time for school...

so in case you hadn't heard, i'll be teaching french next year to grades 1 through 7. you may ask, "do you speak french?" and i'd most likely answer "no." however, in a small school, when the french teacher leaves, we look around at remaining staff and ask, "well? who's going to teach french?" and the person with the most experience wins. i have up to grade 12 french so it's not like i'm totally clueless but...i'll need some refreshing before september.

as my first duty as french teacher, i ordered an entirely new french program for the school. spend money - it's what i'm best at. i didn't think that trying to follow in the steps of the previous french teacher would go over that well with the students as everything i did would be compared to her. plus, most of her program was designed by her which makes it difficult for a new teacher to implement. this new program called Histoires en Action and it uses gestures with each french word -- like sign language. if you check out the site, it explains it if you want more details.

so i knew i had some major studying to do this summer. i hadn't started. then i had a dream.

it was the first day of school and i'm in my classroom until the principal comes in and tells me that it's time for me to go to the 6/7 classroom for french. i realize i have nothing prepared. i go to the classroom and figure we'll do a review/see what they know type class. i ask them, "who knows how to say 'teacher' in french?" no one knows. then i realize that i don't know either. then i woke up.

i'm a little nervous.

today i broke out the material and the dvds and started watching and reading and learning gestures. i now know 47 french words with their gestures. some of them, i'm not sure of the english meanings but...that'll come.

au revoir. (wave)