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Please sign the petition and encourage others to do so as well. If not, the above may be for real next time.
-Andy
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Only Lyon
So... my screenplay ate my blog. For a while: I met my draft deadline on that last Friday, so now I get to play more catch-up here. Which is nice, 'cause I missed this. Just to give you an idea of how far behind I am, this entry will recount the results of a brilliant last-minute decision I made. I booked train tickets, snagged a hotel room space, and spent the weekend of December 9-11 in Lyon for the annual Fête des Lumières ("Festival of Lights"). I am so glad I didn't miss it.
Yeah. I'm that far behind.
I almost didn't go, but thanks to some last minute cancellations (both mine and another assistant's), I snagged a spot in a hotel room and joined a few assistants from the Toulon area. Toulon is the big city in the 'Var' region of France, which is right next to the 'Alpes-Maritimes' region I inhabit. Regions are somewhere in between the sizes of America's counties and states. Both A-M and the Var are grouped together in the same administrative school zone, that's called an Académie, and that sense of nervous confusion you feel in trying to keep all this straight is just a taste of what it's like when I try to figure out exactly which organization I answer to as an English teacher.
Anyway, I booked tickets and hopped on the train on Friday afternoon, and spent most of the ride grading the tests I discussed (and photographed) at length last time. I got into Lyon around 7 and walked around a few hours before meeting the others back at the station, at which time we walked around some more.
In my walking-around time, I was immediately taken with just how cool this whole thing was. I don't know what you envision when you think of a festival of lights, but the Fête des Lumières is almost more like an art festival than anything else, but with exhibits based on light, color, and sometimes music. Artists with a range of renown do the installations, which you can find on event maps all over the city - in parks, in the middle of a particular sidewalk, by the river, and projected onto the walls of important public buildings.
Here are the photos. They are probably the most important part of this entry.
The festival runs that weekend in December every year, from the Thursday to the Sunday. I'm told the first and last nights are the best, and that includes a local opinion. That probably has something to do with the four million people pouring into the city to partake, mostly coming on Friday and leaving Sunday during the day. There were two times when we all got stuck in a jostling crowd of people so thick that we were packed together and literally could not move apart from the general flow of humans surrounding us, and hardly then. I can't help but think: that's what molecules of Nutella must feel like all the time.
The festival actually began as - and technically still is - a religious celebration in honor of the Virgin Mary (which is why it said "Merci Marie" in lights on the hilltop next to St. Mary's Basilica). The festival of lights began as Lyon citizens (called "Lyonnais") lighting candles in their windows all over the city. I'm told this still happens on the Thursday, but there was a lot of buzz this year about many Lyonnais boycotting that tradition as a protest against how commercial the festival has become. I kind of get that. But at the same time, the festival as I encountered it was pretty sweet. At the very least, you're generating a lot of money for the local economy, and you're doing that via a thriving creative endeavor. That last part isn't so easy...!
While the city was far too busy for us to get a table at a "bouchon," a traditional style of Lyon restaurant, we did eventually find a good dinner at Farfalla Caffè, a stylish little Italian place without throngs of tourists (like us!). Excellent stumble-upon. If you're in Lyon, try to get to one of the bouchons, but if you find yourself in the same position we did, the address is here.
Basically, we spent the weekend walking around. Lyon's a beautiful city, both during the day and during the festival, so we had good old touristy fun. Highlights included the center of town with its quaint shops and restaurants, Saint Mary's Basilica high on top of a hill with a stellar view of the whole city, vin chaud (hot, spiced wine) in the streets at night, and general marveling. We all had a good time and I plan to visit again when the weather gets warmer.
Also, I was just teaching my littlest kids, and one of them spent a good five minutes meditating while the others colored.
-Andy
Yeah. I'm that far behind.
I almost didn't go, but thanks to some last minute cancellations (both mine and another assistant's), I snagged a spot in a hotel room and joined a few assistants from the Toulon area. Toulon is the big city in the 'Var' region of France, which is right next to the 'Alpes-Maritimes' region I inhabit. Regions are somewhere in between the sizes of America's counties and states. Both A-M and the Var are grouped together in the same administrative school zone, that's called an Académie, and that sense of nervous confusion you feel in trying to keep all this straight is just a taste of what it's like when I try to figure out exactly which organization I answer to as an English teacher.
Anyway, I booked tickets and hopped on the train on Friday afternoon, and spent most of the ride grading the tests I discussed (and photographed) at length last time. I got into Lyon around 7 and walked around a few hours before meeting the others back at the station, at which time we walked around some more.
In my walking-around time, I was immediately taken with just how cool this whole thing was. I don't know what you envision when you think of a festival of lights, but the Fête des Lumières is almost more like an art festival than anything else, but with exhibits based on light, color, and sometimes music. Artists with a range of renown do the installations, which you can find on event maps all over the city - in parks, in the middle of a particular sidewalk, by the river, and projected onto the walls of important public buildings.
Here are the photos. They are probably the most important part of this entry.
The festival runs that weekend in December every year, from the Thursday to the Sunday. I'm told the first and last nights are the best, and that includes a local opinion. That probably has something to do with the four million people pouring into the city to partake, mostly coming on Friday and leaving Sunday during the day. There were two times when we all got stuck in a jostling crowd of people so thick that we were packed together and literally could not move apart from the general flow of humans surrounding us, and hardly then. I can't help but think: that's what molecules of Nutella must feel like all the time.
The festival actually began as - and technically still is - a religious celebration in honor of the Virgin Mary (which is why it said "Merci Marie" in lights on the hilltop next to St. Mary's Basilica). The festival of lights began as Lyon citizens (called "Lyonnais") lighting candles in their windows all over the city. I'm told this still happens on the Thursday, but there was a lot of buzz this year about many Lyonnais boycotting that tradition as a protest against how commercial the festival has become. I kind of get that. But at the same time, the festival as I encountered it was pretty sweet. At the very least, you're generating a lot of money for the local economy, and you're doing that via a thriving creative endeavor. That last part isn't so easy...!
While the city was far too busy for us to get a table at a "bouchon," a traditional style of Lyon restaurant, we did eventually find a good dinner at Farfalla Caffè, a stylish little Italian place without throngs of tourists (like us!). Excellent stumble-upon. If you're in Lyon, try to get to one of the bouchons, but if you find yourself in the same position we did, the address is here.
Basically, we spent the weekend walking around. Lyon's a beautiful city, both during the day and during the festival, so we had good old touristy fun. Highlights included the center of town with its quaint shops and restaurants, Saint Mary's Basilica high on top of a hill with a stellar view of the whole city, vin chaud (hot, spiced wine) in the streets at night, and general marveling. We all had a good time and I plan to visit again when the weather gets warmer.
Also, I was just teaching my littlest kids, and one of them spent a good five minutes meditating while the others colored.
-Andy
Monday, January 2, 2012
Finals
We're all just going to pretend I wrote this two weeks ago. Cool? Cool.
It feels, in some ways, like I'm still in college. I spend a lot of my time hanging out with cool people my age, I spend overall very little time at school, there's some French in there somewhere, and I still have that good (bad) old end-of-semester crunch. The only difference now is that I'm the one making, giving, and grading the tests instead of simply studying for and taking them.
So, yes, I had to take care of everything involved with giving each of my 8 sections a test. There was a lot of overlap in subject matter... most everybody had to label basic parts of the body and a few had to match feelings to drawings (like sleepy or happy, which they often pronounce "appy"). My more advanced classes did days of the week, directions (N, S, E, W, etc.) with U.S. cities, and American money (e.g., "A penny is worth one cent."). There was an oral exam as well... My oldest class had to (one at a time) make small sums with actual American coins. Everyone else had to come out into the hallway (one at a time) and answer the four questions:
1.) Why is this night different from all other nights?
2.) Why do we have to eat matzoh for the next week solid?
3.) What are bitter herbs?
4.) Should we use blue pen, black pen, grey pencil, or colored pencil, and should we write in cursive or print?
Ha. Not really. But they actually ask me permutations of #4 all the time. For more details, go back to this entry.
They actually had to answer:
1.) What is your name?
2.) How old are you?
3.) Where do you live?
4.) How are you?
My oldest class had to use actual American coins to make a few small sums (6 cents, 35 cents, etc.).
...The results were pretty widespread, which made me more than a little nervous about my teaching ability, the merit of my tests, and other such things. But a handful of kids did very well, and one or two teachers told me the results were consistent with their expectations.
I should also note that grades in France don't necessarily follow the same expectations as grades in the States. In the U.S., the goal is generally 100%, because unless your teacher is a jerk (or makes the test unclear/too long), everything on the test has theoretically been covered in class. In France, however, the assumption is less strict. I've heard that, to some teachers in France, kids who get a C (or equivalent) are doing just fine.
Another example: before I started taking French university classes two years ago, I was told that, to get 18, 19, or 20 (out of 20), you basically had to be smarter than the professor, and they had to admit it.
I hope that's the case. My French is good now, but I started at age 5 and I sucked at it for a good ten or twelve years. So, I hope the grades aren't as big a thing, 'cause learning a foreign language takes a long time even with good teachers like mine.
The other heartening part of this whole testing thing was the wonderful new batch of English mistakes. Of these, the greatest hits can be found here.
So, all in all the whole process went well, even if it's the reason I'm so behind on blogging. I think I'll try motivating myself to test them more often this time so I can focus on just one or two subjects per test. I'd also like for their trimester grades to depend on more than just one exam. I'm still learning their 150+ names, though, so we'll see how that goes.
Happy 2012, everyone. With any luck, there shall be many more French adventures ("adFRENCHures?") to come.
-Andy
It feels, in some ways, like I'm still in college. I spend a lot of my time hanging out with cool people my age, I spend overall very little time at school, there's some French in there somewhere, and I still have that good (bad) old end-of-semester crunch. The only difference now is that I'm the one making, giving, and grading the tests instead of simply studying for and taking them.
So, yes, I had to take care of everything involved with giving each of my 8 sections a test. There was a lot of overlap in subject matter... most everybody had to label basic parts of the body and a few had to match feelings to drawings (like sleepy or happy, which they often pronounce "appy"). My more advanced classes did days of the week, directions (N, S, E, W, etc.) with U.S. cities, and American money (e.g., "A penny is worth one cent."). There was an oral exam as well... My oldest class had to (one at a time) make small sums with actual American coins. Everyone else had to come out into the hallway (one at a time) and answer the four questions:
1.) Why is this night different from all other nights?
2.) Why do we have to eat matzoh for the next week solid?
3.) What are bitter herbs?
4.) Should we use blue pen, black pen, grey pencil, or colored pencil, and should we write in cursive or print?
Ha. Not really. But they actually ask me permutations of #4 all the time. For more details, go back to this entry.
They actually had to answer:
1.) What is your name?
2.) How old are you?
3.) Where do you live?
4.) How are you?
My oldest class had to use actual American coins to make a few small sums (6 cents, 35 cents, etc.).
...The results were pretty widespread, which made me more than a little nervous about my teaching ability, the merit of my tests, and other such things. But a handful of kids did very well, and one or two teachers told me the results were consistent with their expectations.
I should also note that grades in France don't necessarily follow the same expectations as grades in the States. In the U.S., the goal is generally 100%, because unless your teacher is a jerk (or makes the test unclear/too long), everything on the test has theoretically been covered in class. In France, however, the assumption is less strict. I've heard that, to some teachers in France, kids who get a C (or equivalent) are doing just fine.
Another example: before I started taking French university classes two years ago, I was told that, to get 18, 19, or 20 (out of 20), you basically had to be smarter than the professor, and they had to admit it.
I hope that's the case. My French is good now, but I started at age 5 and I sucked at it for a good ten or twelve years. So, I hope the grades aren't as big a thing, 'cause learning a foreign language takes a long time even with good teachers like mine.
The other heartening part of this whole testing thing was the wonderful new batch of English mistakes. Of these, the greatest hits can be found here.
So, all in all the whole process went well, even if it's the reason I'm so behind on blogging. I think I'll try motivating myself to test them more often this time so I can focus on just one or two subjects per test. I'd also like for their trimester grades to depend on more than just one exam. I'm still learning their 150+ names, though, so we'll see how that goes.
Happy 2012, everyone. With any luck, there shall be many more French adventures ("adFRENCHures?") to come.
-Andy
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