Continuing from the previous blog, it's still Wednesday and I'm trying to catch up in my blogging. I apologize for the incompleteness on some of it. I'm trying to go from memory...
Monday:
Monday was our orientation day at the school where we were being placed. Isabella was with us again, acting as our guide for the city. It was a bit of a hectic morning, with miscommunications and whatnot all around. It started off first thing. We were supposed to have met Isabella at 7:30 according to her schedule but for some reason, our itinerary said 7:45. Ergo, we were obviously late in leaving the chateau. Then, we proceed to take a bus (bus 15) , followed by the tram (tram E), followed by a final bus (bus 10.) Unfortunately. the route we took was the long was around (we went north instead south towards the city.) It still got us there, but there was a more efficient route. What didn't help is that we got on the right bus but it was heading the wrong direction. Eventually, we got to the school and met the principal. There are actually 2 schools that we are in. The first is a primary school that goes from pre-k to 7th, called Lucie Berger. There are many impressive statistics, but I do not have my folder with me right now, so I might upload them later. It is a private school though and bilingual, so everyone in the group was split into 3 groups and placed with teachers who taught during the English half of the day (the day is split between English instruction and French instruction.) The second school is a high school located a little further in the city but easily within walking distance. The English-French split is closer to 1/3 to 2/3 instruction. We also met our host teachers and learned about their classes, which I was very excited about. Unfortunately, I am not in a math classroom. Math is taught during the French portion of school, so I cannot observe in one. I will have to focus my research and findings on more classroom management skills of the teachers.
My classes are as follows:
7th grade Theater (working on the Tempest)
6/7th grade Art (theater workshop. 6th grade is working on the Adventures of Odysseus)
6/7th grade Odyssey of the Mind (group project-based learning. pretty awesome stuff)
8/9th grade U.S. Popular Culture (self explanatory)
8/9th grade Theater (working on an adaptation of Warhorse)
History classes which I do not remember as of right now.
Classes here are similar to how we do it in college. Students have certain classes only on certain days. No block scheduling or anything like that. It's definitely a change of pace.
After orientation and meetings, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. All of us (including Isabella) spent some time shopping and lunch on our own. This, to Drew and I, translated to wandering around town, familiarizing ourselves with it and finding random cathedrals to visit. (Side note: we went to the Notre Dame cathedral in Strasbourg on Sunday. It was breath-taking.) While we ordered lunch, Drew, who knows no French, tried to order in English, panicked, then started speaking Spanish. Thankfully, my many years of French are coming back to me and I bailed him out. We ran into Isabella and just hung out with her to kill some time. At the appointed time, we went back to the chateau where we had some downtime. Some people went grocery shopping, some people did work, some relaxed. I went on a bike ride, which was the perfect way of relaxing for me. Everything here is so FLAT, so riding is pathetically easy compared to home. I took a small tour around the chateau estate, which was beautiful. This place is amazing. I then decided to bike to the grocery store, say hi, then bike back. After a graciously cooked dinner by Anna and Jackie, Drew, Sarah and I went bowling with the entirety of the Georgia State people. Just for future reference, the people we have gotten to know the most so far are Joe, Liz, and Emily. I didn't bowl my best of games, but a fun time was had by all anyway. It was more about the company than the competition.
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