French And Gym

I've been called in three times (so far) to teach at the private school I am employed at. Once, to teach grade 4 French. Which I do not speak. James is bilingual, and therefore would make a wonderful teacher as there is a great need for french immersion educators. But as it turns out I didn't need to speak any French. I was prepared to teach a French lesson. If you have never listened to "Je Suis Une Pizza", do yourself a favour and avoid it. It gets stuck in your head as soon as you hear the song title. Sometimes, I sing it when I eat pizza. Regardless, it made a good lesson. Theoretically of course, because I didn't end up having to teach anything french related. But damnit, I was ready. I even had little pizza print outs for kids to draw their favourite toppings on.

Basically I planned a lesson where I didn't have to speak a lick of French. Thank goodness for modern technology.

The other two shifts I have had have been for physical education. I am not necessarily the most physically active soul in the world, but I think I pulled it off. No serious injuries, and only a few tears. And the kids did alright too.

HAH! Oh, being a certified teacher means I get to have lame teacher humour, which is ever so fun.

I have been getting a lot more experience with the primary grades. Teaching kindergarden is both different, and oddly similar to teaching the intermediate grades. I also have subbed for the After School Care Program at the rec centre I work for during the summers.

One thing I've noticed about the younger children, is that they are hilarious without knowing it. Call me Cosby, but kids really do say the darndest things. I was playing with one particularly cute little gal and we were doing one of those puzzles that you dump all the shapes out and then put them in the appropriate places. This particular puzzle was vegetable themed and under each of the shapes was the name of the corresponding vegetable. Because Canada is bilingual, the vegetable name was in both english and french. I did my best to read out the french (as we established earlier, not my strongest form of communication) and we finished the puzzle.

The second puzzle was of the same variety, however it did not have the names of the food written underneath the pieces. Now, the young lady I was completing the puzzle with decided this time she would read me out the french and I would find the puzzle pieces. I thought this was interesting and was impressed that this five year old knew french.

She did not. But she sure acted like she did. "Kim, pass me the le sundaeee" which clearly meant sundae.

"Kim, pass me the applelooloo".

I tried my best to keep a straight face through this process. I do have to say, that I wish she was speaking real french, as it would have been one of the first times I understood a french conversation in its entirety.