Unusual

6:43 P.M.

Oof, already in my PJs and glasses, all cozied up and showered. It rained like a biatch today, which made my 10 minute walk to the bus station all the more miserable. Plus my umbrella turned inside out a bunch of times, which is both embarassing and time consuming to fix when you're in a rush. But anyway, in about 45 minutes, I'll have to get dressed again to meet up with the French couple to speak some English/French.

So on Tuesday, I went to pick up my carte de séjour! I left it at home while I went to drop a friend off at the train station cause I figured I wouldn't need it right away. Haaa little did I know that I'd be controlled by la police nationale at the train station. He asked me for my ID and all I had on me was my California driver's license. The officer next to him looked at it and said, "Arnold Schwarzenegger! hee hee!" Fortunately, after asking me some questions about what I'm doing in France, where do I live, blah blah blah, the police officer let me off with a "You should really carry your passport with you at all times..." That was the first time I'd ever been controlled. Is there something about me that screams illegal immigrant?

As I noted in my last post, I made 3 of my CE2 kids cry yesterday. This one class drives me absolutely nuts. There are 19 kids, 4 girls and 15 boys. I'd say that about half the class really wants to learn and the other half wants to fool around and ruin the class for the others. So I had about 9 boys fooling around, running in the classroom, standing on their chairs, asking to go to the bathroom (after I announced at the beginning of class that they are not allowed to anymore), kicking each other, throwing spitballs, etc... and ignoring all the screaming coming out of my mouth. I don't think I have ever screamed so much in one class, my voice was so raw afterwards. So after threatening to send them back to their classes a billion times, I sent two kids back. One of them started bawling (he's the biggest troublemaker, but is really scared of his teacher), so I gave him one more chance and he was actually quiet afterwards. Halfway through class, I realized I wasn't going to get any work done and the kids were so bad, so I gave them a punition collective and made them write lines. Then two of the girls started crying because they didn't do anything. I excused the girls and a few boys from doing lines and gave them something to color instead, but I am SO FRUSTRATED with this class. I'm not getting any work done and they aren't learning a single thing. They still don't understand "How old are you?" and have trouble pronouncing "My name is....". I don't know what to do with them because I've already talked to their teachers and the directeur, but they're kind of whatever about the whole thing. I give the kids punishments, ask for parent signatures, and send them back to their classrooms, but either the kids just don't do them or they do it and don't change their behavior. I feel so bad for the kids who want to learn because I feel like as a teacher, I should be able to control the class. Unfortunately, I have zero experience and am all alone with the students in my own classroom. I wish I could scream like the CM2 teacher because she has some powerful lungs and can yell scary things in perfect French. Somehow, I don't think screaming in broken French is very intimidating.

Anyway, I just have to think of the classes that make me happy. Like today when one of my students asked me if I had daughters and another who said, "I have yellow eyes."