I worked with the second graders this week, who were reviewing words with the "ing" sound. The class read the book That's Disgusting! (based on the French book C'est dégoûtant!). To encourage students to use new "ing" words and to write complete sentences, students wrote their own "That's disgusting!" book. Inspired by the book, students wrote about poo, pee, and other toilet humor. The students had a blast with the project's creativity.
Last Wednesday, I visited Colmar again with a friend. Besides seeing Little Venice, I went to the Musée d'Unterlinden, which has a huge variety of art from medieval times to the French Revolution to modern art (the modern art sections were closed due to museum renovation). I saw the very impressive Isenheim Altarpiece, which is a massive altar created by Niclaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald. Painted for a monastery near Colmar that served the sick, the altar portrays the suffering of Jesus and several saints, symbolizing that Jesus recognized the pain of the sick.
Here are some pictures of Colmar:
Near Little Venice
Little Venice
Isenheim Altarpiece
Isenheim Altarpiece
I hope to explore more of Alsace after winter vacation!
I worked with the first graders again this week, and my focus was to review the food vocabulary from the previous week and to introduce some new clothing vocabulary. For math, I assessed student knowledge of doubles for numbers 1 through 10, as well as their ability to count by tens.
Le jour de la Saint-Valentin (Valentine's Day) was on Thursday, and our class had a small celebration of the holiday. In France, Valentine's Day is considered an adult holiday and is not celebrated by children- Students do not receive candy or make cards. Luckily, my cooperating teacher understands how anglophone elementary students celebrate Valentine's Day, so she read them the book Hug and allowed them to make a heart card.
The major highlight this week was going to Disneyland Paris yesterday! My friend and I rode five rides at the two parks: Crush's Coaster, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, and Space Mountain: Mission 2. Although it was the middle of February, the lines at the attractions were super long. Here is a picture of the entrance to the Walt Disney Studios Park:
We saw the La Magie Disney en Parade! (Disney Magic on Parade!) at the other park (Disneyland Park), where we were able to see all the major Disney characters. Here are some pictures of the parade:
Sleeping Beauty (la Belle au Bois Dormant)
Cinderella (Cendrillon)
Snow White (Blanche-Neige)
Tiana and Ariel
Mary Poppins
Peter Pan
The Lion King (Le Roi Lion)
Mickey
We also stayed to see the night show, Disney Dreams!, at park closing. The show appropriately referenced the Disney films that take place in France and England, and was in both French and English. The classic songs were the best part! Here is my video of the show:
Enjoy these pictures of the Château de la Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle):
This past week I worked with the first graders. The students learned new words with the "ap" sound. The teacher also started to read the Eric Carle book Today is Monday, which incorporates days of the week and different foods. I definitely recommend that book for those reviewing days of the week and food. I introduced more food vocabulary to students and taught the students a new dialogue ("What would you like to eat?" "I would like_ please.").
On Tuesday, a couple of other assistants and I went to the Opéra national de Lorraine at Place Stanislas to see the opera Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi. (It was very affordable- if you didn't mind the uppermost and furthest seats in the theater- 5 € for those under 26.) The opera was in Italian but with the French translation projected above the stage on a screen. I thought the production was done very well, but I'm glad I was already familiar with the story of Macbeth. It was a great first opera experience!
For those of you who don't know, today is the Nouvel an chinois (Chinese New Year). Nancy actually had a small Chinese New Year celebration yesterday. They had a dragon dance and several performances that displayed different aspects of Chinese culture. Since the event also sought to raise money for girls education in southern China, there were local vendors and organizations that sold Chinese food and other small souvenirs.
This week I worked with the second graders again, and I got to present a wonderful PowerPoint on Maryland to the classes. The students loved seeing pictures of the White House (okay so it is in Washington, DC, but Maryland donated land to make DC) and learning that there are wild horses on Assateague Island. Unfortunately, class was canceled on Thursday because of the teacher strike.
That's right- it was only a matter of time before I got to experience a grève (strike) in France. The right to strike is very important to the French, and they are not afraid to use that right. The primary teachers only had a one-day strike to express their discontent with several proposed changes for the next school year. Starting next school year, elementary schools in France will have a half-day of class on Wednesday. (The past couple of years there has been no school at all for elementary students on Wednesday.) Furthermore, there has been a salary freeze for teachers the past two years and their taxes have increased during that time. Not all of the teachers in the Nancy area participated in the strike, but there was only two classes held at my school the day of the strike.
Today I got to visit the lovely town of Lunéville, which is only about 17 minutes away from Nancy by train. I visited the Château de Lunéville, known as the "Versailles of Lorraine", which is still under restoration after a terrible fire ten years ago. I hope to go back in the spring when the castle gardens are in full bloom. Lunéville used to be an industrial town with many nearby factories. Lunéville is also very famous for its faïence pottery.
Here are some pictures of the Château de Lunéville. Enjoy!
This week I worked with the second graders as they continued their "That's mean!" project. To help students understand the use of "ing", the teacher created a project in which students had to write and illustrate examples of being mean. The week before, students had read an amusing book about mean acts and drafted ideas for their own book. (For example, "Locking your sister in a dark room.") The students really enjoyed the creativity of the project and came up with some funny ideas.
On a side note, January is the time of year where the French celebrate Epiphany with a galette des rois (kings' cake). A small fève (figurine) is hidden inside the cake, and the person who finds it becomes the king/queen of the day (complete with a couronne- crown). One of my roommates brought back a small galette des rois for our floor to enjoy. I was lucky and became the "queen of the day" because the person who saw the figurine in a slice gave the piece to me because she had already won a previous time this month.
The main theme of this week was les insectes (insects) with the first graders. They learned that insects have two antenna, six legs, and three body parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen. Since the immersion program has no set curriculum per se, the students get to learn about bugs in English!
As the school year has progressed, I have observed how the first graders are being trained for their future classes. The teacher has started to include more dictée (dictation) activities in her lessons. The teacher might have the students take out their whiteboards, and then have me say aloud sight words (common words that students should easily recognize, like "I", "a", "my") or an easy sentence. The students then have to write the words or sentence on their whiteboard for us to check. During a later part of the lesson, students would practice writing new vocabulary or sentences in their English notebook. The students will complete many more dictation exercises as part of their education in the years to come.
In general, I would argue that French schools love dictées. As language assistants, we are constantly told that we are only suppose to provide oral support and activities in class, not reading or writing support. The French value a trained ear that understands the subtleties of oral expression.
In other news, snow has officially arrived in Nancy this week...
Bonne année! Happy New Year!
I had a lovely Christmas break with my family and friends. I had the opportunity to go ice-skating and to see two movies- Les Misérables and Argo. I highly recommend both movies, despite interesting experiences at the theater. During my first attempt at seeing Les Misérables, the fire alarm went off about twenty minutes into the film and we had to come back the next night since the theater was not going to restart the movie. Then when I went to see Argo at a different cinema, just as the finale sequence was about to start, the movie stopped (probably due to a technical malfunction) for ten minutes, and then resumed. What luck!
I am now back in France, and working with the first graders for the next two weeks. The most exciting part of this week was actually not with the first graders, but with the second graders. The substitute teacher for the second grade teacher did not come, so the other English assistant and I stepped up and taught the second grade class on our own. I reviewed regrouping in addition problems, and the other assistant reviewed adjectives with the class. For our final activity, we read a book with animal sounds and then had the students draw and describe an animal from the book.
The sapin de Noël (Christmas tree) in Place Stanislas is still up, keeping the holiday cheer going!
