April Showers bring...
Cosne d'Allier
April 16th 2009
Spring is here. White and pink trees of which origin I could not say. Most of the grander trees are late in catching up with the smaller in the race of leaves and blossoms. Tulips and dandelions have already sprouted.
We had our first April shower with lightning the other day. Another quickly approaches. In one direction, the sky is an ominous dark gray but white and blue on the other horizon. Even now, in my room with music, I can hear the thunder growing louder and more frequent. The fifty seven kids are in the chateau and I am off for a few hours. The day goes by so fast and they are so complicated. Every morning, the counselors eat breakfast at their own table while the kids throw things at the others. After brushing their teeth, their English class starts. This is where us ESL teachers come in. For an hour we teach, they have a fifteen minute recess, and then we teach for another hour before the pinnacle of the morning: Congress.
My class felt so haphazard and under prepared, I feel like that TEFL program came in handy. I picked up a couple things from my fellow classmates and the teachers. I wrote on the board without completely facing it and I looked busy when the students were copying things down. My first day I analyzed and reviewed their verb conjugations. Oh yeah before I forget let me say, I am teaching the lowest level class. Now that is not saying they are completely beginners. We analyzed all of the students that came this week, questioning them on their favorite movie, singer or asking them where they like to go on vacation. The latter tended to be a bump in the road for them all and not everyone could count to twenty without hesitation. Some could and some could answer nearly every question. So of the eleven year old students this week, I got the lowest level. I can at least talk slowly and carefully without getting dumb looks from them all.
The first day of our short class, I went over baseball rules as did every other class because the kids would be playing it in the afternoon. Due to their inability to understand our directions and more so our inability to explain at their level every single rule and strategy of the sport, we have them stop at first base if they hit it. No home runs or doubles. We have an afternoon workshop to show them how to hit, throw, catch, and play on the field. It does not always work but they seem to enjoy it so thats all that matters.
So anyways, during my first class I played a mock game of baseball and showed the different scenario if a batter got to first base safely or got out. During our ESL (English as a Second Language) class, we also go over the lyrics of the song of the day that they sing in Congress.
Congress. An exciting hectic hour of singing, skits, and simple fun. It is named after our government's legislative body not because we make laws but because the staff have a 'white house' meeting room and so the staff and students have Congress because we all congregate there.
Lunch and then an hour and half of free time when the kids run around and work off their excess energy. It's amazing how much energy they have. In playing soccer, they can just run and run. Maybe it's because I think about how tired I am that I stop running and catch my breathe. Or are these European kids - or kids in general - just in great shape?
Two activities surround an afternoon snack. Those activities could be a baseball game like yesterday or a counselor scavenger hunt or some kind of massive game. Dinner is with our families, an assigned way to separate the kids and keep some form of order in the camp environment. This week, my Connect-4 family sits at the same table as my Battleship family the first week. And since I'm leaving this weekend, I will never get to be in the Twister, Clue, or Monopoly families. We'll see what creative family names they have in Les Monts d'Olmes...or however you spell it.
I looked at the weather. Yesterday, it was 7 degrees Celsius at this new site. Brr. Not my ideal April weather.
Tonight is the night of the weekly dance, or Boom as they apparently call it in France. I have never been a big fan of or doer of dancing. That is why I am the bartender. But don't worry faithful readers, there is no alcohol given to these kids who have probably had wine anyways. I hand out cups of water in the congress room as they dance to popular American songs, screaming out the few lines that they know.
Then tomorrow they go home. My English class will consist of them making their gradation caps and then we have the ceremony and that's it. Then we prepare for the next week. Well, I will at least help them here and then get thrown in to this new place along with Veggie. She and I will be taking a train at 8 am on Saturday. Blarg. Which means we'll have to get up early after the going-away slash au revoir party that the staff will give us. That is one advantage that Indy, my roommate, pointed out about leaving first. You get a sweet party and then no one cares. From the sounds of it, the rumor is that everyone will leave after next week anyways.
This may be the craziest job I have ever had. I'm teaching English... in France... rural France nonetheless... at a camp for kids... but there are multiple sites that I am apt to go to... I don't know when I'm leaving until a week or two in advance... and my co-workers are so various and different it is as absurd as they are. Ace/ Ronnie alone is enough to write home about. But anywho...
I enjoy teaching English. The eleven year olds laugh at my funny faces and they ask questions, not afraid to confess that they do not understand a new concept or vocab. I realize there is not a lot I can teach them in two days or so but I review baseball. They will at least now some true-blue-collar American words.
April 16th 2009
Spring is here. White and pink trees of which origin I could not say. Most of the grander trees are late in catching up with the smaller in the race of leaves and blossoms. Tulips and dandelions have already sprouted.
We had our first April shower with lightning the other day. Another quickly approaches. In one direction, the sky is an ominous dark gray but white and blue on the other horizon. Even now, in my room with music, I can hear the thunder growing louder and more frequent. The fifty seven kids are in the chateau and I am off for a few hours. The day goes by so fast and they are so complicated. Every morning, the counselors eat breakfast at their own table while the kids throw things at the others. After brushing their teeth, their English class starts. This is where us ESL teachers come in. For an hour we teach, they have a fifteen minute recess, and then we teach for another hour before the pinnacle of the morning: Congress.
My class felt so haphazard and under prepared, I feel like that TEFL program came in handy. I picked up a couple things from my fellow classmates and the teachers. I wrote on the board without completely facing it and I looked busy when the students were copying things down. My first day I analyzed and reviewed their verb conjugations. Oh yeah before I forget let me say, I am teaching the lowest level class. Now that is not saying they are completely beginners. We analyzed all of the students that came this week, questioning them on their favorite movie, singer or asking them where they like to go on vacation. The latter tended to be a bump in the road for them all and not everyone could count to twenty without hesitation. Some could and some could answer nearly every question. So of the eleven year old students this week, I got the lowest level. I can at least talk slowly and carefully without getting dumb looks from them all.
The first day of our short class, I went over baseball rules as did every other class because the kids would be playing it in the afternoon. Due to their inability to understand our directions and more so our inability to explain at their level every single rule and strategy of the sport, we have them stop at first base if they hit it. No home runs or doubles. We have an afternoon workshop to show them how to hit, throw, catch, and play on the field. It does not always work but they seem to enjoy it so thats all that matters.
So anyways, during my first class I played a mock game of baseball and showed the different scenario if a batter got to first base safely or got out. During our ESL (English as a Second Language) class, we also go over the lyrics of the song of the day that they sing in Congress.
Congress. An exciting hectic hour of singing, skits, and simple fun. It is named after our government's legislative body not because we make laws but because the staff have a 'white house' meeting room and so the staff and students have Congress because we all congregate there.
Lunch and then an hour and half of free time when the kids run around and work off their excess energy. It's amazing how much energy they have. In playing soccer, they can just run and run. Maybe it's because I think about how tired I am that I stop running and catch my breathe. Or are these European kids - or kids in general - just in great shape?
Two activities surround an afternoon snack. Those activities could be a baseball game like yesterday or a counselor scavenger hunt or some kind of massive game. Dinner is with our families, an assigned way to separate the kids and keep some form of order in the camp environment. This week, my Connect-4 family sits at the same table as my Battleship family the first week. And since I'm leaving this weekend, I will never get to be in the Twister, Clue, or Monopoly families. We'll see what creative family names they have in Les Monts d'Olmes...or however you spell it.
I looked at the weather. Yesterday, it was 7 degrees Celsius at this new site. Brr. Not my ideal April weather.
Tonight is the night of the weekly dance, or Boom as they apparently call it in France. I have never been a big fan of or doer of dancing. That is why I am the bartender. But don't worry faithful readers, there is no alcohol given to these kids who have probably had wine anyways. I hand out cups of water in the congress room as they dance to popular American songs, screaming out the few lines that they know.
Then tomorrow they go home. My English class will consist of them making their gradation caps and then we have the ceremony and that's it. Then we prepare for the next week. Well, I will at least help them here and then get thrown in to this new place along with Veggie. She and I will be taking a train at 8 am on Saturday. Blarg. Which means we'll have to get up early after the going-away slash au revoir party that the staff will give us. That is one advantage that Indy, my roommate, pointed out about leaving first. You get a sweet party and then no one cares. From the sounds of it, the rumor is that everyone will leave after next week anyways.
This may be the craziest job I have ever had. I'm teaching English... in France... rural France nonetheless... at a camp for kids... but there are multiple sites that I am apt to go to... I don't know when I'm leaving until a week or two in advance... and my co-workers are so various and different it is as absurd as they are. Ace/ Ronnie alone is enough to write home about. But anywho...
I enjoy teaching English. The eleven year olds laugh at my funny faces and they ask questions, not afraid to confess that they do not understand a new concept or vocab. I realize there is not a lot I can teach them in two days or so but I review baseball. They will at least now some true-blue-collar American words.
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Nick