I tell them up front that Im not a good drawer and invite them to improve on my modest attempts in their own drawings. They laugh as I start to draw Santa first. Santa is a difficult concept for a lot of them. They have been taught to say Father Christmas (they say Pere Noel) and they kept asking me to translate the word Santa for them. Is Santa the same as Father? Its just what we call him kids! I dont know everything!Apparently in the UK both Santa and Father Christmas is used although Callum assures me that only the posh kids would say Father Christmas.
It started out alright with my first class. A little over energetic, wouldnt stop talking, but Im no fan of a silent class anyhow so I let it go. One of the little boys gave me his drawings as a present. Granted that kinda defeats the purpose of having a vocab sheet and doing the lesson if you cant look back on it but whatever- its almost vacations - so I let it go.
The kids were cute and the phrase "il est moche!" (he's so ugly! Moche is a familiar term, the "proper" word would be laid - I'm learning all kinds of improper words from these kids) was thrown around quite a bit as the children tried to draw there little Santa Claus.
And then I had a class of kids who honestly made me want to sit on the floor and cry. They talked the entire time, ignoring me when I yelled in English, blinking for a second and then continuing to talk when I yelled in French. Every time I would turn my back to draw on the board I would hear a noise, turn around and one of them would be on the floor, "J'ai tombe." Oh sure...you just "fell" out of your chair. Or I would turn around and the kid would be half way across the room from his/her seat getting her pencil. Oh it just fell?
Finally two of the kids who were acting up the worst I got so fed up with that I took them back. The noise, the sheer noise as I opened the door to the class. The teacher literally started screaming at the two guilty children. I will never get used to the way they handle things here. If you tell the prof that the children have been bad, they want a full report, names, specific acts, and you can bet that they will be publicly reamed for each and every offense. They came to me one at a time and made their apologies then were put in the back of the class while she continued to yell about how they constantly misbehave.
Needless to say the children left after I took the other children back were better behaved afterwards. The little girls were sure to tell me "You are so pretty today, Madame." I always have problems with this particular class - they think they can play the whole time. Nothing I can do. When I tell the prof she says...yup, they're just bad.
One of the boys I took back drew this as his Santa....
1 comment:
haha that's ridiculous. i can't imagine how difficult it would be to get a bunch of foreign kids to pay attention to you. in some countries, i am sure it's a little easier, but i've read so many articles about french culture and the french education system in particular, it sounds pretty crazy. those jerks, i hope you didn't cry over them. sometimes you have to be really firm with kids in order for them to respect you and pay attention to you. i've learned that big time working at TJS. i'm not mean and i usually don't yell at them, i just redirect and make comments upon their behavior so they know what they're doing is wrong.
i just found out that one of the girls on my unit actually killed her mom's dog. she apparently slit the dog's throat...haha yeah, so don't worry about french kiddies. at least they're not teenagers!
good luck and i can't wait until you're home.
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