Week 26 - Quick trip across the Channel

A weekend back home and dishing out British chocolate.

My interview on Saturday was the perfect excuse for a quick trip home over the weekend. I had a lovely time catching up with Sarah on the Southbank (although the weather was a little colder and greyer than the sunshine I left behind in Marseille) and also managed to see Katie, my roomie from Study India last summer, for cocktails in Brixton. One of the best things about being home has got to be the food - I finally got that roast dinner I'd been craving and stocked up on Creme Eggs and Easter chocolates to bring back to France and give to my favourite classes!

The time went all too quickly and before I knew it I was back at Gatwick Airport early Monday morning for a flight to Lyon. France being France, there was an air traffic control strike this weekend although I was fortunate to only suffer from a minor delay as opposed to an entire flight cancellation.

Annie, Kate and I went to the cinema on Wednesday to see Chocolat (nope, not the Johnny Depp film). It stars Omar Sy (the guy from Intouchables) and was all about the first black clown and actor in France so touched on some interesting films. Being a French film and based on a true story we were also left with a rather deflated, unhappy ending. Later we went on to tandem which was really busy this week!

At school on Thursday the teacher announced to the class that this would be my last day. I looked round confused - my contract doesn't end for another month! Turns out she'd got confused as German assistants finish at the end of this month so we reassured the class I'd be there again next week that they were happy about (phew). The addition of British chocolate to the classes mean my students love me.

Had a soirée at our favourite Avignon haunt, Red Sky, on Thursday night with Chelsea, Amy and the French squad. Our nights out seem to work inversely here - starting at the bar and heading back to our apartment for post-drinks and games of Je n'ai jamais... (Never have I ever).

Happy Easter / Joyeuses Pâques !

Katie x

Week 25 - St. Patrick's Day

I'm writing this with a bit of a headache today, entirely brought on myself after last night's festivities for St Patrick's Day (I blame the leprechauns).

Niamh came to visit over the weekend which was lovely and I enjoyed showing her around Avignon. We made the most of the sunny weather and had a very French picnic of Brie and baguette in the park next to my apartment, then walked across to Ile de Barthelasse and visited the Palais gardens. She also got to make the most of my oven (not all that common in French apartments) as we made banana bread. Looks like we'll be doing a lot of baking in our house in Exeter next year! On Saturday afternoon we met up with the family I used to au pair for who were in Avignon for the day. They took us out for tea at Simple Simon, an amazing restaurant with the most incredible tea and pudding selection. It's probably a good thing for both my waistline and my bank balance that I didn't hear about this place sooner.

On Monday I walked over to Les Angles with Annie and Kate, another town just across the bridge. I can't say it was quite as pretty and tourist-friendly as Villeneuve but we still had a good walk.

One of my teachers was ill this week which meant I just had longer with my other classes. This can happen quite a lot when you turn up and get given a class to teach that you might not have prepared for, but somehow I managed to keep 25 8-year-olds entertained for an hour and a half (pro tip - Simon Says is always a good fallback).

There was loads going on for St. Patrick's Day in Avignon - the French do love their Irish bars. Rue de la Republique was packed with people drinking Guiness outside O'Neils. We had a few drinks at Brian's beforehand which was very festive thanks to all the hats, flags and face paint he'd brought with him from Ireland.

Off home to London now for an interview tomorrow but am also so excited to catch up with friends and family who I'm going to see for the first time in 2016!

A la semaine prochaine,

Katie x

Week 24 - Trip to Toulouse

A visit to Toulouse and enjoying the Avignon sunshine.

After some serious post-skiing blues Niamh and I decided a weekend away was very-much needed so we spontaneously planned a trip to visit Toulouse, as neither of us had been before and we were keen to check out la ville rose.

Wine pong

On Friday I went round to Brian's for an evening of wine-pong and Chelsea's slutty brownies, before an early start to catch my car-share to Toulouse the next morning. I had a fun journey with a guy called David and his adorable 8-year-old daughter - we listened to heavy-electro, picked up a hitch-hiker and took in the views of the Pyrenees!

Since the trip was so last-minute, there were very few AirBnbs left available that weekend so we checked into a hostel instead which was pretty standard but very friendly - the receptionist had been a language assistant in Spain back in the day. We made the most of the short amount of time we had exploring the city's arty shops, beautiful architecture and coffee and cake. We also stumbled across the most amazing bakery that we'd both agree is probably one of the best we've found in France - white chocolate pain au chocolat, pizza in every topping, mini flavoured baguettes... this place had it all.

It was also the first Sunday of the month, which in France means FREE ENTRY to all museums. That was Sunday sorted. Eventually we said our goodbyes and took our respective BlaBlaCars home. The sweetest girl ever, Lorrie, drove me back to Avignon with two other passengers who were also so friendly and we all had great chats on the journey home.

Musée des Augustins

Caught up with Annie in Avignon on Monday followed by the standard Monday night music night at Red Sky with the girls. Somehow I always seem to go out on a Monday despite my hectic Tuesday.

At school I've been teaching the little ones the days of the week which has been a little tedious - there's only so many times you can sing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... over and over. I absolutely love my older classes though. We've been doing the rooms of the house and, much to my entertainment, I've been able to ask them Where is Brian? For those of you that don't know, this is a French joke with the older generation who were taught English with the character Brian (see the sketch below).

I met some more people at tandem on Wednesday (more French friends, yay) and even made some friends at the gym!

With the weekends rapidly running out I'm staying put in Avignon and Niamh is coming to visit tonight (we really can't get enough of each other).

Bisous,

Katie x

Week 23 - Making Local Headlines

Dealing with life as a local celebrity (jk)

Kate and I decided to be cultural this week and try visiting a museum in Avignon! I've only recently discovered that Avignon residents get free entry to loads of places around the town (including the famous Palais de Papes) on Sundays so the next weekend I'm here I'll definitely make use of that. We went along to La Fondation Calvert, an art foundation inside the walls which has some lesser known but still impressive pieces on its walls. There were quite a few old paintings of Avignon so it was interesting to see how the city's changed and try and work out where our apartments were in the paintings!

On Monday night I got a Facebook message from someone in Avignon. Strange, I thought, no mutual friends and I definitely don't recognise you. Had we met before? Had I been drunk and given this person my name? Intrigued, I replied asking whether we knew each other. "Y avait un article sur toi sur le journal hier". Aha, mystery solved! Regular readers of my blog will know I had an interview a few weeks ago with a journalist for the regional paper La Provence about my life working out here as a language assistant and it had finally gone to print. Give it a read here.

Everyone was out at Red Sky on Monday night and we carried on afterwards at Julie's apartment and despite leaving 'early' I didn't get to bed until just before 3am (party animal, I am). Needless to say, the 6am wake-up for work the following day was not the easiest!

As I was boarding the bus at Carpentras and said morning to my favourite bus driver he greeted me with an even bigger smile than normal and told me he'd seen me in the paper. We're now on first name terms. Managed to survive my back-to-back school day on 3 hours sleep and crashed straight into bed when I eventually got home that evening.

It was Drew's birthday on Wednesday so a couple of us went across the river to hang out for the afternoon despite the hormonal weather which couldn't decide if it wanted to be sunny or rainy. It did mean there was a rainbow though.

Brian and I went to tandem at Camili Books and Tea then Chelsea, Megan and Amy joined us for 4,50€ pizza we'd been planning on trying for weeks. Turned out to be the best pizza we'd had in Avignon so far, we'll be keeping that place in mind for future.

Have just spontaneously booked to go to Toulouse with Niamh for the weekend (we're having withdrawal symptoms after Orcières) so we'll be heading off to explore la Ville Rose tomorrow morning!

A la semaine prochaine,

Katie x

Classroom Game Ideas for Primary School Teaching

1. Bingo

The absolute classic, this works a treat every time. There are quite a few online bingo card generators, otherwise you can make them yourself using images from your flashcards. This came is great to cement vocab learning.

Each child has a card with a different selection of pictures on it. The teacher reads out the word for each picture one at a time and if the student has it on their card they cross it out. The first to cross out all their pictures is the winner and shouts 'BINGO!'. The student then has to read out loud the names of each picture they crossed out.

Bring prizes for the winners (stickers are always a good shout). Game can also be altered to the first to get 3 in a row, for example, which makes it last a bit longer.

2. Hangman

A great way to revise the alphabet. Tell the students they are only allowed to say letters in English!

Think of a word (I often play hangman at the start of a lesson to introduce the topic), then draw spaces on the board for each letter of the word. Students have to guess which letters are in the word. If they say a word that is, fill in the space. If not, start drawing a hangman (you might need to include a face for some classes so they can get the whole word)!

3. Simon Says

An absolute favourite for all my classes, this is also a great time filler if you've run out of things to do and still have 5 minutes to spare at the end of the lesson. Also a great game to play when teaching parts of the body.

Tell all the students to stand up. Tell them to do an action, such as clap your hands, touch your head/nose/shoulders etc. If you say Simon Says before the action, everyone should do it. However, if you just say the action and they do it then they are eliminated and have to sit down.

Some students get really good at this game so some tips for the end would be to try harder actions e.g. put your left hand in the air. Tell the last 5 students to go to the front of the class so everyone who's been eliminated can easily call out their classmates!

4. Pictionary

Another great game to play at the end of the lesson to reflect on the vocabulary you've just taught. The students love the chance to come up to the front and draw on the blackboard!

Draw a picture on the board and the children have to guess what it is (in English of course). Whoever guesses first gets to come up and it's their turn to draw. You can print out cards with words for them to pick out a hat or they can just come up with them on their own.

5. Charades

Very similar to pictionary, only instead of drawing the words they have to act them out! This is fantastic for teaching animals and sports. It can be very funny as some of them get really into it. I've found it works best if you have the cards in a hat for them to pick.

6. Eleven / Twenty One

Great for learning numbers, everyone stands up and you go round the class. Each person is allowed to say up to three numbers. The first person starts, for example saying 1,2,3 therefore the second person can say either 4, 4,5, or 4,5,6. If someone makes a mistake they are eliminated and have to sit down and you restart from number one. This carries on until number 11 (or 21 for older classes). Whoever says 11 (or 21) is eliminated.

For really good classes you can add in extra rules: two numbers changes direction and three numbers skips a person.