Top 10 Class/Teaching Moments

I don't think I'm necessarily capable of eloquently wrapping up or summarizing the last eight months, but I've compiled a random list of some of my most memorable moments at school/in the classroom. Joking & serious, here we go ...

10) Twizzlers!! Camille sent me a couple huge bags of Twizzlers, and my students pretty much loved me when I brought them to class. Seriously, one day we didn't do anything but eat Twizzlers and talk about them. Bribing with hard to find, American candy = c'est bon.

9) The infamous (read: failure!) Harry Potter lesson, where no one knew what I was talking about for the first 5 minutes, until a student finally understood "Harry Potter" in my American accent. Then he proceeded to "translate" it to the others ... "ohhh, she's saying Aairy Pottaire ..." Gotta love that French accent :)

8) Watching the intro of the movie Supersize Me with my students ... followed by their laughter and astonishment at the statistics regarding American obesity. Ouch.

7) My first day of class with a group of older (21-22 year old) guys, which was already a bit intimidating for me. Then I noticed that one was wearing a sweatshirt with Bush's picture as a bullseye and "Wanted: Dead" logo. Irrk ... hello ... I'll be your American teaching assistant for the year.

6) PROM 2007 - yes, the infamous triple-themed prom (James Bond / Hollywood Glamour / the 1970's) - truly a special and memorable experience in French event planning

5) Students asking me, and assuming I'd say yes, if I "owned an arm" in the US. When I said no, then they were like "Well, your parents do then, right?" This was, hands down, the most frequently asked question in my day 1, get-to-know-you lesson. Guess that says something.

4) A student at the medical center who had chosen to study English purely based on her infatuation with Elvis! Honestly. And she seriously sounded like Elvis when she talked - I am not even kidding here. And she almost teared up on my first day when I told her I was from Memphis ...

3) A student who stayed after class b/c she wanted help translating the lyrics to Chris Brown's "With You" into French - and she wanted to change it to be aimed towards a guy instead of a girl. Umm, "Hey little mama ... boo ... you're a stunner," - I don't know, how about "coucou petit gar?" It was pretty cute, though.

2) My last class with my favorite group of students - they brought treats to class and then put up a Facebook album of our pictures together ... super cute!

1) Walking up to an 8am class to find a group of freshmen boys listening to Soulja Boy's "Superman" on their cell phones and trying to teach each other the dance. Amazing, awesome, priceless. The fact that a relatively unknown teenager's random ghetto song finds its way from Batesville, Mississippi to the hallway of my high school in Rennes ... love it!

Last Classes

I got back to Rennes from England to technically finish the last 3 days of my teaching contract … nothing too exciting to report since I only had about 2 hours of class to do in these 3 days. So I had my last classes with certain groups of students last week. My favorite group at Chateau brought some treats to celebrate my last day – it was so cute! I worked with several of them in Prom organization last semester, and they’ve always been really enjoyable to work with, so it’s a bit sad to say bye to them. We took a few pictures at the end of the class, and I’ve just noticed that one student put up a Facebook album – “Saying bye to Molly.” How cute is that?! It’s cool to feel that I actually established good relationships with this group. Here's a pict with one of my favorite groups:

Update on Prom Planning

This is just to give you an update on where we are in the prom-planning stages! We’ve been having weekly meetings with the interested teachers and students to make sure that things are actually getting taken care of. We just heard back from the administration at the “City Hall,” and they confirmed that we are, in fact, allowed to have up to 450 people in the school gym for the Prom. That’s perfect because about 420 students are coming. That’s just one piece of all of the red tape that we’ve gone through while planning! The actual date of the “Prom” (which is being called either “Le Ball” or “La Fete de Noel” at the school) is on Thursday, Dec 20^th right after school gets out at 6:30. I think I’ve already said that the theme is a random combo of James Bond, the 1960’s, and Hollywood Glamour. But the head teachers are making sure that everyone understands the dress code is a suit/tie for the boys and a nice dress for the girls … supposedly if anyone shows up as a hippie from the 1960’s, they won’t be allowed to enter!

I have been working with the Decorations Committee and am basically just letting the students take care of most of it. We are paying one of the student’s friends to paint a big logo sign with Prom 2007 and a lifesize picture of James Bond on it … this will be the backdrop for the pictures. The students bought streamers and 350 balloons last week in the color theme of black, gold, and “Bordeaux.” We’re not allowed to use helium, so we still haven’t discussed how exactly we will get the 350 balloons inflated … maybe I will make each student blow up 5 balloons in each of my classes next Wednesday and Thursday, who knows! So our budget-friendly decorations basically consist of the James Bond poster, two big balloon arches, and streamers.

The other English assistant is in charge of the “Animations/Entertainment” committee, and from her I have heard that there will be: a band, a DJ, one student who’s going to sing an Alicia Keys song in English, a music trivia game, and the presentation of the winners of the student contest to decorate the school’s language lab. Most random prom that you’ve heard of, right??? I can’t wait to see how it all goes!

Oh, and the best part, I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention this! The teachers all passed our parental permission slips for the students to turn back in. The questionnaire was fairly simple …

1) Yes / No I will or will not attend Prom.

2) Yes / No I can bake a cake for the Prom.

CAN I BRING A CAKE TO THE PROM? Not your typical follow-up question on Prom attendance ... I somehow missed this part of the planning but was delightfully surprised when I saw this on the form! So we have over 100 students who are each bringing a cake that we will sell during the Prom! Only in France, I love it!!

Classes ... the Good, the Bad, and the Just Plain Ugly

Luckily I am writing this after having just returned from a solid morning of good classes. Even though I’ve been doing this for over two months now, each class session can really just be hit or miss. And it’s a little difficult because I work with really different types of students: one class only has only 2 students; another has about 12 who are pretty advanced at English; group of about 20 guys who are anywhere from 19-22 years old & are studying mechanical engineering/electronics; group of psychologically challenged students at a medical/rehab center; oh, yes, and I also work with a calculus class in English … that’s a fun one! Here’s a quick overview of some failed attempts and success stories:
1) The Harry Potter overview lesson was a miserable failure. The teacher recommended I do it to tie in with their previous lesson on Roald Dahl short stories. But unfortunately only a few of the students had actually read HP, and the others were totally lost. My HP vocab matching-exercise was pretty bad, as well!
2) Several teachers have asked me to talk about after-school jobs in the US. It is very uncommon for teenagers to have part-time jobs here since most of them stay at school until 6pm everyday, so they think the American schedule is pretty interesting. So I put together a worksheet with common teenage jobs, pictures, and useful vocab words … and even though I’ve done this lesson with a few different groups, it has been kinda boring each time. I’m still trying to think of ways to spice it up a bit.
3) I did a lesson on the retail industry in the US … specifically focused on Target, obviously! I brought a few circulars from the US paper and emphasized the contrast between US promotions (how we advertise different prices weekly, always have sales & clearance, etc) and those of France (there are only two official “sale periods” per year, regulated by the government). I’m not sure if they understood too much, but it was kinda fun to do.
4) I have a group of just 2 students who I work with individually each week. Since they chose to take this in addition to their normal English classes, they are pretty advanced & motivated; so I can choose some pretty interesting topics to discuss with them. Usually I find an article related to a current event or debate and then discuss it with them; for example, we discussed the entry of Starbucks to France three years ago, how the company had to adapt to the culture, the status of American brands abroad, etc. If you’re interested … after 3 years Starbucks has close to 50 locations in the Paris area, beating their initial projections … J
5) My lesson on all of the different American holidays has gone over pretty well. Groundhog’s Day consistently gets a good reaction from the students, naturally!
6) I’ve also used a few different songs and lyrics with some classes … just Elton John and Bob Dylan so far, but I’ve had a few requests for Christmas carols, so I can’t wait to whip out Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You! Oh, if I can get the students to sing that, I will pretty much be the happiest assistant in the world, haha!
7) GAMES ALWAYS WORK! Playing Jeopardy after we’ve discussed a certain topic always goes over well, but I’m not sure how many times I can re-create Jeopardy on different topics without losing their interest! I’ve also played Scrabble, the 20 Question electronic game, and am thinking about doing Catchphrase as well.
8) I think I’ve played “Two Truths and a Lie” about 10 times already. I can obviously only play it once with each different group of students, but it has consistently been a lifesaver when I have 15 minutes left in class and nothing left to do. My example usually goes:
a. I was born in California (False)
b. I have run a marathon (True)
c. I have traveled to India (True)

Can’t wait until I make them play “Never Have I Ever” … pg version, of course!

Intro to My Schools & Teaching

For the first few days at school, I just met all of the English teachers and observed some of their classes. From what I can tell, the coursework will be pretty random. In one class I just introduced myself and had them ask me questions about American life/teenagers. Some of my favorite questions: “Did you have fun at your Prom? … Did you have an after-school job? … Do you know Green Day? … Is San Francisco a nice city?” I LOVE the random facts that they know about the US, and it’s pretty fun to be a representative of young-American culture. The second day I was here the school held a race for all the students at a nearby park; they had to get sponsors in advance who agreed to pay $ for each lap of the track that they completed … going to benefit education in Mali. It was a bit strange since I didn’t know anyone, but I ran with one of the groups anyway. Apparently the principal is a runner and was out there in full spandex running gear, something we probably wouldn’t see at an American high school. As assistants we are supposed to work 12 hours a week total in the classroom, so I’ve been told that I’ll have 4 hours at my high school, 6 hours at the technical high school next door, and 2 hours at a school for handicapped students. I think it will be great because all 3 schools will be very different; the school where I’m living, in the picture above, is the top public high school in the area so the students should be pretty motivated; at the technical school, I think the level of English will be a little bit lower but I’m not sure; and I really have no idea what to expect at the school for the impaired students. We still have a full week of classroom observation before our schedules are determined and we start teaching. However, one teacher already told me that she would like me to organize a PROM in December for 400 students!! When they teach lessons about the differences between French & American teenagers, the topic of prom always comes up and apparently they are very intrigued by it. So that is my big project for the semester … feel free to send me ideas!!