First Day of School

I am exhausted! Today was Back to School for Canyons School District. For some reason, ever since being in grade school, I have always had a hard time sleeping the night before going back to school. There is just too much to think about! This morning, I pulled myself out of bed at 5:20am, put on my new black and white striped Maxi dress and took off to open this amazing, brand-new high school that you see on your left. It was exciting to be part of the morning welcoming crowd: my student body officers handed out candy and greeted each kid with, "Have a sweet day," as they walked in the front doors. The mascot was outside, all dressed up in a Charger costume. The cheerleaders performed stunts. There was a great energy as the commons area filled with kids. Once the bell rang to begin class, I scrambled to get the student body officers organized in teams to read off the morning announcements, make posters and take pictures of this monumental day. The news station even came in to report on our new, beautiful (yet crowded) state-of-the-art school. http://www.ksl.com/?sid=26506967&nid=148&title=portable-classrooms-added-at-overfilled-new-draper-high-school&fm=home_page&s_cid=queue-1
If you think that is cool, Big Buddha is coming on Wednesday!

As we were planning the festivities for the week, the head custodian came into 1st period to greet the student body officers. He was very let down, though, to see a piece of gum already smashed into the carpet. "It hasn't even been one day and there is gum already in the carpet?? Come on, guys! Treat your school better than that!" How embarrassing. I don't understand kids mistreating such a beautiful place. I remember turning the desks upside-down at Copper Hills at the end of each school year and seeing them just covered in gum. Why is that a cool thing to do? Gross.

Once he left, we got out our school's fight song. We are teaching it to the student body at the Hello Assembly on Friday. We put on the synthesized instrumental music track for all 29 of us to sing. Student government is not really a choir class, but it turned that way today--we had an interesting group of voices, to say the least. Truly, we had a great time, laughing at ourselves as we all tried to pick up the melody and rhythm of this new song. I hope we're ready by Friday.

After student government, I taught two French 2 classes. I got many blank stares as I gave them simple commands in French like asking them to take out a paper and pencil. They said that their teacher last year never spoke to them in French, gave tons of book work and showed several movies like Ratatouille TWICE! Oh, I have my work cut out for me. The time flew by. I gave each kid a cracker with Nutella on it and we all ate it at the same time. They had to shout out, "C'est délicieux!" or "C'est dégoutant!" depending on whether or not they liked the Nutella.

This might sound silly, but my favorite thing today was just sitting at my desk once everybody had left, and admiring my classroom. I worked hard to put that together. On Saturday, I hemmed up my window curtains for three hours and they look so professional, if I do say so myself. I love all the posters of the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and other French landmarks that I carefully placed around my walls. I am proud of my food package bulletin board with langues de chat and gateaux aux carottes wrappers. I reminded myself that even though this is an exhausting job, it is so neat to be able to be creative and share my passion with the upcoming generation. Tomorrow I get to face a French 1 class of 43 students. It sounds like a crowd. We'll have to see how it goes!

Soaking up the last of Summer

It's the same story every year: summer flies by much too fast! Just a couple of weeks ago, I spent the day at Payson Lakes, paddling a canoe, soaking up some sunshine and laughing with friends. There were no schedules. No set time to jump out of bed and no time to leave. Everything was fun and relaxed. This is my first summer in nine years that I did not get on a plane and fly anywhere. It has been quite interesting. I wondered if I would be sad to skip my routine few weeks out of the country, but surprisingly, there are quite a few awesome things to do right close to home. And now I have decided that I can put some of that saved cash towards new school outfits! Yes! Shopping!

Speaking of which, official meetings for school start in one week! I can't believe it! I haven't been in my new classroom to set it up yet and I am going to have students, sitting in desks and ready to learn French in just two weeks! None of these kids know me yet. This is exciting yet a bit scary. As long as I remember to bring in my regular first-day Nutella and crackers, I should be okay, right? I am actually really looking forward to going back to a routine and getting my students all set to speak French, to love French and to dream in French! (You can always hope:) )

So this past week, I participated in a French seminar at the U of U. It was quite interesting. We talked about French stereotypes and where they came from. Do the French smoke more than Americans? Yes! I am not a fan of smoke and it was always tough for me, being seated next to smokers when I visited cafes in Paris--the smoke just carried right into my food! Cough. cough. Another interesting thing is French swimsuits. Did you know that many French pools will not allow men in if they are wearing knee-length board shorts? This is hard for us Americans to imagine as most guys here don't go to a regular pool in a Speedo. The reason, as my French teacher pointed out, is that they want to keep their pools clean and they don't know if those guys wore their shorts all over the city before deciding to jump in their pool. Hmmm... I just remember taking students to France in 2007 and trying to shush their reaction when they saw our guide come out to our pool in a red-striped Speedo. Different culture, kids.

Another stereotype is that French women eat cheese, chocolate, pastries and butter, yet they don't get fat! Is this true? The professor told us that she wrote her thesis on this subject. Yes, French women are still statistically less overweight than American women, but the obesity rate is slowly going up. This fact could coincide with greasy fastfood joints constantly opening up all over France--something that many of them would rather boycott. But chicken nuggets are so tasty! The reason that French women might be in overall better shape is because they focus on quality of food whereas Americans, in general, prefer quantity. A few bites of any fresh dessert can only do good, n'est-ce pas? Also, the French walk much more than we Americans do. Many even bring their shopping bags on wheels to the grocery store and take them home in the metro. I don't think I could live without my car for a minute.