Teaching Week 7: Clothes, Colors, and Christmas

So Monday was pretty exciting because it was December 1st! I got to eat the first chocolate of my advent calendar :). Later I went grocery shopping, and then planned some lessons.

On Tuesday, I taught four classes in the morning. In the first class, the teacher wasn’t here, so there was a substitute. He was this really nice old man, who was really enthusiastic. He was excited to review his english along with the kids during the lesson. I taught the kids clothes vocabulary and we reviewed the colors. Then, I put four pictures of people I drew on the board. Each drawing a name and they were wearing different outfits. I asked the questions about the clothing of the four people and they had to tell me which person I was describing. Next, I had the kids come up with their own questions to ask their classmates. In the second class, the kids showed me their color by number turkeys that they had colored for homework. Unfortunately, a few kids didn’t finish the coloring... they said they didn’t have time...wow...they didn’t have time to color. I think some of them just forgot about the assignment. Then, the kids worked on presenting themselves in pairs. After the second class, we had recess, and I had a cup of tea like usual. 

In the third class, I reviewed colors with the kids by showing them little animal flashcards that I made. Then, I passed out the flashcards, and each student got a chance to come up and describe the colors of their animal. In the fourth class, I talked more about the history of Thanksgiving, and the students completed a Thanksgiving vocabulary worksheet as a class.

I had lunch at the high school with Kate and Kim like most Tuesday afternoons.

Fish, veggies, lemon tart, salad

Then, I had my two Skype classes. In the first Skype class, I had my little groups of 2-3 students at a time. I reviewed clothes vocabulary with them and then I had them describe the clothes of the pictures I drew of some people. They also reviewed colors as well by describing the clothes in the picture. After that, I described a person for them to draw and color to see if they could understand all of the vocabulary. The activity went pretty well. In my second Skype class, I taught the entire class at once. I showed them pictures of four people I drew, I described two of them, and they had to identify which two I was describing. Then, I described two people for them to draw and color. The teacher then chose some students to come up and show me their pictures so that I could check if they were correct. 

Later in the evening, Kim and I met Fatima in town because Fatima had invited us to a Flamenco Show at the theatre here in Roanne. The Christmas lights in town near the theatre were really pretty as well! This was my first time at the theatre and I really enjoyed it! It's really pretty and the Flamenco show was cool to watch as well. 

Christmas lights in Roanne!

Inside the theatre in Roanne

Here we are before the show!

The theatre got pretty crowded, so we were lucky that we decided to come early! We got some pretty good seats. Before the show started, we noticed that a few seats in the row right in front of us were reserved. We were surprised to find out that the seats were for the president of the Flamenco Association, his wife, and his translator friend. So, they sat right in front of us for the entire show. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed, so I don’t have any of the show. There were four people in total who performed. There was a singer, a guitarist (who played non stop without looking at any sheet music... he had it all memorized), a clapping girl (who kept the beat), and a dancer. After the show, they had some spanish goodies for sale. I got some sangria, a tortilla, and some spanish candies. 

Spanish goodies!

Then, there was a Q&A session with the Flamenco group which was pretty cool as well. We stayed for a bit of it.

There are the performers taking questions

I am so glad Fatima invited us! It was fun to see something like this and I hope to see another show at the theatre soon!

On Wednesday, I taught three classes in the morning. In the first class, I talk half of the class at a time. So I had two groups of 12-13 for about 30 minutes each. First, I had them look at different pictures of families and they had to listen and identify the family I was describing to them. Then, I had them retell the Brown Bear story so they could review the animals and colors. They had some trouble focusing though so I have to fingure out how to direct their attention better the next time...I think they might just be over the whole Brown Bear story because we have been looking at it for a few weeks now. 

In the second class, I taught the class about baseball. I myself do not know much about baseball, so I had to do some research before I felt comfortable talking about the rules of the game. I started off the lesson by asking the students what they already knew about baseball. This one little boy in the class basically explained the game to everyone pretty accurately. This boy knew his baseball stuff and he made my job easy. I added some details to his explanation and I showed the class pictures of baseball equipment and as well as a baseball field. 

Then came recess. This recess took me back in time to when I was in fifth grade...lol because all of the kids were walking around and trading Pokemon cards! There were boys and girls trading and playing Pokemon cards throughout the entire recess time and it made me nostalgic. 

In the third class, we went over how to say the date and descriptions of weather using flashcards. Then, I led a game of number bingo with half of the class. Each kid received a bingo card with four numbers varying from 1-30. I picked out random numbers from a little box and the kids had funny commentary during the game. Some kids were clueless about the numbers and some kids were just quick to tell me they did or did not have the number I called. There was one boy, who was sitting right in front of me, who was getting a lot of his numbers confused. At one point he had crossed off three numbers, (all he needed was for me to call the number 18) and I called number 28. He thought that was 18, so he started to cross it off while happily starting to say bingo! I saw him doing this, and quickly told him that I said “28” not “18”... and he says “crap” really loud (in french) lol and starts to laugh along with all of the other kids haha. It was a pretty funny moment. Poor kid. He was so disappointed that he didn’t win. 

In the afternoon, I met up with Melissa and Clare to watch the Hunger Games: Catching Fire at the Cinema in Roanne. It was my second time watching the film, but my first time watching it in french! It was also my first time watching a movie at this particular Cinema. So our movie was scheduled to start at 1 40pm. We got to the theater around 1 10ish thinking that would be enough time to get tickets and everything. Well, surprise, surprise, the cinema was closed down during lunch time. They opened up about 1 30ish, so we quickly got our tickets, and somehow managed to still be early for the movie. Anyways, I really enjoyed watching the film again! I did prefer the english version though, but listening to the french voices was interesting as well.

After the film, Melissa, Clare, and I met up for drinks with Kate, Kim, and Jack. We all had a nice time chatting and I got a delicious hot chocolate!

Nice bar/restaurant in Roanne where we had drinks

Thursday, I taught 3 classes in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the first class, I showed them a powerpoint with christmas vocabulary and with pictures of nicely decorated houses. The kids really liked looking at the pictures. After the presentation, we played a game where they each got a flash card with a christmas picture and they had to find the classmate with the same picture as them. I did the same activities with the second class. In the second class, we had some extra time left over, so I taught the kids a Christmas carol. I taught them, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and they really liked it! Most of them have heard it before probably on the radio or playing in different stores. Then came recess which means: tea break!

After tea time, I taught another class. I started off by reviewing Christmas vocabulary flashcards with them. Then, I showed them the powerpoint of pictures and the Christmas vocabulary. Next, we played a game where each kid got a flashcard and they had to find the classmate with the same card as them. It was basically like a giant game of go-fish. Kids took turns asking others if they had their card and it was good speaking practice for all of them. Next, I taught them, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and they wrote the lyrics down in their notebooks. At the end of the lesson, I started to teach them “Jingle Bells” as well. I sang the song with two other kids who told me that they knew it. Singing with them was fun! These kids really enjoy learning songs and singing in general. 

After lunch, I took a bus to my last class of the day. We reviewed clothes vocabulary with flashcards. Then, we reviewed colors and clothes with the four drawings of people. I had them ask questions by describing an article of clothing worn by one of the people. The rest of the class had to figure out which person was wearing that article of clothing.  For example, “Who is wearing a pink skirt?” The kids had to answer in complete sentences, such as, “Ashley is wearing a pink skirt.” Then, we reviewed Christmas vocabulary with flashcards. Next, I showed the class my Christmas Powerpoint with vocabulary words and pictures of nicely decorated houses. The kids were amazed by all of the lights on the houses in the US. At the end of class, I passed out a vocabulary sheet with all of the words and pictures that they learned this afternoon.

After school, I headed to my bus stop, but once I got to the bus stop, I realized that I had left my USB drive at the school... So, I had to go back to the school and get it. Because of that delay, I missed my usual bus. The buses are pretty frequent though, about every 20 minutes, but I didn't feel like waiting today. So, I decided to walk back to my apartment. It was about a 35 minute walk. I passed a few little scenic areas though which made the walk more enjoyable. 

Lots of trees!

Enjoying my time here, 

Magdalena