"As you all know, there's no school tomorrow," the principal said as he burst in on my last period (read: end-of-the-day twitchies) 5th-grade (read: easily-distracted) class. And no, they didn't all know already. So there went any hope of accomplishing anything in the last 12 minutes of class (one that, I might remind you, is only 45 minutes long to begin with... minus however long it takes the kids to straggle into the room after recess). What to do in those 12 minutes? Assign homework! That's right, I gave my first homework assignment today. And it took the full 12 mintues to ensure that everyone understood the assignment. That meant me physically asking nearly all of them to tell me (in French) what they have to do.
In any case, the suburb of Metz where both my schools happen to be located doesn't have school tomorrow. The other teachers couldn't tell me why, since they had only just found out about it, but someone mentioned a manif, a protest or gathering of some sort. So that means for 3 days of teaching this week, we get 3 days of weekend. This, I can't complain about!
In other news, it's gotten pretty chilly here lately. I wore mittens while biking to and from school today. It was probably about 30 degrees this morning, and 50-something by the time I came home. Fortunately, it's been really sunny so the classrooms (otherwise very cold) heat up nicely. We have 1 more week until the entire country goes on vacation for 1.5 weeks for Toussaint, All Saint's holiday. In this next week I'll be teaching some (hopefully) fun and educational lessons about Halloween. Fortunately there has been a fair amount of "run over" into France with this originally (I mean, not originally, originally, but Hallmark-originally) American holiday, so I don't have to attempt explanation of the "what is it?" aspect, so instead we get to work on Halloween vocabulary.
Happy Early Weekend!
In any case, the suburb of Metz where both my schools happen to be located doesn't have school tomorrow. The other teachers couldn't tell me why, since they had only just found out about it, but someone mentioned a manif, a protest or gathering of some sort. So that means for 3 days of teaching this week, we get 3 days of weekend. This, I can't complain about!
In other news, it's gotten pretty chilly here lately. I wore mittens while biking to and from school today. It was probably about 30 degrees this morning, and 50-something by the time I came home. Fortunately, it's been really sunny so the classrooms (otherwise very cold) heat up nicely. We have 1 more week until the entire country goes on vacation for 1.5 weeks for Toussaint, All Saint's holiday. In this next week I'll be teaching some (hopefully) fun and educational lessons about Halloween. Fortunately there has been a fair amount of "run over" into France with this originally (I mean, not originally, originally, but Hallmark-originally) American holiday, so I don't have to attempt explanation of the "what is it?" aspect, so instead we get to work on Halloween vocabulary.
Happy Early Weekend!
Edit: So it turns out that tomorrow farmers are striking and bringing their tractors into the city of Metz. That's why schools are going to be closed - all of them, not just my suburb. As I told one of the other assistants, tractors in the streets is just another day in Vermont!
From the front page of the local newspaper's website
Augh, everything sounds amazing! Don't forget to teach them about the medieval origins of Halloween!
ReplyDeleteNow we know why the French economy is doing so well!
ReplyDeleteMichael