Seventh Day of Class

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I got my teeth cleaned today at eleven a.m. The stains were so bad and as a teacher, it’s unprofessional to have these things.  It almost insults my integrity as a teacher (well, that and bad breath).  I’m teaching proper grammar and vocabulary and I have stains on my teeth...

Clothes: Black long sleeved form fitted blouse, green white and black skirt, high heels (black) necklace: Rose gold black pearl that my Dad got me, Nanny’s broche. Nails: an affair in red square… Hair: Curly. Make-up: natural

One of my students who disappeared the last three lectures, Emily, showed up in class with all of her homework done.  Emily shocked me because of her absences and that she didn’t email me or anything in well over a week.  Her absences weren’t the only shocking thing. She got an A on the last chapter test, and begged for an Add code.

We had the Chapter 1 test, watched a little of BBC’s MUZZY, episode 2 of our text book movie and started adjectives.  Adjectives are fun because they are so important.  I want to make an extensive powerpoint for them.  Michael figured out how to have the text disappear and then re-appear. I want to learn how.

Another one of my students missed class but gave me advanced notice.  She couldn’t find a babysitter for her 3 year old daughter.  I notified her that I would allow her to take a make-up exam on Tuesday during my office hours.

I’m so tired and I have to work at the receptionist job tomorrow. Today has been a long, but very productive day!

8th Day of Class

Monday, September 27, 2010

Wore: Dad’s pearl necklace, Marilyn’s coin pear earrings, pinky baggy blouse with black crochet detail on the back, black pants, J Crew Wedge heels. Hair: Straight, make-up: pink and burgundy, yet subtle.

Adjectives…

So yes. I deviated from my lesson plan.  After grading all of the tests, I saw some consistent errors on negation and professions. Students kept saying: “Je suis un étudiant,” instead of dropping the article and leaving the un/ une away from the profession.  I think that’s a hard grammar point for students to grasp, so it was definitely worth going back over.  Also… negation.  Time and time again I see : ne plus pas, or ne…pas jamais, or ne allons or Je ne vais à la bibliothèque pas.

So, as a class we reviewed this and I had them jot down in 4 sentences off the top of my head, in their notes.

1. Nous allons au cinéma

2. Elle adore étudier.

3. Je veux partir à la maison (A sentence from Le Chemin du Retour)

4. Ils travaillent tous les jours.

Then we underlined the conjugated verb (because in a couple of the examples, there were two verbs: adorer + étudier, vouloir + partir).

Annie (another language teacher who was my colleague at the last university I instructed at) used a smiley face for the ne… pas.   (ne and pas are the eyes that you circle, then you join them with a smile)

I use a sandwich metaphor which works really well with direct object and indirect object pronoun placement in a sentence.

Then as a class, we made each sentence negative with alternating negations (ne…plus, ne…jamais, ne…pas encore…)

After seeing that I printed out the incorrect cultural project (dates were 2009, and not 2010), I decided against the embarrassment of stupidity … Hey, I’ll pass this out next lecture without any mistakes!

The rest of the hour and excess time went directly into adjectives, BAGS (beauty age goodness and size), sentences and all adjectives on the board.  By the time we were done, I had neatly filled a vast number of adjectives on the board.  Of course, adjectives are one of those special elements of language that can get out of control because of sheer number of them.  I cut us off after bavard/ bavarde, parresseux (-euse) and hope that they’ll memorize the forty or so adjectives on the board.

On Wednesday we have 2 birthdays to celebrate, so I figured we would do the skittles game so everyone can use colors (adjectives) long before they appear in Chapter 5.

In addition to everything we finally did numbers past 59 and stopped at 81.  I directed them to page 86, where they can find numbers greater than 59.  Maybe an extra credit question on the quiz? Oh perhaps… perhaps… perhaps…

Loving this French Blog !

Lab Day

Tuesday September 21, 2010
Today was a lab hour and office hour.  I had 3 students show up: including Wrigley, Jose, and Erin. I was shocked by the turn out rate. It's so rare to even have one student show up unannounced, the whole semester; let alone three in one hour and a half session.
They're also probably pretty nervous about the test.  They have the Chapter 1 Quiz tomorrow and it's a pretty big thing for students.  The group of students is a really good mix of people.  It seems really diverse and great camaraderie.  The cliques have formed and I know everyone’s name… Finally!
On their little cultural dossier, I learned so much about the Eiffel Tower and the surrounding landmarks in this city.  The assignment was to find out specific information on the Eiffel Tower and compare it to a landmark in the city in which you live.  From my student the Attorney, she informed me of a little known fact between a law suit about a California based city suing the city of Paris.  After reading the homework assignments I was in awe over just how much I learned (granted the assignment was in English, but never-the-less it was done with pride by my students, or the vast majority.  We’ll see how the test goes tomorrow.

Sixth Day of Class

Monday September 20, 2010
Clothes: Multi-colored tunic- black, yellow, red, green… Black Express pants, longchamp silver with brown glass beads necklace… Nails: red-OPI An affair in Red Square. Shoes: Black flip-flops. Hair: Curly.

Up at 6:40 a.m., at work by 8 am. Worked at the receptionist job from 8 to 5, one hour lunch break with a friend Carla, who makes for the most fascinating conversation ever.  She told me about her graphic and deeply upsetting birth with her twins, which turned out to be a great story in the end; happy ending and all. Work at the receptionist job was awful.  Certain managers blamed a missing document on me, which was a long story.  They needed to blame someone, and found solace in blaming someone who is relatively low on the chain of command.
Class was good. Based on how terrible my day at work had been, I did not want to wear high heels and chance further possibility for bad luck.

Fifth Day of Class

Wednesday September 15, 2010
Teaching was great! I walked in and said "Bonsoir tout le monde" and everyone responded, "Bonsoir!" A great and welcoming way to enter class.  I also trained my class to clap after someone has a mini-presentation.
Hair: Curly, with a bumpit and 1/2 up 1/2 down.  Grey slacks, black French cotton shirt (wrap and ties around waste 3/4 length sleeves).  Shoes: Black Ann Taylor heels. Jewelry: my gold heart bracelet, with D's silver heart bracelet & Nanny's pearl safety pin.
Joe brought me Antonio yesterday in the lab.  I slept well and was finally well-rested and motivated to teach.
I graded the homework at my house.  All my carpets were cleaned this morning.  My lessons are more and more fine-tuned.  It’s fantastic because the students respond very well.




I showed them a couple of Jean de la Fontaine fables and they liked it.  We had a pop quiz on the verb être and 2 students in my class have never heard of Bryan Adams.  I was so shocked.  Like OMG shocked.
After, we sung happy birthday to hector and I gave him his cart and giftà sour patch kids.  Everyone in class seemed to like that.  I want to do my lesson on skittles soon.  That’s a fun one.  We went over the verb aller and être.  They haven’t yet learned aller, but I taught it because they know most of it with “Comment allez-vous?” “Comment vas-tu?” “Je vais bien.”  That’s half of the verb there, so I figured they needed to know the whole verb conjugated out.
So…thoughts for next class include candy. When is my next pay day? Maybe I can teach them the verb avoir and incorporate that with numbers and colors (or is that too much to go over before we actually get to it in the book?)  My class seems pretty sharp, so I think they can do it.
After class, a student approached me and said, “I wanted to do something on San**….’s Hockey team! A lot of the players are from Québec.  I laughed and said, “I know.  I met one of them two weeks ago.” She was shocked and wanted to know where and more importantly how. I told her that I went out with my friend Fatima (Hoda was there and asked how Fati was doing).  Fatima informed me that she found a quebecois Francophone. I didn’t believe that Fatima could have possibly found a quebecois who spoke French in a place so distant from Quebec, so she introduced me. I found out that he was a hockey player later that night.  Ironically the next week on Saturday, Fatima went out with her friends and who does she bump into again?
It’s a small world.

Fourth Day of Class

Monday September 13, 2010

I worked 8+ hours at the receptionist job today and then went to teach at CC.
Clothes: Bisous Bisous brown long sleeved brown top, Alfani grey with blue pinstriped pants, black heels (the oldie but goodie that keeps losing its sole), my fused glass American Flag heart (an artist in Santa Barbara, Shelly Szekely made in 2005).  My little Jewish star necklace... Make-up: brown and frosty eye shadow, eye liner, mascara.  Hair... STRAIGHT.
Walking into class, I said the usual: 'Bonjour tout le monde' and heard a wave of "woahs" from around the room.
A student blurted out, "You straightened your hair!!"
I replied, "Yes."
Another student, with long curly hair said, "I bet that took a few hours."
I said, "Yes."
Everyone laughed.  I don't quite know why, but perhaps my subtle yes made them laugh.  Afterward I said, "Curls are natural and easy. This takes work"
I took role and noted the occasional absence, then tardies and asked the students if they wanted to go over their tests.  Everyone said, "YES" so I went over the tests as my mentor was walking by and I invited him in.  He was about to leave when I asked him to stay for an activity that I planned with numbers (Bonjour 46, je suis 27. Enchanté(e).) With the number cards, they introduce themselves to their partner with the verb être, because we haven't yet learned the verb avoir, and then they exchange their card with their partners and introduce themselves to the next student.  So, they go around saying around 20+ different numbers, depending on the size of the classroom.  My mentor loved the activity and will use it with his students tomorrow.
I also told him that I used his power point in class and when I got to "Qui est-ce? C'est mon ami Paul" Everyone looked at me, like... Really?  He laughed and exclaimed, "Non! C'est MON ami Paul!!"
After class, Eve and Rachel stayed after.  I played them a couple of songs by Coeur de Pirate on youtube, like Comme des Enfants, and Ensemble. They loved the songs, and I'm sure that when they go home, they will probably download Coeur de Pirate's entire album from iTunes.
Hoda made me a spinach cake, a Persian special. It was delectable!

Third Day of Class

Recap on my outfit: Black pants, multi-colored black, orange, red, yellow, polyester tunic dress, orange high heels, Nanny's black cashmere sweater, D's bracelet, my little Jewish star, black cashmere scarf with multi-colored fleur de lys... hair... CURLY!
Danny moved into Joe's spare bedroom in Joe's house.  My cats are vacationing there, because I am going to get the carpets cleaned in my apartment.
I almost didn't get the test or the homework sheet graded and copied in time for class.
Amanda approached me before class started.  She said, "I need to leave around *:30, for 5-10 minutes because we break fast and tonight's the last night of Ramadan."  I then said, "Tonight's also the 1st night of Rosh Hashanah, and I had hoped to let class out early--> right after everyone does the quiz."
In the first 15 minutes of class, I had 2 or 3 students come in, asking if there was room in my class.... Ummmmm.... no!?!
No more students! Please! Class went by perfectly.  I followed my lesson plan and it all went well.  I reviewed the chapter: numbers, indefinite and definite articles, things in a class, salutations. Something to consider reviewing  is combien de. That's hard for some students.
Hoda is leaving to France in the next week or two.
After class, Joe accompanied me to services at temple Beth (a reform Jewish synagogue out of the city in which I live).  The services were held at a neighborhood church, to accommodate the vast number of participants.  It was a little odd seeing a cross on a side wall during temple services.
Joe provoked me to tears.  Everyone stood for the Mourner's Kaddish and recited it.  Joe tapped my arm and said, "STOP. Stop. How dare you say this prayer.  You haven't lost a mother, father, sibling or grandparent.  You mustn't say this and it's very bad luck.  Now someone in your family is going to die!"
After the prayer was done (I continued through this prayer, regardless of what he said) he was enraged and very angry with me.
It turns out that you should only say the Mourner's Kaddish if you lost immediate family in the past 11 months, but MOST reform temples recite this prayer as a congregation, ie: everyone.
His ridiculous superstition made me very upset.  It is also provoking an argument over the use of the word most vs. some reform temples, as found on wikipedia. " In many Reform synagogues, the entire congregation recites the Mourners' Kaddish together." Mourner's Kaddish

Second Day of Class

Wednesday September 1, 2010

Day two of teaching.  I was really nervous before my class.  I hate having to break it to an eager 9 people and say, “Sorry… you can’t take my class because we’re overcrowded.” 40 people???!?!?!?

Today: Moss green Banana Republic top with brown low cut express slacks.  Shoes: brown leather high heels.  Jewelry: tiger’s eye pendant that I made in a jewelry class years ago with D’s bracelet to match.  Hair… Curly, with a headband. Make-up: gold and blackish maroon eye make-up.

I worked today at my receptionist job (teaching is only part time) from 8:00am to 4:30 pm, ran home to kiss the cats. Joe picked up my friend Monique from the airport and she sat in my class.

Back to the stress.  So many people want to stay in my class and it’s very hard to pick who can stay and who can’t.  I was doing it on a case by case basis.  One person needs 15 units within 2 semesters and has a family.  Another is trying to immigrate to Quebec.  One of the students is one of my family friends: Hoda.  There goes 3 add codes.

Then I have students that could give a damn about taking French.  A lazy student came up to me and said, “I didn’t get the HW, because you didn’t give it to me.” P.S. I know it’s bull and I flat out informed everyone in the course: If you’re not going to be serious, drop my class.  There are 10 motivated people chomping at the bit.

Now I am debating on how I should deal with this.  I emailed my mentor and asked him if he would recommend that I email current students, telling them that this is not acceptable? Or deal with it because they’re already enrolled… I don’t know what to do and I’m really perturbed.

On Friday, I should grade homework. 

It’s such a shame that I am put in this position.  If it were my choice, I’d drop the ill –prepared students and enroll the students that want to be here.

In a Utopia, this would be the case.  There would also be enough French classes to go around.  So I guess even that would not matter.  Either way, if you’re enrolled, you have the same right to fail as any one has to get an A. It’s up to the student in the end.

I’m off to bed. Tomorrow Monique and I are going to the beach together!