The mysterious English Teacher illness

There appears to be some kinda of bug striking the English teachers in Aulnoye!

First of all it was the teacher at Stievenart last friday, which was really anoying, cos I'd planned a whole lesson on Scotland (as it was Burns night, the celebration of the Scots poet Robbie Burns, for those less culturally aware!!) I'd even found music, but as I couldn't find any CD-R's in Aulnoye, (plus I wasn't sure if the cd's would even work on the old school CD player) I'd decided the best thing to do would be to take my laptop in. So I walked the 25mins to the school, carrying my laptop, which was actually quite heavy, only to get there and find out that the teacher was ill, therefore they didn't need me, so I had to walk back again. It was only when I got back here, that I thought I could have actually done something with the class, so they didn't miss out on their english lesson.

Then this week I was at Joilot Currie, The 1st English teacher was in, so I went in her class, they were doing clothes, and as I had a picture of kids in English school uniforms, I showed it to them. They thought it was really strange, especially the fact that they wear a tie, cos not many people wear ties here! I did have to point out that it was taken in the summer, and no, the boys didn't wear shorts all year round!! So that was a good lesson.

Then I found out that the other teacher was off sick, and so I didn't have anything to do for an hour, so I sat in the staff room and planned my lesson for CE1 on Thursday. Then after break it was time for me to teach the other CE1 class, I only started teaching them 2 weeks ago, when the teacher asked if I could. I love teaching the CE1 classes cos they are the youngest classes (about 7-8 years old) and normally they wouldn't start learning english till next year, so I get to teach them specially!!! I taught them how to say 'My name is...' and then the numbers from 1-10, they picked it up really quickly. Then I taught them colours, (Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple!!) (It had to be Rainbow, really!!) And yes I did then teach them 'Rainbow' and then gave them a little worksheet, where they had to colour the rainbow!!! Then to check that they had understood, I held up skittles (the sweets!!) and asked each of them, 'what colour is it?' if they got it right, they got the sweet!! So I really enjoyed that!

I wasn't sure if I should go in today, since the English teacher was ill yesterday, and I'm normally only in lessons till 3pm anyway. But since I didn't actually know if the teacher would be in or not, I thought I'd better go in just in case. So I walked in to the playground, and one of the kids comes up to me and says 'Mlle Famchon n'est pas la, elle est malade' (Miss Famchon is not here, she is ill) I almost turned round and walked back out again, but then realised that, that would look bad in front of the kids, so I went into the school, with the idea of waiting to the end of the the lunch break, then leaving. As I was standing waiting, I was thinking how anoying it was that the lessons kept being canceled, and so the children were missing out on their english lessons, when there was a perfectly cappable teacher still in the school, plus I was getting fed up of not having anything to do. Before I really knew what I was doing, I'd gone down to the headmaster's office, and was asking him, if he would like me to teach the lessons that Mlle Famchon should have been teaching, and he said OK then, starting with his class CM2 (11-12 year olds) in 5 mins!! Suddenly the 'OMG what am I doing?!' feeling came over me as I despratly tried to think of somthing to do with them!! When I walked into the classroom, said good afternoon, and none of the resoponded, I thought, Oh dear, this isn't going well!!! I asked them 'What the date was?' and finally some people responded, so that was a start. I decided to play number bingo with them, at first I only did the numbers 1-20, but then I realised that they knew higher numbers too, so I did 20-50, (and yes I did realise after i'd told them, that there were a lot of numbers between 20-50 and just choosing 9 meant it could be a long game!!) But anyway it went quite well, but then I had to think of something else to play, so decided to play Simon Says, That went well, though I did begin to run out of things to say, ended up saying, 'Simon says..........(long pause while I thought of something!!!) So obviously they knew to do it!! I mostly got people out by saying things like, Simon says...Jump up and down/wave your hands/clap your hands etc, then shouting stop!! I think they enjoyed it, and we played 2 rounds, then I had completly run out of things to do, but luckily it was the end of the lesson anyway, so that was ok!!

Not bad I thought, for only having 5 mins to plan something!!!

I went to ask the other teacher if they wanted me to do english with their class, but they had already started another subject, and so didn't need me to...so I came back here!!

Right gonna stop, and do some flashcards for my lesson on Thursday, teaching them part 2 of my colours lesson, Brown, Black, White, and Pink, and reading 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?' to them!

Becca

P.S No one has contacted me regarding plans for the Feb holiday, so it looks like I will be going home for the 1st week. Anoying, cos I would have liked to go travelling or something, but at least if I go home I can work, and so will have something to do, so it's better then being stuck here doing nothing!

Sorry for the loooong break!!!

I did wonder how long I'd be able to keep this blogging thing up!! And just when I actually do something exciting I don't actually write about it!! So I'm gonna write a bit about Prague, and then hopefully I'll try and update a bit more often!!

Well Prague was really good. I met Emily in Brussels and we spent the day looking at the Christmas market, and then went to a shopping centre cos we got cold! Then we got the train to Cologne to get the overnight train to Prague, this was my first experience of being in a country where they didn't speak English or French! It was really strange, I'd gotten used to the fact that if people didn't speak English I could speak to them in french!! I actually asked the guy in the shop in Cologne for 'a bottle d'eau si-vous-plait!!' before remembering that he wouldn't speak french, and would probably understand me better if I spoke English!! It was so strange the whole weekend not understanding what people were saying, In France I can normally at least get a basic idea!!

Anyway we got on the overnight train to Prague, it was really nice, we were in a 6 bunk couchette, but there was only one other guy in our compartment, and he was really nice, he spoke really good English, and he was from Prague, so he told us some things to see. Me and Emily took the two top bunks, and had quite a good sleep considering. Although there was one point when the train stopped and we couldn't hear the engine anymore, we got slightly worried that we had overslept or the train had broken down or something, but then it moved again so that was OK!!

We got to Prague about 10am, and we came in to the central station, which was great it was really close to everything. We walked around to find a Hostel for Emily, as she would be staying an extra night. We must have walked around the same square 3 or 4 times, before we found this little alleyway where the hostel was!! We left our bags there, and then went to Prague castle. It was really pretty, we had a look inside, and went down this little street where there were all these tiny craft shops. It was up a hill, and from the top we had a great view of the whole city. It was getting dark as we walked back down again, so we went to the Christmas market in the main square. It was really pretty with all the Christmas lights up and stuff! We went into a restaurant to have some traditional Czech food...I tried some, it was ok...ish!!! There was some entertainment on in the main square so we had a hot chocolate and sat and watched it. Then it was time for me to get the train back to Cologne, so we walked back to the station...

And that was where the problem started...I said goodbye to Emily outside the station and she went back to watch the rest of the entertainment in the main square. I went into the station and looked up at the departure board...my train wasn't on there!!! I had about 15 mins, so I waited a bit to see if it would come up...it didn't...I was running round the station trying to find someone to ask...eventually with less than 5 mins to go I found someone, I was just frantically pointing at my ticket, hoping they'd tell me where to go. They said I was at the wrong station!!! My train left from another station 10mins away!!! I couldn't get there, I'd missed it!!! I tried calling Emily but her phone was switched off, so I just tried to find my way back to the main square hoping I could find her!! Luckily I saw her...she was very surprised to see me!!! We went to her hostel to see if they had space for me to stay, luckily there was a spare bed in the room Emily was staying in, so I was able to stay there. There was nothing more we could do so, we went back to watch the entertainment again...it was really good!!!

They next day, we got up and went to an internet cafe so I could send an e-mail to my school to tell them that I wouldn't be in, as I was still in Prague!! I managed to find the train times so i could get back in time for school on Tuesday, so we went to the station so I could book the tickets, luckily cos I had an interail pass it wasn't really that expensive, I only had to pay about €20. I made sure I knew which station I had to go to this time!! It was the other station again, so I found out how to get there and brought my metro ticket. Then we decided to go and see the Astronomical Clock, as it was nearly 12pm and we wanted to see what happened. I've no idea how you actually tell the time using this clock, but it was really cool cos at 12, bells rang and all these little figures came out. We went up the clock tower, and got another great view of Prague. Then we went to the shops so I could get some souvenirs, and also so I could buy some more clothes for the next day, since I didn't have any!!! We had another walk round, and found a really nice little cafe to have some Hot Chocolate, It was quite strange thinking that I should have been at work, when I was sitting in Prague drinking hot chocolate!! Then it was time for me to go.

I went to the right station this time, to get the train to Berlin, where I would get the Sleeper train to Brussels from. It was about a 4 hour journey, but luckily there were some American girls going to Berlin to so I chatted to them!! When I got to Berlin I only had about 20mins to find the correct platform for the overnight train, I was terrified that I would miss it again, but it was fine I found it really easily. It was really nice on the train, I was sharing with a family from Brazil, but they let me sleep on the Top bunk, so i just read my book and stayed out the way!

The train got to Brussels really early, it was about 6:30 in the morning, I was sooo tired!! Unfortunately the next TGV train to Lille, (which I can use my Pass on,) wasn't until 11am, but there was a Eurostar train at 7am, I couldn't use my pass on that, but by that point I didn't really care!! It was only €25 to Lille, so it wasn't too bad. The train was actually the through train to London...I was sooo tempted just to stay on it and go home... !but I got off in Lille, and came back to Aulnoye. I got back here just after 9, so I just had a nice relaxing bath, and a nap before going to school in the afternoon!!!

The whole weekend was really good, although I am glad that I had to stay the extra day, cos I got to see so much more of the city, like the clock tower and things, which was really nice, and I would have missed out on if I'd got the train back on Sunday. It was exhausting though, especially as on the Wednesday I went to Brugge in Belgium, which again was lovely, but did involve taking another 6 trains!! (For those of you who don't know Brugge is where they make lots of the Belgium chocolates! Me and Emily went to a Chocolate Museum and then on a Chocolate walk around the town, visiting all the chocolate shops!!!)

I worked out that by the time I got back to my house on the Friday, when I went home for Christmas, I'd been on 18 trains in 1 week!!! By the time I stepped off the Tube at Hatton Cross, I never wanted to get on a train again!!!

I've sorta changed my mind about that now....am looking for something to do for the February holiday...Any Ideas welcome!!!

Right I'll try to update soon, with how stuff is going at the school etc...but right now I have to go do some washing....fun fun!!!

On Charles Bridge. Sorry it's Sideways. Forgot to turn it before I uploaded it!!
My Traditional Czech meal. Honey chicken (quite nice) Dumplings (bit heavy) and Red Cabbage casserole (not a big fan of red cabbage anyway!!!)
Astronomical Clock, again sorry it's sideways. But you can sorta see the statues!!
View from the Clock Tower, The Christmas Market in the Main square, Our Hostel was just off to the right of the photo
Prague Castle taken from the Clock Tower.