Reckless Abandon: Fall Review : School

It would seem that once school starts, so many other things get put on hold. Blogging is one of those things.

In order not to overwhelm you with a mega-long post, I'll divide this past fall into cateogires.

Let's start with school. (I rarely post anything about work, but since it seems to be such a large part of my life these days, I thought I would share a little bit.)

Jumpstart day, when all the freshmen come, was August 14. Among my duties that day was helping out at the French Club table. Props are always helpful!

With my colorful syllabi all printed and ready to go, year 3 as an american-african mk teacher in an american public school was about to start.

I went to nearly every home football game. Go Spartans! As the former assistant coach, those boys will always have a special place in my heart.

I also attended an American football game.

(Thanks, George, for going with me.)

I volunteered to help chaperon the back-to-school dance and was put on hall duty...and purse duty...

This year I implemented some new activities/projects for my students. My French 4's were learning about clothes, fashion, textiles, French designers, etc., so they were required to create and produce a fashion show. We had a blast! I rearranged the classroom to include a runway and brought in some little snacks for the designers and models to munch on as they discussed the latest fashion.

At the end of the semester, after studying about all of the different French speaking countries in Africa, all the students brought in food from one of those countries. I surprised them by dressing up in my best Nigerien outfit. Everything from my sandals to my earrings to my bracelets were made in Africa. The kids were impressed. I also treated them to an African pop! I had to make the experience as authentic as possible. Now that I look back, I should have warmed them up a bit! While we ate the delicious food we practiced the conditional tense in French by asking and answering discussion questions such as, "If you were an animal, which animal would you be?" or "If you were a US President, which president would you be?" or "If you were a tree, which tree would you be?" Great conversation! And all in French!

My French 2's were introduced to the game of Spoons to help them learn sentence structure and French grammar.

They also learned French directions by blind-folding their partner and directing them to wherever I was standing by only speaking in French.

My French 3's played telephone pictionary to practice expressions with unusual verbs.

My French 1's created menus and then set up mini cafés and took turns visiting each other's restaurants, ordering food, and paying with fake euros. My role? I walked around and pick-pocketed some of their money and told them if they ever visited Paris they would have to do a better job of keeping their money safe! (Education is all about teaching life-skills, right?!) I also went to the café owners and required them to pay me some of their hard-earned euros. I reminded them that French taxes are high! The students were less than thrilled, but I had a great time!

And those activities are just a glimpse of some of the things we do in class. Now you know one of the reasons teaching takes so much time and preparation.

I hung up a stocking for each of my homeroom/study hall students. As each day got closer to Christmas break, I would put a little piece of candy in each stocking. On the last day of school, they could look in their stocking and they were so excited!