A little something that can change everything.

About two months ago I did a lesson on feelings. I had a firts part with my lesson where I gave a sentence that illustrated a feeling, giving examples that kids could identify with. And at the end of each sentence there was a smiley corresponding to the feeling. It was the kids that told me where to put the smiley.
After that they all had a white board and as I was saying an emotion they had to draw it.

The first time I did it was in my class and all the kids were sitting on the carpet in front of the board. After only a few minutes some of them were no longer listening to what I was saying and prefered drawing whatever they wanted; for those who were still playing it was quite cahotic.

In short I wasn't really satisfied with the second part of my lessson.

We have the great opportunity to teach our lesson four times, once in each fisrt grade class.
Therefore I tried to improve the acivity part in the second class. What I did is that the kids were teamed by table. As I had already realised they are a lot more involved when there is some kind of competition. So for the team to be able to win a point the whole table had to have drown the right smiley.

It did worka lot better!!! Kids were really involved and those who might not have been involved were pushed by those at their table who really wanted to win. They were all helping each other, working as team to be able to be the first table to have 6 correct answers.

They learned the vocabulary but also how to work as a team. And for me seeing them learn and enjoying their time was a great satisfaction.

It is one of the lesson I liked most and I think I even like it more because I did not got it right the first time but was able to improve it.

Entering HIS world.

Sitting «　criss cross apple sauce　», books all around, let’s get started.«　Well dressed, speaking many languages, someone who travels a lot, but above all someone that is able to speak intelligently about things that don’t matter at all.　»That is his idea of a classy gentleman.
This young man whose dream job would be writing for the New Yorker magazine, because he finds it “sophisticated and prestigious”, started French because he thought it would «help [him] meet girls　», «　I wanted something exotic, I could have chosen Chinese but Chinese is a little bit TOO exotic.　» French seemed to be perfect «　everybody here in the US learns Spanish, I wanted something else.　» French is exotic but above all it is classy. «I thought it would allow me to appear like a classy gentleman. That I would gain respect that it would make me sounds smart and intelligent as not everybody is able to speak French here in America.”
“I am not from a classy neighborhood” and from what I was able to see of Greg, it seems that he was always quite attracted by this idea of being or looking good, fascinated by those gentlemen in suits, always well dressed and who looked so intelligent.
I don’t think Greg needs French to look classy.
Not one of the French interns at Normandale French Immerssion School, Greg speaks really good French as he has spent a year in France. French helps makes him feel like “a sophisticated traveler”.
“It feels good in my mouth” not a common way to describe what one think about a language but terribly accurate! Isn’t it exactly what you feel when speaking English? None of us interns from Normandale, Valley view, France, Spain, Columbia are native English speakers and I think most of us would agree with this statement: “It feels good in my mouth.” Whether you think that when speaking English or when speaking another foreign language that is why you like speaking it.

Speaking with Greg was quite fascinated, and even more for me who is not a native English speaker, even when he speaks you can tell he has something for words. It seems that every words he chooses to talk about something fits perfectly and that no other word would have describe it better. While listening to him answering my pretty common questions, I felt like he was telling me a story and I was devouring everything he was saying.

Looking forward to read his first article in the New Yorker!