Never ending Day...

So our day started at 6:15 am Paris time, aka- 12:15 am Florida time. Jennie and I flown all the way from Europe and are now in the Charlotte Airport. We have been here since 2:15 pm. We are absolutely exhausted. We have been doing absolutely random stuff. When we first arrived we were starving so we got some food! Eventually we made our way to Tequileria and sat and ate there. Now we are in some nice rocking chairs, playing music loud, and running on the people mover. SO TIRED! one more hour till we board!

Friday- Last day in Paris!

Since my second graders are receiving their First Holy Communion on Saturday the day I leave, today we went to the church that they were going to putting it on at. It was right by the Arc de Triomphe! Can I tell you that people in paris drive absolutely insane!!!! The people on the scooters are completely crazy. After church we came back and our teachers took us out to lunch! We walked to some place close to the school. When we got there, the teachers were like, "Would you girls like wine with lunch?" The four of us literally started laughing...but they were serious. It is their culture. So we had wine with our omelets! It was so nice of them to take us to lunch! They are all so sweet and I am really going to miss them.--- SIDE NOTE: In the morning my teacher pulled me aside and told me she broke two teeth by trying a piece of chocolate. (crazy!) Anyways, she asked if I could take over the class at the end of the day because she had to go to the dentist.--- We had show and tell after writing workshop. The students show and tells this week was awesome. One student literally brought a rock and said.."I found this rock today on the playground, I really like it." Then another student said, "Antoine let me borrow this little toy figure, and when i first saw it, I loved it." HAHAHA Show and tell is the best. My teacher ended up leaving for the dentist during it and I had the kids till dismissal. I gave them all hugs and wished them luck at their First Holy Communion. So sad, they were all so good and I just love them. Definitely going to miss them.

After school, we started to pack. Then we had our faculty dinner. Our table was definitely the best. If I haven't mentioned, my teacher is absolutely hysterical! Jennie's teacher made sure that our glasses of wine was full every minute of the night...AKA we all got pretty drunk. Even the teachers which is great! Colleen and I ended up eating DUCK! yes DUCK! and it wasn't bad. It was pretty good actually. Then our teachers told us it was duck glands... EWW. Our dinner lasted 4 hours! It was so fun though. The whole night we were laughing and having fun. I am going to keep in touch with Yolanda (Madame Garnier). She is an amazing teacher and I have honestly learned so much. She helped me face my biggest fears as a teacher and I am so grateful to of had her as a mentor teacher.

Thursday...A few days late...

Thursday:

Today in class, I led the reading group for Mr. Popper's Penguins during a vocabulary game. We went into the hallway and I was there for support. I love when the students call me Ms. Palermo, it makes me feel like an actual teacher :). After that I taught the lesson about sliding, flipping, and turning an object. These concepts are more abstract and harder for children to understand, so I used large objects for them to visualize it. I think the lesson went well and Madame Garnier interjected a bit with some great ideas. I have learned so much from my mentor teacher. She gives me great ideas for my classroom during the day.   I will definitely be incorporating the morning greeter, in which a student comes up and reads the date and tells us how many days of school we have been to.

After school Colleen and I went over to the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the TIPPY TIPPY TOP! It was awesome! we got pictures and everything! After climbing over 700 steps we rewarded ourselves with some ICE CREAM! YUM! Then we rushed back to make dinner and get ready for ICE BAR! A whole bar where everything is made of ICE! literally everything, from the bar to the chairs to the cups!

Well we were supposed to be meeting like 12 people there. When we got off the metro we were in a sketchy area where we definitely stood out. We ended up going like 20 blocks to far and were practically running to find this place on the way back. We had to get there by 10 because we had reservations! We literally found it at 9:58 pm! So we paid and went up to go in, and it turns out our whole group wasn't there. Colleen and I still went it and it was so fun! They give you coats and gloves, and you get to go inside for 30 minutes. It was -12 degrees Celsius. SUPER COLD! It is sponsored by grey goose. You get 4 different types of drinks. We have no idea what they were, but the last one was a straight shot. It was super fun and a great experience!

Wednesday

Today in class I went through the first chapter of Mr. Popper's Penguins with the highest level readers. I had them read different parts of the book out loud and then we went over comprehension questions. During math today, I taught the lesson on moving objects. They learned how to slide, flip, and turn an object. This concept is very abstract and harder for students to understand. I demonstrated with a book and then a large cut out shape. Most of the students seemed to understand, but some still needed help with their work sheet. Today my teacher had two meetings so for like 2 hours I was off to myself and hanging out in the faculty lounge. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Wednesday the students have a bunch of electives so they are out of the class most of the day.

After school a bunch of us went to the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa! One of them guys that worked there told me I looked like Mona Lisa! What....? Really? Also, Becky really wanted to see the Last Supper. So when we found a person to ask, they informed us that it was in Italy. haha Oh well.

<3

Tuesday: Victory Day!- No School.

Man, I must say that these kids definitely have so many vacations! So since we didn't have school today, some of us went to the Eiffel Tower last night. We climbed over 700 steps to the second floor of the tower. Colleen and I were planning on going to the tippy top today, so thats why we just went to the second floor last night.

Today when we woke up we went to the Eiffel Tower and found out the top was closed...rude! So we might go to the tower on Thursday and go to the TOP! Well after that we went to the La Defense mall right by us to go shopping. The mall is four floors! We kind of just roamed around because we didn't know many of the stores and yes still don't speak french. We found a store that had Long Champs and they were cheaper than if we were to buy them at home! I ended up buying a gift for my sister and mom...and got my self some stuff obviously! The mall was so big that it pretty much took up the whole day!

We came back rested and then went to dinner. Colleen and I picked a random stop on the metro. I chose Argentine because I like the way the lady says it on the train. Then we got off and picked a random cafe. The cafe ended up being right in front of the Arc de Triomphe! I got the Croquet Madame. It is a popular sandwich here. The sandwich has grilled ham in it which cheese melted on the top and an egg on top of that. It was delicious!

Monday: My teaching observation

I was super rested today for school which was enjoyable. When I got to school, I looked over my lesson plan I had written the night before. At 9am my directors came in to watch me teach my lesson to the second graders. I taught about fact and opinion. I started out with a little game and then went into what exactly a fact was and what an opinion was. The kids were all participating and seemed to understand it. I really enjoyed doing the lesson. After the reading part of class it was time for math. I was continuing teaching the math lesson from friday. The students did a worksheet activity and then my teacher approached me asking if I wanted to teach the next lesson also. I really like how she is giving me so much opportunity to practice and teach the class. She explained that the next lesson was harder for the children to understand and she would love to see how I teach it because she might be able to learn from me. That made me feel really good. Unfortunately, we ran out of time. I will be teaching it on wednesday, because they don't have school again tomorrow (They get A LOT of vacations). After lunch, my teacher had me pick up the class and continue their journal writing with them because she had a meeting. I had them all read their writings to the class if they wanted to. So basically, I taught for the first half of the day and I loved it!!! It was fun and I really enjoyed it. I can't wait to see my video of me teaching because I can learn so much from watching myself. During religion time when they were practicing for communion, they were instructed to go and say "peace be with you" to their "parents" (as practice) and they all came up to me in the back. haha it was cute!! Obviously, I had a pretty awesome day!

****SIDE NOTE: I forgot to mention. Last week I caught one of the girls in my class, sneaking in her desk glue. She was literally taking chunks of her glue stick and chewing on it!!!!! OMG, so gross! I had to tell her to go spit it out and took her glue from her. I couldn't believe that, literally chewing! not even licking. lol exciting part of my day

Saturday and Sunday

On Saturday there were about 7 of us that left the hotel at 10 am. We went to the Chateau de Versailles. The train ride took about an hour to get there and this was the first time we left Paris. Once we got there the view was absolutely amazing! There was gold everywhere (gates, statues, windows...) Before walking up to the Palace, we had to hold our bags super tight because there were tons of gypsies around. They swarm you like bugs! You just have to be firm with them and say NO! once we got through the gates, the size of this palace became even bigger. We started out our journey through the backyard of the gardens. You know those huge hedges that create a maze? well that is exactly what we were in. It was so pretty. We took so many pictures! (Look on facebook!) As we made our way through the garden we eventually made it to Marie-Antoinettes estate. It was gorgeous, not quite as large as the palace but bigger than my house! She even has a reheating room- to reheat food..WHAT? yea, just to reheat food! After touring her estate, we made our way back to King Louis XIV Palace to take a tour! The place was so huge that it took us at least an hour to make it through the whole thing. The halls where enormous and the rooms were so detailed. I was amazed by the sculptures and art on all the walls and ceilings. This day trip took the entire day! We came back and napped for a bit, but we wanted to go our since it was Cinco de Mayo! DUH! So four of us found this fajita restaurant and when we got there we found out we needed reservations! (We went all the way there in pouring rain!) We eventually found a restaurant and had a few drinks!

On Sunday we attempted to go to the Louvre Museum but the line was literally about 3 hours long! So we went to this flea market that our director told us about. She said it wasn't like normal ones and we could get stuff for super cheap. So we decided to check it out! Well on our way there, there for like 5 of us. When we got there, it turned out to be like any other place you would find in the bahamas or New York, except we were left with fear and clenching our bags as tight as possible. I got one thing, but other than that it was the same cheap crap you could find anywhere. And once you have gone down one isle you have seen it all! Well on our way back, we were about to get on the metro and the doors literally closed on me!!! I couldn't get on the metro with the people i was with! there was nothing I could about it. Colleen was screaming through the metro telling me what stop to get off at!! They were going to wait for me there! I was super scared at this point. I was stuck in the metro by myself and not a clue how to speak french. Luckily, I figured out how to get to the stop. It was definitely a frightening experience but we have a plan if that happens again. Later, we got a super LATE lunch like 3ish (and I was STARVING at this point). The weather sucked...it was cold/rainy...so Colleen and I went back and napped and just rested for the next day of school.

Friday: Teacher Appreciation Day

As soon as I walked into to school today, all I say was flowers upon flowers everywhere. It was teacher appreciation day! When we got to class, I got a card and some flowers from the students! (I have only been there for 4 days!) It is amazing how much flowers and presents the teachers get here! THEY ARE SOOOOOO APPRECIATED (in comparison to the US). Parents volunteered their time to come in and watch the class during lunch while we got served lunch by other parents! All the lunch was made by parents. There was a huge variety of food from different cultures. You would have been so proud of me! I tried different foods with out even knowing what was in them. I even took a bite out of a croissant with salmon in it!!! Anyway, at this lunch the teachers had a raffle. Parents donated all these different gifts and the students and parents purchase tickets for their teacher to enter the raffle. The prizes ranged from wines/champagnes to two day trips to winning an IPAD!!!!! yes, how crazy is that! I wish Teacher Appreciation Day was like that in America...

   During the morning, my teacher through me into a lesson. She told me to look over the math lesson for today and asked if I wanted to teach it. The lesson was about congruency. So I taught my first lesson by myself to the students and it went well! I definitely really enjoyed it. After that, I gave the students their spelling test. I am feeling more and more like a teacher. My mentor teacher is definitely really helping me and I am learning so much from her.

   My favorite part of the day was show and tell. Some of the things that these children brought in were hystarical. One student brought in a dead taranchula. Madame Garnier and I were super grossed out! Another student brought in erasers in easter eggs? lol And another one brought in pieces of her sticky hand thing and told us this was her king of all her toys and she has a bed for it. I loved it though, it was definitely entertaing.


Tomorrow some of us are going on a day tour and then sunday we want to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower!
Keep Reading!!


<3

Thursday: Day behind... wooops!

Thursday:
   I am a day behind with my posts...woops! But yesterday I started out the day reading the children a story from the Children's Bible. After that we had the reading block. Like I had mentioned in another post, the students move classes according to their reading level. My classroom are for the students with the highest level. My teacher, Madame Garnier, thought it was a good idea to go and observe the other leveled classes. I am really happy I did that because I could completely see different in the level of intensive teaching to the classes. Then came math and the average level math students came into our classroom. The teacher left me in the room for a while, while I helped the children work on an activity involving different shaped blocks and a worksheet.
   Like the other day, I enjoyed getting to know my mentor teacher and the other teachers better at lunch. They gave us great suggestions on where to go in Paris and bars to visit (so funny). When we got back to class, it was science time. The students were learning about the moon. After some videos and discussion, I read them a book about what the moon actually looks like. They were so excited about the book and asked so many questions.
   As soon as we got back to the hotel it was time to leave. Tonight was the night that we were getting our 1 of 2 included meals on the trip. So the 18 of us ventured off to a restaurant that was super far. Finally when we had arrived, Colleen and I realized it was in the area that we had found on Labor Day. The restaurant was super cute and it was outside, which was enjoyable because the weather was nice. We were all exhausted from the night before, so we went back and got in our pjs! It was a good day!

Wednesday: Colleen's 21st!

Wednesday:

   Colleen turned 21!!! I bought her a birthday muffin so she could enjoy it for breakfast! We went to school and Colleen wore her button that Chelsea and I prepared for her! In my class, my teacher gave me more responsibility. She has me doing work sheets with the class and reading the class books. She often leaves the classroom, so I am fully in charge of them. The class was working on fitting different shapes into other shapes to see how to make a combination of shapes, and I was completely in charge of that. We had a student come back from break today and she came up to me and asked, "Do you speak Italian?" I told her I didn't and she got a super upset look. She said she thought I did because of my last name. She is from Italy and speaks fluent Italian, so she was hoping I did too. Today, my teacher and I talked about what lesson I would be teaching. I am going to be teaching about Fact and Opinion. She gave me all the resources and everything to look over. I am super excited. 

  We ate lunch in the faculty room today with the teachers. I really enjoyed it because the teachers were so interested in getting to know us!! We sat with my teacher who is from California, a teacher from Ireland, and a teacher from Texas (who has a daughter in my class). We were comparing the school, teaching style, and behaviors here at Marymount to US-Gainesville schools. The teachers were so funny about Colleen being 21. They were asking us if we were going out for her birthday tonight. And one of them said, "So we will know why you guys roll in late tomorrow!" haha. They are so open with us and it is awesome. 

   We left super early for Colleen's Birthday dinner. We went to the Bastille area in France. It was one of the farther stops on the metro. Our goal was to find a restaurant, have dinner and wine, and get back on the metro. On the way home, we were going to stop at random stops and find a bar to grab a drink at (METRO CRAWL). It was super fun and we ended up right at our hotel, which was perfect. We got back by 10:30 and that was good! We had to wake up at 7 am again. 

Great, long day!

Tuesday- France's Labor Day

Tuesday:
   In Paris it was labor day so NO SCHOOL for us! Colleen and I decided to sleep in till about 10:30. Then we finally went on an adventure by ourselves which was going to interesting. Both of us don't know any french! We found this cool area with a bunch of buildings by a mall close to us. Unfortunately, the mall was closed. Colleen and I decided we wanted a soda, and there was a McDonalds right there so we were like okay, this works. We decided to just have a small lunch there. Thank goodness there was an EASYORDER machine, where we could order food and press english. We did not have to communicate with anyone! until we have to pay with our card on the machine and it was in french!! Colleen and I were so lost, we didn't know what to do! Eventually, we figured it out! Then when we went to the counter with our receipt the lady was screaming numbers out in french and I was number 99. She apparently screamed my number like 5 times and I clearly did not respond.
   We ventured on the metro by ourselves and made it safely to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur,  which is a Roman Catholic Church. It is on a huge hill and in a bit of a sketchy area. When you approach the gates to the area, there are a bunch of men trying to distract you to steal your stuff. They are gross!! They told me I have a "sexy boom boom" ... Gross! Anyway, we walked all the way to the top and the view was beautiful! We could see the whole city of Paris. It was the perfect day to go, the weather was great. Then we went inside the church, which was gorgeous with all the windows, architecture, and murals. After that we went on venturing through the little town behind the church. It was so cute and there was so many little shops open! 
   Later in the day, we went out to dinner with a group of girls from the program, to start out the night of Colleen's birthday. After the dinner, Colleen, Jessica, and I went to the Eiffel Tower. Colleen wanted to see it sparkle when she turned 21 at midnight! It was so cool, we sat in the park right in front of it and watched it!