Teaching McTeachertons: the First Day! (bah bah buuum)

*

Today I taught for the first time ever.

I stood up in front of seven classes of 20 kids each and taught them how to say "Hello, my name is _____" and "How are you?" and "I'm fine" and "My phone number is ______." I can't freaking believe it - today I kinda became a teacher. For a hot sec, though - let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I haven't had too much time to reflect on the day, seeing as the actual teaching part was a whirlwind of activity (every time I see whirlwind I think of "she can throw a whirling dirvish out of whirl" from The Sound of Music and then I get sad because Julie Andrews can't sing anymore because some doctor messed up her throat and then... well... I digress...) and then after work I came home and hung out with Darija, my roommate/wife, and then the Girls came over (holy cow, I just said that) and we all went to Melting Potes for language lessons avec de la biere. So basically... it is just *now* that I am fully absorbing the day.

What just hit me is the simplest thought about the day: I got up, in front of a bunch of kids I don't know, and I taught them something. It's my hope that they'll remember what we went over next week and that they'll be eager to learn and excited to play games and sing songs with me and all of that but most importantly, for a hot sec, I was feeding these kids information that they were absorbing (albeit probably only momentarily) and it was good. I am doing something my mom does every day, something her mom did before her, something my aunts do, something some of my favorite people do. I think teaching is one of the most noble professions out there and today je l'ai fait. Even though I probably looked and sounded ridiculous and the other teachers were probably thinking "why the heck did she get put into this program?" there is something really incredible about knowing that I taught some kids some stuff. As exhausted as I am, both physically and mentally, from the day, I'm excited to do it again - I can't wait to hear if Anthony can say the American "th" sound, if his sister will come hang out with me during lunch again, if the CP teacher will engage me in conversation at recess again, if the kids will remember their numbers when we do our phone numbers game next week. There's a lot to be nervous about but there's a lot to look forward to and... well... hurrah.

For now, je suis contente.

Now, for actual day:
My day in Elsa Triolet was split up into seven class periods with each teacher's class. So I taught the kids of Pierre, Yannick (who is also la directrice of the school), Magalie, Celine, Valerie, Olivier, and Marina. I taught kids from age 6 to age 11. I taught boys, girls, kids who were shy, kids who were outta control... everyone. Some of the teachers really got in there to help me (which was SO amazing I just wanted to hug them) and some of them threw me into the classroom like Daniel into the lions' pit. It was stressful but great.

With each class I switched it up a little bit, which was important because not each class was the same age group, but also so that I could see at what level each class is. I did a lot of repetition, a lot of "repeat after me" a lot of work in pairs, a lot of singling kids out (although they get shy so I'm not sure if I'll do that a lot), I used visual images (pictures and postcards), and I wrote on the board for visual confirmation of the words/sentences they were hearing. Something that surprised me right away was realizing how necessary it is to use so many teaching techniques in such a short amount of time (many classes were just 1/2 hour long).

Just for future reference, here are the ages of each class:
CP: the littlest ones!: 6-7
CE1: 7-8
CE2: 8-9
CM1: 9-10
CM2: 10-11

I went into today basically completely blind and came out with a better picture of things. First of all, I have a better idea of who knows how to read and who doesn't, who tends to have longer attention spans, who knows how to read and who doesn't, who is a perfectionist and who isn't, etc. etc. What excites me is that most if these kids are eager to learn and definitely eager to please, even when they're exhausted and ready to finish the day.

All in all, despite a few hitches (i.e. starting teaching today when Iw as told I was just going to observe, having one teacher leave the class when the teachers are supposed to remain in the room at all times, having to give commands in French to the little ones because they can't understand me in English and not knowing exactly how to say what I mean in French) I think today was a very positive experience at Elsa Triolet. Here's hoping tomorrow is just as good.

Phew.**

*A note on Katie's party, as promised:
It was basically awesome. Katie invited assistants and Frenchies and it seemed like, literally, the entire world was holed up in her apartment. Kinda like the Noah's Ark of languages, seeing as we had Italians, Columbians, El Salvadorians, Frenchies, Americans, Brits, Germans, etc. all in her two bedroom place. Of course most of us split up into groups where we got to speak our native languages but I also heard a lot of people attempting to speak in different tongues. I, myself, attempted to speak in French to Emma (a Brit) for quite sometime (applause). Lisa says that I have to try to speak for at least 2 hours a day in French. Oh MAN by the end of 20 minutes my brain is exhausted! But I'll try.
So yeah, the party was great and I can't wait to have another. I'm going to have a French friend, dammit, if it's the last thing I do!
**Melting Potes was tonight, again at O'Neill's Irish Pub (does anyone else find this funny?). Bruno, a guy who organizes it, hooked me up with a website for a gay women's choir here in Avignon (I call it a gwoir). I'm pretty dang excited... here's hoping!