[Lesson Plan] Environmental Problems and Survey

Over the past week, I’ve been doing an environmental survey with the students, which was lots of fun and led to students shouting “greenhouse effect…OHHH!” and drawing farting cows and landfills on the board:

Finding creative ways to avoid saying "fart" in class

Finding creative ways to avoid saying “fart” in class

It was fun to see what the students already knew about and it didn’t hurt that a lot of vocab was pretty similar between English and French. I also got to try out some Beaujolais wine in the teachers’ lounge (apparently it’s the law here that employees are allowed to drink wine, beer, or cider at work)! Check out the lesson plan and some preliminary survey responses under the cut!

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Paris.

Before leaving New York, I realized that my bedroom had over the years become an unintentional shrine to France, what with the posters on the walls of Paris and paintings of France, along with a few little statues of the Eiffel Tower that have found their way to me over the years. Like so many otherRead more

Two Month France-iversary!

It’s officially been two months since I came to France! While the first month felt like an eternity, the past one has flown by and I’m actually a little sad that I only have five months left here. It’s been pretty amazing to me how quickly it was possible to feel at home in aRead more

Cap Blanc Nez, Cap Gris Nez, and Boulogne-sur-Mer: Getting to see England from France!

I have this list on my phone of places that I want to visit, which incomprehensibly had “Le blanc nez” and “Cap Blanc Nez” on it for quite a few weeks. We had a Tuesday off and in the afternoon, my roommate was kind enough to take me on an impromptu roadtrip to the very tip of France! We wereRead more

[Lesson Plan] Sleepy Hollow and Favorite Places

This week with the students ended up being a lot of fun; I did two different lessons with the students, including one where we got to talk about the environment. It was interesting to hear what they already knew (such as climate change) and fortunately, there are enough words that are similar in French andRead more

Iceland: Environmental Observations

One of the things that I’m particularly interested in looking at over the next few months is the environmental aspects of life in different countries. In Iceland, there was a heavy emphasis on geothermal energy, which provides a quarter of the country’s electricity (almost all of the rest comes from hydropower). Geothermal is also used extensivelyRead more

Amsterdam: Sleeping on a boat and getting stuck for an extra night

From Bremen, I took a bus to Amsterdam. As we were getting down, the driver told us to watch out since we’d be getting down on a bike path, the first indication of just how many bikes I was about to see. I met the other assistants at our hostel, which was actually a boatRead more

Iceland: Absolutely magical (and it wasn’t just the haze of sleep deprivation)

I had decided to do a daylong stopover in Iceland on my way to France. I’d agonized about it for weeks and then finally bought my ticket…only to have to start worrying about the fact that a volcano might erupt! I decided to do one of the Golden Circle tours and planned to spend the eveningRead more

Bremen: Driving across 4 countries with a total stranger and getting a haircut in German

After two weeks of observing classes and working for only about three hours, we had two weeks of break for the Toussaint holidays. I decided that I wanted to go somewhere that was a bit further away and wouldn’t be feasible for a weekend trip later on, so I ended up booking myself a covoiturageRead more

What am I doing?

I’m finally doing the Teaching Assistant Program in France! I’ve been considering doing this program for years, and even though it hadn’t necessarily been my original plan for this particular year, I feel lucky that everything worked out the way it did. I’d never been to France before this, and when I tried to envision what myRead more