Début

For the month of October, I taught a total of two days. Hard life...

Last Thursday and Friday, I started teaching French to elementary kids here in Perpignan.  It made me very excited for this year.  But of course it also made me nervous.  For one, it made me realize how little I know about what elementary kids do (or are supposed to) know.  For some of my classes, teachers want me to skip what the kids should already know to help expand their knowledge, but I find that difficult when I'm THE prof d'anglais for the year, meaning that most of my classes were waiting for me to start teaching English to the kids.  That also means that the students are at various levels within the same class.  As such, that will be a great learning experience to figure out how to keep classes interesting for those who are ahead, but still simple enough for those who are novices. 

Overall, I am really happy with my first days of teaching.  Of course, I loved when my students got really excited about what we were doing.  In this case, it was learning about me/ Colorado (so many oohs and ahhs over the photos I brought) and where in the world English is spoken.  It also melted my heart when two little girls in my last class on Friday told me "Tu es trop belle!" over and over.  Aww shucks, they think I'm beautiful!

For the remainder of the year, I'll be teaching every Thursday and Friday (followed by a five day weekend!) with a total of 15 classes and over 200 students. It's exciting, nerve-wracking, rewarding, and so much more, all at once.  I'm definitely thinking this was a fantastic choice for the year after graduation. 

But for now I'm on vacation!  Teach two days, and then have two weeks of vacation.  That sounds about right, doesn't it? I'll post more about what I've done and am doing over vacation in the next few days.

A bientôt!