Teaching McTeachertons: Day Two

Tuesday was my second day of teaching at Ecole Mistral. The differences between Mistral and Elsa Triolet seem pretty big. First of all, the teachers in Mistral smiled at me. Secondly, Mistral is hooked up with hella great furniture/rooms for all the kiddies while Elsa Triolet seems to lag behind in, perhaps funding, perhaps caring, about the surroundings for the kids. Mistral is a bigger building with fun chairs, chalkboards that movie (!!!) and all of that. Elsa Triolet has immobile chalkboards (gosh, what are they thinking!), it's small and cramped, and... yeah.

I didn't really teach at all on Tuesday because, luckily, I'd sent an e-mail to the person, Stef Molan, who had e-mailed me my schedule and I had asked if it would be ok just to observe how the school rolls. I guess Stef got the message out because no one was surprised when I repeated this request on Tuesday. My e-mail to Stef began "Merci, Madame, pour mes horaires" and then on Tuesday a tall lanky guy came up to me saying "C'etait moi qui vous a envoye (accent aigu) l'e-mail." Oh crap. How was I suppsed to know that Stef is a man? These French with their confusing gender-neutral men and their metrosexuality and their boy-girl-androgyny! I love it but it confuses the hell outta me.

Annnyyyyway so Mistral. The little kids crack me up - they are all hooked up to the nines with the latest stuff. They are so particular. They all have their little pencil cases that they place just so on the desk and they all use really nice pens (Heath, like the pens that are your favorites) to write down anything. I now know why all French notebooks comew ith grids on them - it's so the kids can learn to write in a straight line. And if, heaven forbid, they're not writing on the grid paper, they get out their little rulers and make lines with them. Wow. When the ruler isn't in the kid's mouth it's on the paper making straight lines for him/her.

So I observed on Tuesday. The first class i observed was a math class and I sat behind a girl and I asked her how old the kids are in the class and she said that they're all nine and ten. Then she pointed to the boy sitting next to her and said Il a douze ans parce qu'il est un peu simple. ("He is twelve (and in this class) because he's a little simple"). Tellin' how it is, she was. She was super cute. In another class I had a question-answer period with them... They were 4th graders, I think. They knew a little English but the Q&A was in French and they asked me everything from Avez-vous deja vu les stars?/Michael Jordan?/Vanessa Hudgins? Avez-vous nage? Est-ce que vous etes marier? Avez-vous des enfants?* ("Have you seen any stars?/Michael Jordan/Vanessa Hudgins? Have you swum? Are you married? Do you have kids?") These kids definitely weren't shy. They were awesome, though. I can pinpoint the ones who are the most like me and with whom I'll butt heads the most but I am just so excited to work with them.

Other highlights from Ecole Mistral:
scrunchies
rolly backpacks
pencil cases
boys with earring studs (in the left ear)
more mullets (why, lord, why)

When I asked a teacher if I could leave 5 minutes early at the end of the day (I know, not the greatest way to start at a new job but...) so that I could catch my bus (the next bus is an hour later) I had a teacher offer to give me a ride to the bus stop after school. She's nice and her kid plays the saxophone.

French teacher discipline is scary. It goes a little like this:
CLAUDIA, JE DETEST TON CARACTERE!"**

Lunchtime at Ecole Mistral was a combination of scary/awkward/fun. Like most of my life, currently.
Scary: Going to the teacher's lunchroom and listening to French women teachers gossping. In French. Scary because I thought they could be talking to me. Scary because they ate like one piece of lettuce and then loads of cream on pasta and they are all as thick as twizzlers.
Awkward: Sitting in the lunchroom all by myself (at the end of the tables) eatin' my carrot and apple and yogurt (and... and... and... (I was so hungry!)) and not understanding a word of what was going on. I turned their talking into background music. Rapid-fire, occasionally ugly-sounding background music.
Fun: Finishing my lunch and going outside to hang out with the CP kids (the littlest ones). They were running around like insane-os and I chilled with the lunchyard monitor who spoke to me (v. nice to have a friendly person). I went so far as to ask her about Sarkozy and his views on immigration - crazy, eh? And I understood what she was saying! Of course we got interrupted from time to time with little French girls (scrunchies in hair, of course) running to Lunch Room Monitor with the teeny tiniest problems. So cute.
Back to Awkward: Going inside during my two hour lunch because it was too cold outisde and sitting in the hallway reading my "Insider's French Dictionary" book. Teachers walked by and were like "wtf?" Oh well.

Back to class:
My last class of the day was with the little ones - It's a CE1 and CE2 class meaning they range from 7-9. Or 6-8. I can't remember. Before class was la recreation (recess) and most went outside but I decided to stay in with a few kids who were doing work. We started talking and the kids were AMAZING. They hung out and talked to me (doucement and lentement, for my benefit). When I didn't understand a word they said (which was, unfortunately, way too often) these kids were so patient with me and circumnavigated the word with other words so I would understand. At one point they started asking me if I could do the splits (who the hell knows how to say 'the splits' in French?) and when I looked at them quizzically, they acted the splits out for me. These are tiny 6 year old French boys in their very trendy jeans gettin' down on the floor to do the splits. So cute.
After recreation I had class with these kids. Anyway, CE2 peeps have had a little French and the CE1 peeps hadn't had any. So what did I do? I taught all the kids to high five, which they, apparently, don't do here in France. They freaking loved it. I also did a lot of "Hello my name is" and gesticulating and all of that. We're going to have a lot of running around games, I feel.

Conclusion:
What thrills me about teaching in primaire is that I'm kinda at the same level with these kids. So far I've only had kids who have been so patient with me, so anxious and eager to communicate with me (in either language) and who are really eager. My momma told me that when she was younger she spent a week in a homestay in France and she would feel completely overwhelmed at dinner with the parents and all the French speaking and all of that but then she and the little girl would go on walks through the woods and the girl would take time to explain things to her/define things/etc. That's what I think my kids are going to do. I feel an awesome energy in the classes, you know? Ok so it's only been the first two days and I know it's going to change but right now I'm feeling hella positive about it. Now I just have to remember to make lesson plans for next week!

Here's a giant cyberspace HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my bffffffff Anna! Happy bday, buff-izzle! (yesterday)

*Apologies to all you French readers/speakers out there - I have no idea how to rock the French accents on my computer. Once I figure it out, I will write in French that is pleasing to the eye. Merci.
**Again, sorry about the lack of accents.