Finally caught up. Sheesh. Singing along to my music is definitely a hindrance to my typing ability. I blame Drew, even though he wasn't here. He and I have quickly become well-known in the Georgia State group with our antics and singing. Good times.
Wednesday is a weird day. It was supposed to be everyone's day off but due to teacher schedules, my group (Sarah, Drew, me) have to go all day while the others get to rest. I guess this is karma for having one day on Tuesdays. Commute was the same, though it is interesting because we ride the same bus as our students. What was especially fun (and slightly adorable) is that while we were walking to the school from the bus stop, a student that was on the bus asked us if we were the interns coming to his class today. He introduced himself (Joshua) and told us how happy he was to have us in his class. We then had to leave to get ready but it was definitely exciting to have such a positive reaction from a student we had never even met.
1st class: 6/7th grade art class.
This is a 2 hour long class. Our second teacher (Ms. Bisbee) has the combined classes. Today was just a day to continue working on their different costumes and posters. Students actually had to design their own costume and are given the materials to make it themselves. So, we, along with another intern from Syracuse, helped the students where we could and made sure they didn't hurt anyone with their box cutters and everything. One thing that surprised me happened while I was helping a 6th grader create a Greek ship. He needed to make a box to help stabilize the mast. I was fully expecting him to either try and find a box-shaped item or even ask me to help him make one. However, without even missing a beat, the student grabbed a pencil, straight-edge, and some paper and went to town. Before I knew it, he had the pattern for a cube drawn. I was blown away by this.
2nd Class: 6/7th grade Odyssey of the Mind
I honestly have no idea what to write about this class. I am completely in awe of the things done in this class. The whole premise of this class is that there is a continent-wide competition. The students undertake a task on how to solve/explain a real-life problem. While the actual solution is part of the grade, their collaboration is what is most important. Whenever the class goes to the big competition, they compete with their groups originally. Then the students are mixed into other groups and given a new problem to work on. The whole thing is mind-blowing. I might put a blog dedicated to this idea in general when I am less tired.
((1 hour Lunch Break))
For lunch, my group decided to try French McDonald's. I think their slogan can be "Different Menu, Different Cheeses, Essentially Same Taste." The portions though, are much smaller. Poor Drew tends to drink too fast and there are no free refills here.
3rd Class: 8/9th U.S. Pop Culture
This was probably my favorite class of the day. This class has researched all sorts of topics of American pop culture, from Super Bowl ads to gun control. For today's class, they had a pop quiz: Write 3 questions to ask the new interns, while we did same. Then the rest of the class was a giant discussion about whatever questions were posed. We covered things from fashion to cars to food to gun control (again.) The main thing I learned from this class was that the "American Dream" still exists, just modified. The popular thing to do in France now is to look and be American, from clothes to music. I find this ironic because we often look to Europe for trends and fashion.
4th Class: 8/9th Theater
This was an interesting class. The teacher is making a new adaptation of the book. She is taking the play, cutting parts out and supplementing it with material from the book. This is especially difficult as it is a small class. They also are in the cafeteria which initially isn't the best of locales. However, after careful and strategic planning, it all actually works pretty well. There was really nothing for the three of us to do, so we sat and observed and gave some feedback at the end.
From then on, we met with everyone else, bought our tickets from Strasbourg to Munich then headed home. The rest of the day was dinner, downtime, more planning, and blogging. Now it's time for bed for school tomorrow.
Stray Observations:
Students seem to be more responsible that American. I don't think I could trust my students with some of the activities they were given.
Students also seem better developed. Some of the mental processes undertaken by these students is astounding. They are thinking of ideas that we wouldn't have even considered.
I was complimented on my French accent! My French is slowly coming back to me. I wish I could stay longer, even just for the sake of the language.
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