back in the saddle

Well, we're three days into the school year and so far, things are going quite smoothly with the students. I am astonished at how on the first morning, the bell rang and all I had to say to my tenth graders - and in French no less - was that the bell rang and they needed to be quiet. You could have heard a pin drop. Yet another amazing thing is that I know exactly what to say to get the sixth graders focused and on task, when those same things didn't work for me last year in France. They were immersed in French for at least the first 30 minutes of class, and not once did I hear "Madame, can you speak English because we don't understand." They totally played along with the teaching method and - what amazes me even more - stayed quiet. I still can't figure out why I was rarely able to have success at that last year with the languages were reversed. I miss mes petits poix like crazy, and can't imagine how much more I'd miss them if they had just stopped talking from time to time.

But I'm absolutely époustouflée at the wealth of knowledge the new sixth graders bring with them. After our review of what feels like 100 vocabulary words I taught them on Friday (they are like sponges!), we talked about the French-speaking world and then more specifically about France. Up went Jesse's hand: "Madame, isn't Normandy in France?" and when I replied that it is," he blurted out "Pointe du Hoc." Pointe du Hoc? My French students last year didn't even know what the D-Day beaches were when I told them I'd gone there with my mom and step-dad, and this kid knows Pointe du Hoc? I asked how he knew that, and he said, "Well, I'm basically a WWII expert." In the sixth grade!? And then a girl asked, "Didn't part of the Holocaust take part in France?" Is this normal?! If so, bring it on!