you know that there are close to 200 teaching vacancies in NO, which means over 5,000 children are without a teacher...and this was this past fall, meaning that more and more families are becoming equipped to move back to New Orleans, which translates into more students to teach, without a proportionate number of teachers arriving with them. And when you look at the history of New Orleans, the French traditions that run so deep...I feel like it's pretty much screaming out my name. Which is fine with me, as long as they can pronounce it correctly :).

my dream.

http://www.teachforamerica.org

let me know what you think, k?

a lesson learned...i guess?

So this past week, I got to experience something entirely new. In my Secondary Teaching class, we were given an assignment to write a differentiated instruction lesson plan, which is just fancy words to concisely say that I had to create a lesson, and then "differentiate" it, or write three to four different ways that I could teach the lesson. Let it be known, that at first, i was severely afraid of this assignment. But one Saturday morning, I sat down and cranked out one gem of a lesson plan...19th century French art, literature, science, and music...in one fell swoop. So I turn it in, and joy is mine....for a week...

The next week, I show up to class, and get my assignment back. I look at the rubric and notice a string of 4s down the sheet (everything's out of 4 points)...but then they mysteriously stop...as if my professor forgot to finish grading it. I look through my lesson plan, and see scrawled on one page: Mallory, Please see me. Hmm...

So I meet with my professor and she proceeds to say, "First of all, this is an excellent lesson plan...very well done. But I do have one concern. Did you write this yourself?"

BAM!

Smack in the face, no? Sure felt like it. The resolution of this problem was that I pleaded my case, and she closed the conversation by saying, "Well, I guess I have to give you the benefit of the doubt." How kind, I'm glad I have the appearance of such an immoral and dishonest individual. Really...does she honestly think I would throw away 16 years of academic integrity just for her class? It's not that hard, no matter what those math majors say....seriously.

Anyway, that's my lesson for the week...I don't really know what I learned from it...except that I should maybe not be such a good student, because it gets me into trouble.

the excitement is building....!!!

Tomorrow I get to see two of my most favorite people in the world! Lucas and Colby...and one awesome weekend...it's going to be so much fun! It's been almost 7 weeks since I've seen them, and that is way way too long. Ok, now that I'm done being all excited about that...here's the real boring news that's happening in my life...

I only have a few more hours of observations to do at the high school since I'm going on a field trip with them in November...I think only 3 more hours, which means two class periods :-D. Liz and I led our class discussion on the Holocaust this week, and we totally rocked it, which is awesome because we totally didn't do any work for it. I just wrote down random questions and people actually responded. Last night I made a double batch of cookies, and miraculously didn't burn a single one. So now there are enough cookies in my kitchen to feed an army...a small one...but still, an army could be fed. I also figured out how to put photos on my iPod...so that's pretty stinkin' sweet. Umm...what else...my hair is straight today...it's the first time I've straightened it since I got it cut, and the lady actually cut it pretty evenly.

Ok, I feel like this is getting more and more boring by the second...the end.

just a little posty post.

Lately I've been thinking a lot more deliberately about my actions towards others and how those actions may be interpreted by the world. I have been thinking more and more about how it is that I, a woman of God, should act. I have promised to guard my heart and give it only to the man I marry someday, but in what ways should I act to honor that commitment? For me the answers in regards to my physical interactions are quite obvious, but it gets a little confusing when the focus turns to my conversations and emotional interactions with guys. At what point do I need to stop and say that it is not my place to be in a position where they rely on me emotionally? I think only in the past month have I truly begun to see where that line is and made a concerted effort to change my interactions to honor my future husband, and I have truly been able to see God leading me to the right conclusion regarding this question.

In other news, tomorrow I am coming home, and ironically, it really is NU's homecoming. I've never been back for homecoming since I graduated, so it will be kind of weird...I really did like high school, but it has been a long time since I've seen most of the people I went to school with. I also have my interview with Pastor Small tomorrow afternoon at camp, which I'm anxiously awaiting, but as with everything I face, a little nervous for. (Yikes that's two sentences in a row that I ended with a preposition.)
But hopefully things work out, it does seem a little strange that I'm already engaging in activities that could determine how I spend my last summer out of the real world...but I really am ready to be a "big kid", or at least I want to try it out :).

maybe i should start doing this again

So, it's been over a month now, and when I read my last post, I'm reminded of how much things have changed in such a short time. My classes, my plan(s) for the future, my seemingly endless to-do lists....it's all...pretty overwhelming. But with this bad sort of overwhelming-ness, I'm also blessed with overwhelming love from God, my family, and my friends. It's so strange being back in such a familiar place, but having a totally new outlook. From the end of my sophomore year to right now, I have changed a lot. In some very good and wonderful ways, but also some not so good ways. :-/ Some big question marks in my life have been erased, but some still remain. Sorry, this must seem really vague....but for all of you who read this...all that needs to be said is that I'm happy. I may be old now, but I'm content...what more could I ask for?

back in the burg!

Well I guess for some reason summer and blogging are two non-compatible terms, thus why you all received no new posts for approximately 3 months. But really, all that can be said is that my summer was awesome, I worked at camp, loved it, loved the kids, and pretty much I just left really happy and excited to go to school.

And speaking of school, that is where I am now, and I have been for about three days, although once I examine all the things I've gotten accomplished so far, it seems like much longer, boy do I love efficiency. Speaking of efficiency, what I once feared as my worst semester of college ever could now turn out to be the greatest of my life...if all my credits from France transfer smoothly I could end up only taking 13 hours this semester! Yes, 13, that is pretty much unheard of for an over-acheiver like myself. So maybe I'll take tennis or some other blow off class to make up for it, or take chemistry! That could be fun...hmm...

photos schmotos.

So I finally have all of my pictures from this semester up on my Kodak gallery site...the slideshow I created includes all the albums from this year, just to make sure that I didn't forget to email out the link to some of them...so I would advise against going the slideshow route because you'll probably be looking at pictures for hours. The albums with new pictures are Bordeaux/Arcachon, What Happened During the Strike, Parks and Gardens, and Life at the University.

click!

the strawberry pie mystery.

So, a certain phenomenon that has already been documented on Stephanie's blog is that of the amazing 5 euro strawberry pie. I'm pretty sure the pie in and of itself is nothing that one would classify as a culinary marvel, but for some reason, being able to buy a 9 inch diameter circle of goodness and sweetness at the usually ghetto fabulous Super U for only 5 euros is special. So special that during one week, I'm pretty sure I participated in the buying of not only one of these pies, but in fact...three of them.

But now, tragedy has struck. Now when perusing the pie selection in the back of the store, there's multiple types of apple pies, raspberry pies, blackberry pies, lemon pies, apricot pies, caramel pies, and some other strawberry pies that they're trying to pass off as the original, but I'm too smart for that. To those at Super U headquarters, located at 1 rue Thomas Edison in Creteil, France (pardon me for not memorizing the postal code yet), you can't trick me into buying a smaller and less delicious pie, all the while paying upwards of 7 euros for this inferior tarte. I won't fall for it. So bring back the original strawberry pie. If you do, I might even stop asking for free plastic sacks in the check out line and buy one of the pencil bags. (that's a bag with pencils on it, not a bag to put pencils in)

the piehl who dropped the pile

So, one of my most shameful moments of my time in France occurred last weekend while I was with Menno, Sarah, and Amanda in Bordeaux. We had just left the cathedral and were standing in the square in front of the city hall, and Menno needed to change the batteries in his camera (the word for battery in French is "pile", pronounced exactly the same as my last name). He handed me the new batteries so he could take the old ones out, and during the transfer, something went terribly wrong and one of the batteries was sent tumbling to the ground. Our eyes followed its descent all the way into...a gutter with a grate over it. We stared at the turn of events in awe, of all the places I could have been standing in this huge square, I chose to place myself over a gutter that measured barely a foot wide. Menno wasn't too thrilled, and we tried being MacGuyvers to rescue our fallen soldier, but in the end, not even some skinny French boys little hands could reach down to get the battery. And I'm pretty sure Menno will forever hold a grudge against me, the Piehl who can't hold onto piles to save her life.

cinco de mayo!

That's right, it sure is Cinco de Mayo today. I wish I could think of some reason that's important to me, but I've got nothing. Oh, I used to be a Spanish minor...does that give me an excuse to celebrate?

The "let me tell you all about myself in three paragraphs" emails from the camp staff this summer have started rolling in, which is exciting! More action for my inbox! It's strange because camp still feels so far off in the future, but in reality I'll be back before I know it! Woot woot!

I guess this is as good a time as any to give you all the rundown on what I'll be doing for the next three-ish weeks. Ready?

until May 12- Wrapping up the show in Angers, taking finals, packing
May 13- Picking up my parents at the airport
May 13-15- Paris
May 15-18- Berlin, Hamburg, and Schwerin, Germany
May 18-20- Salzburg, Austria (the hills will be alive...with the sound of music)
May 20-22- London
May 22-23- Angers
May 23- Paris and CHICAGO (that's in the US folks!)
May 25/26- Warrensburg/Kansas City
May 28- Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca

Whew, should be one whirlwind adventure. And I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, as long as I can stay awake!