First Day Kicks A$$ (specifically, mine)

You know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby!

RAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRRRR!!!

That's pretty much how it went. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, it was just... wild. The day started off well enough; I must have looked pretty good, because I got whistled at by not one but two garbagemen on my way to the bus stop. Hot for teacher!

My first class was at eight, and they were the group of juniors who come to my class in addition to their "regular" English class. I didn't open very well because I had to go over all the housekeeping first-day stuff, and I wanted to do it in English, but they just weren't following, so I had to switch to French, which made me nervous and awkward (and also the dry-erase marker bled red ink all over my hands), but they didn't burst out laughing or anything, so I got through it. At first they were stone silent, which had me sweating buckets, but sometime during the second hour they loosened up and started participating more enthusiastically. I think it's a class that will grow well, if that makes sense; they might be my favorite by the end.

After that I had a break, where I was relieved to note that another English teacher had sweat rings even worse than mine; then I took the opportunity to observe my colleague Cécile with her group of seniors. She spent most of the class talking to them about their big exam at the end of the year, and I was surprised at how frank but sympathetic she was. Essentially she was preparing them to deal with failure; she spoke at length about the "ratrappage," or the possibility of retaking a portion of the exam in order to pass. And she told them that she herself had flunked the first time and had to repeat her senior year. I think the most vivid moment for me was when she said, "En terminale, on vit dans la stresse permanente." (In your senior year, you live under constant stress.) This contrasted sharply to last year's senior class president at Baker, whose opening day speech went something like, "Oh my gosh, we're seniors!! We've got so much planned-- we're gonna have a bonfire at Homecoming, and we're gonna go bowling, and we're gonna have, like, so much fun this year!!!"

Chicken sandwich for lunch, another half of a Xanax (I'm just tellin' it like it is, folks) and then it was off for three hour-long classes. The first was a group of juniors, and I guess they were fine though at this moment I can't recall a blessed thing about them. They were followed by a group of seniors who shocked the crap out of me in the best way possible-- they were outstanding. Bright, enthusiastic, eager to participate and to speak out loud; it was by far the best hour of my entire day.

Unfortunately, I ended on a sour note with a class of five (FIVE!) 10th graders who take German as their primary foreign language. They've only had two years of English, and it was without doubt the most painful class I've ever sat through. Ever. Ever ever. And it was conducted about 90 percent in French. My original plan was to have them interview each other and introduce their partners to the class. After I explained this (in French), they sat and stared at me. So I went to the board and made a list of information they should ask for (name, age, likes/dislikes, brothers/sisters, etc.) and asked them again to interview one another. And they stared at me. So then I wrote the questions on the board ("What is your name?" "Where do you live?") and they stared at me. Finally, after we translated the questions into French and I gave them examples of answers in English, they still sat silently when I asked them to interview each other, and so the only thing left was for me to ask each of them the questions, and four of them attempted to answer. (The fifth answered everything with a muttered je m'en foue, a not terribly nice way of telling me to buzz off.)

I honest to God have no idea what I'm going to do with this group. I was so exhausted at the end of the day that I came home and required not only wine and chocolate but also the restorative powers of Patsy Cline. Thank the Lord, there's only one class between me and the weekend, because I'm wiped out!