A normal week

Bit by bit my schedule for work is being filled out.  I have about 8 or 9 regular hours of class and some weeks I might have a few more hours filled in, as teachers need me. 

This is what the exterior of my high school looks like...  I could only fit half of the facade in the photo, but it all continues in the same style.

Most of the week was pretty uneventful.  I had a few small group classes that went really well. 

One of them was full of conversation and the students didn’t really hesitate when trying to speak; they really wanted to try to talk with me and answer the questions I asked them.  They told their teacher how much they enjoyed my class and a group of students in the same class, who don’t have the same availability, were jealous and made sure they got added into my schedule!  Having students that really want to work with me is wonderful. 

Another class I had didn’t seem to go as well.  I had a hard time getting the students to talk and an even harder time getting actual sentences from them.  It was a bit of a trying hour, but afterwards, their teacher told me about how they LOVED the class with me…  I was shocked.

As far as Grad School goes, it was a pretty basic week:

In photography, our semester project was decided upon.  It is “the metro”.  I don’t know if I’ll participate in the actual project, as I am quite uncomfortable taking photos of people on the metro without their permission.  The meeting was still fairly interesting because of the exchange of ideas and I am planning on continuing to attend.

            I got my “Why Teach?” paper back from one of my classes and every student scheduled a meeting with the professor to go over the corrections.  My meeting was interesting.  One of the first things she asked me when she saw the work I had done on her corrections was if I had had help doing them, which I hadn’t.  She was fairly impressed, which I don’t understand.  Anyway, she looked at me and told me that she didn’t understand how I can talk and participate all the time in class and not have that level of competence reflected in my writing…  I make a lot of small mistakes with prepositions and other little grammar mistakes when I write.  I had to explain that I haven’t’ really had much grammar instruction in French…  She said that I have a lot to learn this year (she is teaching our class on grammar).

In my Thursday class, we all got scolded because the graduate students don’t speak French with each other...  Here's to hoping more will be used from here on out. Though, I won't hold my breath for a complete changeover since it may be one of the only opportunity for others to converse in English.

 Look!  The Ethernet ports have DOORS!!!  So Cute!