January 5, 2021

Tuesday

As usual, I was steeling myself for a challenge. I prepared a presentation on fairy tales for the day because the professor had informed me that was their subject for the week. I chose Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and Jack and the Beanstalk. I prepared a vocab worksheet that I knew would take up some time. The kids in these classes LOVE being able to write the answers on the board when we correct the worksheet later on.

When I arrived, the professor asked me if I could take half the class for the entire hour. This threw me for a loop. I prepared a lesson long enough for a 30 minute class period. She was insistent, however, so I did my best to keep them busy the entire hour. We spent a lot more time for my opening conversation and for the worksheet. Luckily, I had the good groups, so it wasn’t too bad. I’m worried for next week when I have the more difficult groups.

At the mid-morning pause, I asked why she wanted me to keep the classes for an entire hour. She told me that an older teacher complained about the noise students make in the hallway when we switch. Instead of simply telling her kids to be quiet in the hall, she decided it would be easier to just not have the switch out. Frustrating.

Sometimes, I have to adapt a lesson on the fly when I can tell what I have planned isn’t landing the way I want it to. That was happening with the fairy tale lesson. The professor neglected to tell me which fairy tales they worked on, so I ended up presenting all the stories they already knew. Who wants to hear about the same stories twice in one week? To make things more entertaining and engaging, I shared some movie trailers that touched on these stories. We watched the “Hoodwinked” trailer and they thought it was hilarious. I think I’m going to start providing kids with a list of media that they can access if they’re interested in learning more about something. That way, they can pick up English outside the classroom and get a little bit more involved.

Classes finished at 12, so I sat in the staff room until Mme Bodet came to pick me up around 13:30. Fabien, who helps with 3ème euro, came over to ask me some questions about a Johnny Depp cologne ad that he was showing the kids. He told me excitedly about the different “symbols of America” that he picked up on in the ad. The jazz riff at the open, an eagle flying over the road, a bison, and oil drills. He wanted to know how I read the clip as an American, did I see the same things as him? While I did, I read the ad as relying on those same symbols to project hyper-masculinity to sell the cologne. I told him that I didn’t think the average American would even put that much thought into it. The ad would be playing in the middle of a football game and any symbolic analysis would be lost of the realtime viewer. Next week I’ll be presenting on the different symbols in the ad and their background. Here’s the ad if you’re curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_gztgFysfs.

On the way home, Mme Bodet stopped off at La Poste to show me where I could send out my letters. Watch out, mailboxes!

I went over to chez Bodet for dinner. We had raclettes and tried out the new raclettes machine they got for Christmas. I swear every French family had like three of these. We talked about the American election. Daniel was angry that Trump refuses to concede. He called the situation dangerous and is frustrated people continue to stand by him. I understand the feeling!