qu'ils sont mignons

Salut!

Sometimes my students are wild.  Sometimes they are exhausted.  And sometimes they’re just so darn spankin cute.  Today was one of those rare days that falls into the latter of the three categories.

The first week after the vacation is always a bit of a shock to everyone in the school system since we all had a routine before the vacation, which is then disrupted by two weeks of freedom, following which we have to find our stride again in school.  The kids seem to hit their stride faster than the teachers, as evidenced by all the witty comments (said in French, because their English is still lacking) that I got today...

A 3^rd grade boy: Les filles aiment le mot “butterfly” parce que c’est un papillon.  Les garçons ne l'aiment pas.

(translation: All girls like the word “butterfly” because it's "un papillon" (a butterfly) in English.  Boys don't like that word.)

Boy: It’s my birthday tomorrow.

Me: Oh fun, happy early birthday.  How old are you today?

Boy: 8

Me: and how old will you be tomorrow?

Boy: 10

Me: you won't be 9?

Boy:  No, I’m going to skip 9.

5^th grade boy: I want a snake.

Me: Better you than me, I think they’re creepy.

Another boy: I’ll get you a green snake for your birthday.

Me: thanks.

I'm reading a story with my spilt 4th and 5th grade class, and it has a tree house in it…apparently the concept of a tree house isn’t popular in France, so we ended up having a 5-minute discussion on tree houses.  Questions asked- Is it like a chalet in the sky?  Where do you put the kitchen? If it’s really windy, will your house fall out of the tree?  Is that where you put your monkeys? 

Quick blogging pause...our monkeys?  huh?  ok, continuing on...

Boy:  I went skiing over the break

Me: oh that’s awesome, was it fun?

Boy:  yeah I went on the blue slopes

(that this means nothing to me since my family doesn’t ski, but regardless I responded...)

Me: that’s awesome!

Boy: I got stuck behind a tree.

Luckily he walked off after that…I mean, what do you say in response to that?

The kids were reading a story out loud in my 5th grade class, and some of the kids were a bit timid about reading because they didn't want to make a mistake.  As a slightly counterintuitive teaching tool, I picked words from the story and showed the kids how it's ok to be wrong because often the obvious way to say the word isn't always right.  For example, the I told them how the words two/to/too are pronounced the same, as well as their/there/they're.  And how we don't pronounce the "k" when a word starts with "kn" (example, knife).  I then proceeded to blow their minds by saying that the word "know" and "now" are not pronounced the same even though we don't pronounce the "k" at the beginning of "know."  We then reviewed how the words "threw" and "through" are similar, but how "through" and "bough" are not at all pronounced the same even though they have the same suffix.  Needless to say that the kids were literally cross eyed by the end of that lesson.  But they weren't scared to try to read out loud after that because, as one of the girls said, "English is crazy!"

So technically I only have 6 weeks left in my contract...I can only hope they are as amusing as today!

Keep in touch!