a graced life in france.: my classroom's surprises

+jmj+

Because I'm not a real teacher, I don't have an actual classroom in either of the schools that I teach at. For the first few weeks, I was literally working in hallways, or any little space that I could find. I wasn't given any formal space to work from, but after those first weeks, I realized that I needed something I could call a home base, to teach from. So I requested any sort of semi-classroom and was directed at one school to the makeshift library (basically a converted classroom with a couple of bookshelves, an encyclopedia set, and a tv) and at the other school to a classroom used for art projects. This room is basically an array of desks, tables, and chairs constantly spilled on with paint or messy from a class not cleaning up after a project. But at least it's something, and I can use it.

Today, I walked into "my" classroom to find some new additions to the previously blank walls. Along with some maps of Normandy, I found a chart of toxic wild plants, as well as a guide for distinguishing edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. I suppose this is crucial information for French 8 year olds, but come on. In my classroom?! They don't make any sense where they are. And that was definitely the major distraction of the day. I don't think I had a single kid's attention with these colorful, informative posters crying out to them, begging to be memorized.