Varié

A mixed bag of a day to be honest...some absolutely lovely classes and some, well, not so great ones! Since this is the day where I work the majority of my hours, I always expect ups and downs.

So the downs:-
- Tiredness, I always forget at some point I need sleep! My day of rest tends to be tomorrow, so I cannot wait for the lie-in that I'm going to have. Hang on, I need to faire mon linge...might have to leave the lie-in for another day!
- Due to a failure in technology whoop technology I had a very very restless cinquième INTER class who would not stop nagging/speaking in French at me when I was trying to fix a computer. Those who know me will tell you that technology is not exactly my forte, and attempting to control a class, translate French and fix a computer...things weren't always going to go well! To top it off, the cinquièmes wanted to watch either Lord of the Rings or Batman as their new film. Problem? They are twelve and thirteen years old, so there is no way that I would be able to show them anything with any sort of violence in due to the rating. So Chronicles of Narnia it was. And boy were some of them unhappy with that...although surprisingly quiet as soon as we started watching the film. Usually I manage to get something out of them at the end conversation-wise...this time, mute. The teachers at my school say you either dislike teaching cinquième or quatrième...I think I've found my preference. Oh well, enough of a rant!

And the ups:-
- I got to spend an evening with friends speaking French the majority of the time. And I think I have finally settled on my drink for casual soirées, a demi-pêche (beer and peach syrup...and less alcoholic than a cervoise!)
- My first class of the day was a normal sixième class, and I managed to get every single member of the class answering questions and joining in with the work (Hangman really does work wonders!)...and keeping them quiet throughout. This is something of an achievement, especially with a class of French ten and eleven year olds!
- Helped Romain run the Histoire/Geo brevet blanc (mock exam), where the troisième INTER had to give an oral presentation on an aspect of what they had learnt. Everyone did well, and some a lot better than I thought they would be...shows that they are working, and that those that worked more knew their work had paid off. I thought it was so cute that when they were guessing a word or a phrase, they looked to me for reassurance rather than the actual teacher!
- Troisième EURO club. Just fantastic fun. A great group of students, all there to improve their English. I think they were pleasantly surprised when they learnt we were learning descriptive words through playing a game instead of just repeating everything by rote. So the aim of the game was to describe to your partner a celebrity (name picked out of a hat), but without saying their name!
- Troisième EURO class...started work on 'The Landlady'. Now I already have a lot of experience of this book, thanks to my work with the cinquième INTER, so I jumped at the chance to lead the lesson. Everyone paid attention, and I think the majority of them knew exactly what was going on. We shall see!
- The film I'm doing with the sixième INTER has turned out to be better than I hoped. True, they grumble slightly when they have to do a little work along with it...but their faces as they watch it is precious.
- Forgot how much I absolutely love this recording of this song.


This is Saint-Pierre, again...taken just as the sun was setting, looks rather impressive like this actually!



And now, to sleep. Couldn't ask for a more varied day!