Feb 2008

So Friday I headed to chez Rachel, Montpon. The weather the whole weekend has been absolutely incroyable for February. The morning cold but between like 12ish and 6ish, absolutely gorgeous and very warm (like, at times, down to just a t-shirt weather!). Seriously hoping this is going to last...but I fear not :-( . Was cool to see Rach again and catchup on whats been going down these last few weeks, but it's really weird as we're now starting to look towards the end of our time here (particularly for her and the other 7 monthers, like 2 months left...), cannot believe how fast it is going. Just quickly as a reminded to myself...
Stuff I still want to do
Go out for a nice meal in the old centre of Perigueux
Go clubbing again
Limoges
Angoleume maybe
Sarlat
St Emillion
St Rochelle
Biarritz
Lyon
Lille
Castle
Caves

Ok, anyway so back to the weekend. Rachel cooked as a yum yum yummmy risotto on Friday night and then we went to the cinema with her neighbour Marie and her son Paul to see "Asterix". I have never seen a cinema so busy; it was actually full! And this was Montpon! The French do love their BDs though. Was pretty good; entertaining enough, lots of cameos/all the famous French stars and in many ways seemed kinda "unFrench" to me, well unlike the other French films I've seen.

Saturday morning we were up early for the weekend and got a train to Libourne. Was a random town, seemed really quiet and dead. I guess it's just so close to Bordeaux that all the locals had headed there for their shopping or out to the countryside to enjoy the sun. But cool to have crossed another town off of the list and had a nice time. It was a pretty place and we wandered a bit by the river, and did some shopping. Rachel got stuff for her trip to Morocco and I got a BARGAINTASTIC pair of shoes...2EUR and I really like them. Then, of course, in the way of things when Rach and I are together, it was time for food! First off we tried a "merveille", the doughnuttty thing they have for mardi gras, was pretty good...apparently like a "yum yum". Then we had lunch; quiche (sooo loving the quiche at the mo) and pasta dauphinois from a good (and cheap) little cafe/bakery. Then we wandered a bit more and found a really nice little bar/cafe with chairs in the sun so we installed ourselves there for a bit...was so warm and we people watched and I was very content!

Then we headed back to Montpon. Next job was to hit Intermarche and buy a dessert as our contribution to the Soiree Perigourdine (which was going to be our evening's entertainment, organised by Rach and Marie's fitness club/gym); we opted for a "tarte aux pommes", always good. Chilled out for a bit and then got ready to go out. It was a dressy event and really enjoyed taking some time to get scrubbed up nicely. We went next door and took some photos with Marie, Dominique and Paul and then we all headed off.

When we arrived there were loads more people there than I imagined (150 maybe?) and was a really nice atmosphere, although kinda tricky for Rach and I to make small-talk with all these Frenchies we didn't know, and not helped by the fact we were the youngest there by quite a long way (apart from the children...although we were probably closer to their age than most of the adults). So we turned up at about 8.30pm and for the first hour or so it was aperitif and nibbles. Then the music started and we all sat down, but we weren't there long before they all got up and started dancing. I was really surprised at how quickly everyone got into it (even before we started eating)...there were no British inhibitions. And basically the rest of the evening passed as eat, dance, eat, dance, eat, dance etc until we left at 2am. The tables were decorated nicely and there was plenty of bread, wine and water all evening. The music was mostly random French stuff which they all knew and danced too- most of the dancing was like "proper" couple-y dancing and they all showed off their waltz, passe double etc etc, but they also did some more upbeat stuff including a bit of an English mix including YMCA and Freak Out! Rachel and I threw some moves, and, well the French didn't know what had hit them. I think my personal favourite was when they were all moving sedately across the dance floor in neat little circles and Rach and I just go right through the middle with our "flamenco". Or when Rachel just danced by herself, holding her arms as if the French man of her dreams was there. Or when Rach *DID* pull a French man, an eighty year old French man who looked suspiciously like Father Christmas. We later took a photo of him with an older lady (perhaps his wife although who knows, he did the rounds) and he gave us his business card so we can send it to him!

The food was really good and although it was all spread out so it didn't feel like it I think I had a LOT of calories. So first up was Soup Tourin, apparently a local thing, it was a tomato-y, onion-y (and apparently garlic-y) soup that you pour over a piece of bread with melted cheese on. Was yum. Next course was, of course, foie gras on bread with salad. Then the main course was this DELICIOUS steamed ham (really tender...mmm....) in a yuumy sauce (with these mushrooms, trompettes de l'amour) and haricots (they love the haricots there) and couenne (pig's skin, turned that one down). Then cheese (ok as long as you didn't breathe through your nose) and endive salad. Then desserts. So everyone had brought a dessert and they were all laid out as a big buffet to help yourself. I have never seen anything like the stampede to get to them...it was so unBritish it was untrue. Firstly, as soon as they announced dessert was ready everyone RAN (none of this "Oh no dahling, I couldn't possibly be the first in the queue"). Err yeah, secondly, no queue, just dive in wherever. Thirdly, no-one took one dessert, everyone took at least three. Was so funny. And yummy. Then coffee and more dancing till we left, pretty tired.

Slept in till 11 this morning which was good. Had breakfast, went for a wander down to the lacks and sat and sunned ourselves for a nice long while. Tried "bolognaise toast" for lunch (oh my god, this has so been another entry all about food) and then I headed back to Peri.

Ah, life is good. It's almost 6pm and it's still light (and sunny!).

Ah comme je suis heureuse aujourd’hui...il y a du soleil ! Il fait très très beau (20 degrés on m’a dit) et j’ai le sentiment que le printemps est vraiment arrivé et que tout va alors bien. Mais je peux bien voir que parce que le soleil n’entre dans mon appartement qu’entre 8h et 10h que je vais dépenser trop d’argent pour passer les après-midis aux cafés dans les mois qui viennent.

Hier on a fait la guide gallo-romane du ville, assez intéressant mais, moi, je préférais celle qui était médiévale. Mais quand même ça faisait 2 heures que j’écoutais le francais et j’ai appris pas mal de choses intéressants. Le soir on est allé au bar, « Bartola » qui était un peu différent des autres bars qu’on fréquente ici et qui m’a plu. Il y avait les cours de danse « Salsa » et j’aimerais y assister une fois peut-être ?!

Aujourd’hui les leçons...pas mal, et j’ai rigolé un peu avec les autres profs, qui me semble bien (peut-être, enfin, ils s’ouvrent vers moi un tout petit peu). Pour célébrer, je m’a acheté une bouteille du cidre de Normandie (1EUR !)...je le bois maintenant (vraiment, je vous jure que je ne suis pas un alcoolique !) et ça ajoute au sentiment du bien-être estival !

Demain je vais chez Rachel pour passer le week-end a Montpon. Sans doute on va se reposer, peut-être qu’on fera visite à Libourne, et puis, le samedi soir il y a la « soirée Périgourdine » ! Je l’attends bien.

En général, il semble que je commence a remplir mes jours avec plus de choses, qui est bien. J’ai fait cette semaine une grande révision de la grammaire francaise et ce soir je vais travailler sur la dissertation de l’Union Européenne. De plus, j’ai écrit les « Blogs » de ce que je fais comme assistante de l’Anglais...je le veux comme outil pour l’avenir. Il faut que j’aille plus souvent au piscine, mais, ça semble que les choses s’améliorent. J’ai commencé a m’endormir et me réveiller plus tôt, et je pense que, par conséquence j’ai plus d’énergie.

A few things which worked particularly well...

TV Game
(CM1 and CM2)
I was surprised but this was really successful! So, over several lessons, we learnt prepositions (on, in, under...you could add others), and objects (table, fridge, chair, basket...). Then one lesson I came in and just started the lesson off really animatedly as a TV presenter (all in English) "Hello and welcome to the TV game". On the board I put up an image of a kitchen with patafixed (bluetacked) animals in it. I then invited two "contestants" from the class (a boy and a girl) up and did a quick "H! What's your name? Where are you from?" etc. They had 30 seconds to look at the picture and then had to turn and face the audience. I would ask "Where is the black cat?" "Where is the white rabbit?", they would respond and the "audience" would say "right" or "wrong". They had 3 questions like that then we did "well, ______ is the winner! Well done! Thank you and goodbye". And restart with the next two contestants (after asking a child to move the animals around). After a few gos I let a child be the presenter and I was one of the contestants and didn't understand ANY French at all! Was really fun and they got into it/picked up what was going on with me only talking English really quickly.

Weather
(All levels)
Similiar idea as above. Didn't give them any warning of what we were going to do, just stuck a map of the world up on the board and launched into a weather forecast. Afterwards I would use my "microphone" to quiz the children about what I had said and invite the next "forecaster" to the board.

Monsters
(CE2 and CM1)
Over several lessons built up words to describe hair and eyes (could add lots more to this); I stuck to colours and long, short, curly, straight and wavy. I drew 9 silly-looking and brightly coloured monsters which went on the board. One at a time the children had to come up and described a monster and the children had to guess which one. Was careful to make sure that some of the monsters could be differentiated by one detail only (i.e. long v. short hair) and of course they all had English names!

Buying Fruit
I took in 3 shopping lists, little pictures of the fruits which were on the lists (and which we'd already learnt) and some 5, 10 and 20 pence pieces. The first time I distributed fruits to them and said "I'm going SHOPPING" (with big gestures to myself, emphasis on SHOPPING which they understand and jangling my money. Then I said "Can I have ....an apple?". The child with an apple holds up their hand and I set up a little dialogue with them (all in English), hello, how much?, thank you etc, and give them the money. Repeated this several times so they all got the idea. Then split them into 3 teams (still all in English...), gave each team their shopping list of 4 fruits and some money and went through them with them having to do their shopping with me. Then a big "Oh you have 4 fruits! Well done!" to the team who did all their shopping first.
I was kinda nervous about doing this (these kids are very excitable and have only been doing English since end of Nov), but actually the amount of English I said and they fact they could add in little things like "Hello!" and "Thank you" which we haven't exactly learnt but which they know, really kept their attention and yeah it went really well.

Shopping/My Town lesson
Give half of the children in the class a piece of a piece of paper which gives them a clue as to what shop/place in town they have to go to, i.e. a piece of bread = bakers, an ill child = hospital. Put the pictures of these places around the room. The children with cards have to stand up and go and find a child without a card and do a little role-play, "excuse-me, I'm lost! Where is _____?" etc. They must then go and stand by correct picture on the walls. Swap roles.

Restaurant menu reading evaluation
Comprehension questions to check understanding. Then get them to write their own.

Christmas
Comparing traditions in England and France
Christmas vocabulary
Christmas songs
Christmas cards
“Father Christmas/A snowman has got/is wearing…” (CM1-CM2)

Clothes
Children work in pairs. Each pair has two pieces of paper; on one of them they draw a girl/boy/character in coloured/patterned clothes. On the other they write phrases to describe this character, for example "The girl is wearing blue, spotted trousers, black shoes and a pink, flowery t-shirt". I collect in the sheets and distribute the descriptions only to different "teams" who then work on using these to draw their own version of the character. As a class, compare all the pictures and discuss the differences.

"My Town"
Teach words of places in town, e.g. post office, school etc. Draw a big map with pictures of these places on the wall. Teach up, down, left, right, continue, stop. Get one child to come up to board with a piece of chalk and close eyes, the others must direct him from one place to another using these directions.

School timetables

Make an English dictionary
At the end of my year with my CE1s I made a Class Dictionary. It was a good way to review all the words they had learnt, and I set it up at the beginning and something they would be able to take with them into next year. I split them into groups of 3 or 4 and each group got given a theme from this year (e.g. animals) and had to work on that, making a page for each word with a big picture for it.

Penfriend work
Letters
My favourite things
Culture box exchange
"My school" project

Otherwise most of my ideas come from the internet! Particularly the inspection academique 24 website, the CIEP website, British Council and Primalangues.

CE1
Se présenter
Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Book: animals and colours)
Christmas
The weather
Buying fruit
Sports
Toys
My classroom
Months of the year
My town
My home
Food

CE2
Se présenter
Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Book: animals and colours)
Christmas
The weather
Buying Fruit
Describing myself
Sports
Clothes
My classroom (and prepositions)
Months of the year
My town
My home
Food

Evaluation: Writing a postcard/oral evaluations/dictation

CM1
Going through customs (se présenter and clothes) (Oral evaluation)
TV Game (prepositions and animals)
Christmas
Penfriend letters (My birthday, Sports/Hobbys, My family, Describing myself) (Written evaluation)
Weather
Fashion Show (review of clothes) (Oral evaluation)
Book: Where's Spot?
Fruit
Food (Menu, reading comprehension evaluation)
Months of the year
My school (oral evaluation: asking and giving information, favourite subjects)
My town (written evaluation: form filling/understanding written English)

CM2
Going through customs (se présenter and clothes) (Oral evaluation)
TV Game (prepositions and animals) (Oral evaluation)
Christmas
Penfriend letters (My birthday, Sports/Hobbys, My family, Describing myself and other people) (Written evaluation)
Weather
Fashion Show (review of clothes) (Oral evaluation)
Fruit
Food (Menu, reading comprehension evaluation)
Months of the year
Time
My school (oral evaluation: asking and giving information, favourite subjects)
My town (written evaluation: form filling/understanding written English)

First or second lesson: English!
Use maps and realia. Where do people speak English? How far away are these places/how do you get there (plane, boat etc)? My home town/region. English words they know which are used in French etc.

Christmas traditions
Comparison of Christmas traditions here and in England: food, routine, cards, presents, decorations, celebrations.

English sports
Introduction to typically English sports, e.g. cricket, "The Boat Race". Discussion of "soccer" versus "American Football" etc.

The Beatles
Introduction to the music of The Beatles, where they come from, their popularity etc and the role they played in British Culture.

Food
Typical food in the day of an English child, and "special treats": fish and chips, Roast dinner, afternoon tea. Get children to write questions to penfriends about this.

English money
Talk about pounds, dollars, euros and francs. Show them some English money, get them to fill in each sheet matching pictures of coins with amount (using symbol). Talk about Queen on notes/coins.

Halloween, Pancake Day, Thanksgiving (in America), St Patrick's Day