"Is Our Children Learning?"

Ahh, the infamous eloquence of our former president...

But the answer is YES, my children are learning! I had a really happy teaching moment on Monday when I first introduced the days of the week to one class of 2nd-graders. I started by saying the 7 days and just having them listen, then I had them repeat the words after me. They had no idea what they were repeating. Then, as suggested by our trainer, I put 7 little pictures up on the chalkboard: backpack, backpack, house, backpack, backpack, house, house (the French week starts with Monday). I repeated the words, pointing to each picture as I went along, had them repeat, and then asked, "what does this mean?" They all looked perplexed, cocked their heads and I could literally see them thinking. They started offering up observations about the pictures ("The bags have different names!") and slowly started getting closer to figuring it out. After getting soooooo close, one little girl who loves to participate literally jumped up and said, "Oh! J'ai compris! C'est les jours de la semaine! C'est les jours de la semaine!" ("Oh! I understand! It's the days of the week! It's the days of the week!") All the others immediately joined in, shouting, "Les jours de la semaine! Les jours de la semaine!" They were so excited to have figured it out, pretty much on their own, and I was really proud of them.

When I attempted the same thing with my 3rd-graders (also 1st-year English) an hour later, as soon as I said the words and put the pictures up on the board, someone said, unenthusiastically, "Oh. C'est les jours de la semaine." Not nearly as fun there, but that didn't stop me from being really excited about my first class. I still have one more 2nd-grade class to introduce the days of the week to, so we'll see how it goes over with them!

Both yesterday afternoon and all day today we had some more training sessions. We talked a lot about the curriculum and the examinations the 5th-graders will have at the end of the year. We got lots and lots of great ideas for introducing more subjects, vocabulary and ways to animate lessons with our classes. It's always really nice to hear what others are doing in their classes, too, trading tips about what works, what doesn't and how everyone else is managing. Plus, everyone has really funny stories to share about their schools, teachers, students and what goes on in their classes. We really should write a book!