So, a few years ago, Brian and I went to a workshop at our foreign language teacher convention. The topic of the workshop was super appealing: How to take out the mundane from your class; how to spice it up a little.
Since then, it has been a longstanding joke between us and Peg. Here are the basic concepts gained from this workshop (just in case, you know, you need to spice things up a little):
1. Assign the kids a seat in class
2. Put kids names on popsicle sticks so that you can call on them randomly
3. Show Disney movies in French
This took TWO hours of our time. But, now that I think about it-maybe this is so profound that I wasn't able to see the true genius in these rules.
Or, more likely, it's given us a LOT to laugh at over the years.
Brian: "Peg, how do you get your kids to be instrinsically motivated to speak French in your class?"
Peg: "Why, I give them a seating chart, of course!"
If you can't see the tremendous amount of humor in that...you may not want to continue reading this blog:)
Otherwise, don't forget to add "Le Roi Lion" to your back-to-school shopping list!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
One never knows
So, I have a lot of dreams.
Most of them are pretty random.
Some of them are pretty scary.
Like the ones where a spider is spiraling down it's web from the ceiling onto my face.
Or the ones where some person (with a different face, though somehow you know it's that person) is in some place (that's not really the place, you just somehow know it's that place) and they are doing something very odd only you think that it's very normal.
But around this time of year, the dreams get down. right. terrifying.
Last night I dreamed that it was the first day of school. My first class had gone alright, apparently. The next class was coming in and I was standing in the hallway as they walked past. All of the sudden, panic set in as I realized I had NO CLASS LISTS. Whoa! WHAT?
You'd think with a plot line as thick as that, my dream would have lasted about 4 minutes. However, it lasted about 30, with me waking up screaming and (literally) crying because I was so anxiety-filled.
I'm not sure anyone who is not a teacher could understand the anxiety that a teacher feels right before the first day of school.
Fear.
It's something I don't like to admit, but it is there. It is not rational. I have never lost control of a classroom. I've never felt like my students were so out of control that they were literally on the verge of staging a coup.
Yet one never knows.
Could this year be the one where I get "the" kid that can literally trick an entire class into turning against me? Could this year be the one where I have "forgotten" to plan a single lesson the whole first day of school? Or the year when I show up to class only to realize that I am in the wrong room and it appears that my room has actually never been set up?
Somehow, I doubt it.
Most of them are pretty random.
Some of them are pretty scary.
Like the ones where a spider is spiraling down it's web from the ceiling onto my face.
Or the ones where some person (with a different face, though somehow you know it's that person) is in some place (that's not really the place, you just somehow know it's that place) and they are doing something very odd only you think that it's very normal.
But around this time of year, the dreams get down. right. terrifying.
Last night I dreamed that it was the first day of school. My first class had gone alright, apparently. The next class was coming in and I was standing in the hallway as they walked past. All of the sudden, panic set in as I realized I had NO CLASS LISTS. Whoa! WHAT?
You'd think with a plot line as thick as that, my dream would have lasted about 4 minutes. However, it lasted about 30, with me waking up screaming and (literally) crying because I was so anxiety-filled.
I'm not sure anyone who is not a teacher could understand the anxiety that a teacher feels right before the first day of school.
Fear.
It's something I don't like to admit, but it is there. It is not rational. I have never lost control of a classroom. I've never felt like my students were so out of control that they were literally on the verge of staging a coup.
Yet one never knows.
Could this year be the one where I get "the" kid that can literally trick an entire class into turning against me? Could this year be the one where I have "forgotten" to plan a single lesson the whole first day of school? Or the year when I show up to class only to realize that I am in the wrong room and it appears that my room has actually never been set up?
Somehow, I doubt it.
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