teaching update

with the toussaint holiday and now armistice day (Tue Nov. 11), i haven't been doing a lot of teaching. in three weeks i will have taught one day. that one day was the first day back from vacation: thursday. since the french have a set number of days they need to have school, they come back from vacation on thursday which i thought was weird. why not just get the whole week off instead of come back for thursday and friday?

so, the kiddies were not that enthused about being in school and neither was i. they definitely picked up on it. lesson learned! in one of my afternoon classes, while i was trying to get three students who don't usually like to participate up at the board, i had my back turned. as i was doing my usual embarassing routine of miming and putting my hands up by my ear...then out of the corner of my eye i notice some movement...as i turn around the picture becomes increasingly clear.

there was a little boy standing behind me, mimicking every move i made!

incredible!! as all the students started laughing the teacher noticed what was going on from the back and immediately sent him to the hall. that little jerk. you should've seen the look on his face. let me tell you...

the day you get made fun of by a 9 year old, you know your life has changed.

although, he was so cute peering into the classroom on his hands and knees as i did the goodbye song at the end of the class and doing the movements. hopefully he won't be doing that again, otherwise no singing for him. the song/chant goes something like this:

goodbye everyone! (toes)
goodbye everyone! (knees)
goodbye everyone! (shoulders)
goodbye everyone! (head)

goodbye everyone! (wave in the air)
see you very soon! (head, shoulders, knees, toes)

they stand up and chant goodbye everyone (after each one going up a note, starting at middle C) as they touch the floor, their knees, their shoulders, their head and then wave in the air at the last goodbye everyone. then quickly go down head (see). shoulders(you), knees(very) and toes(soon).

i try to do a hello everyone, how are you today at the start of class and the goodbye one at the end each time. gets them moving and they love it. i can't remember who it was that poached this song from but thank you! that assistantsinfrance.com forum is excellent for sharing resources.

the kids seem to love singing so i'm trying to take advantage of it as much as i can. they always beg to sing. it's great leverage to get them to work faster...which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't :) i really want to bring my guitar in more so i can play the songs with the guitar instead of CD recordings but i need a backpack guitar case. my hard-shell one is way too heavy to haul around from school to school all day long. it's just not worth it. but to do this, i need a debit card for my french bank account. most websites here don't take american credit cards and since the only music store closed in laon last year, i'm forced to cross my fingers and go the online route.