Saturday, December 29, 2012

T-Minus 156 Hours (6.5 days)!!!!

In just a few days, I will meet up with Emily, Lily, Rebecca, and Professor Cox at Detroit Metro Airport where we will board a plane in the early evening and will begin our journey to Noisy-le-Roi, France. I feel that it would be an understatement to say that I am excited, because I have been thinking about this adventure non-stop since before finals week. I’ve been dealing with an avalanche of questions since our January 4th from Detroit Metro Airport is now on the immediate horizon. I’ve been juggling a handful of seemingly simple, yet important, thoughts over the past couple days such as: what will my host family be like; will my non-existent understanding of the French language set me back; will the students understand the purpose of the lessons that I teach; and what will I forget to pack! As of right now, all of these worries are beyond my control except for the last one, but I’m not too worried about leaving anything behind…as long as it’s not my gift for my host family!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Developing and Tweaking My American Material Culture Lesson


While in Noisy-le-Roi, I will teach a lesson on American Culture, which I had a hard time drafting because I honestly have no idea what non-Americans would find interesting about our culture. Naturally, I wanted to test the waters and figure out what my future students might find interesting. I asked Valérie, my host-mother, to ask her four children what they would like to learn more about. Here are some of the general topics and themes that Valérie relayed back to me:
— Is there a fashion phenomenon in the States like in France? (French teenagers judge a lot others upon the the clothes that they wear.
— Are uniforms compulsory in all private american schools?
— What are americans favorite sports?
— What style of music do american teenagers listen to?
— Do you have any canteens in schools in witch they served complete meals? (Starter, main course and dessert)
— How are the american schools in the states? (architecturally)
— How are the kids punished at schools?
— What main languages do kids learn at schools? (French? Spanish?…)
— What are there compulsory languages taught schools?
— How many hours of class do you have each day, and at what time do kids finish school?
— How long last your vacations?
— What do americans think about french people?

Monday, December 10, 2012

Meeting My Host Family!



I had the pleasure of finding an email from my host, Ms. Valérie Courcoux, in my inbox earlier today! Valérie and her four children (Juliette, Pauline, Alexis, and Antoine) graciously opened their doors and invited me to live with them for the two weeks that I will be in studying in Noisy-le-Roi. Ms. Courcoux expressed an overwhelming amount of hospitality in her email, which I feel is an extension of the genuine good will that her entire family shares. Ms. Courcoux made sure to warn me about Boogy, their two-year old German shepherd. I fully understand why she felt the need to forewarn me, but I quelled her fears when I told her about Duggan, the Australian shepherd that my parents and I adopted nearly three years ago. All in all, I am more than excited for this unique educational and cultural learning experience to begin!