School Trip

Today I accompanied one of my classes on a school trip. In the morning we went to a "medieval times" sort of place and in the afternoon we went to a town with Roman ruins.

I went with the teacher who makes me feel the most uncomfortable of all the teachers I work with. I've mentioned this teacher before, he sings in a really high pitch and thinks he knows English better than I do. In fact, just last week we had a bit of a tiff over the importance of capitalizing the first letter of the months. He always pretends like he's going to let me lead the class but in less than 5 minutes is giving orders from the back of the room or standing behind me and writing the words I'm having the kids repeat. He's actually a nice guy and has invited me to eat at his house a couple of times. His wife is really nice and told us we could stop by if we ever needed anything. But still, he's not my favorite colleague. It also doesn't help that he has taken to calling me Sarah lately (the name of last year's assistant).

Anyhow, the trip was fun even though I spent most of the time at the medieval place comforting a student who was hysterically crying because she was scared of animals and there were horses and donkeys in the show. I felt so bad for the poor girl and was pretty sure that I would have to end up carrying her, but in the end she got over it and actually was able to go near the horses! In the afternoon at the Roman ruins the children were literally sitting and leaning (and sometimes climbing) on the ruins. This didn't seem to phase their teacher and I had a hard time communicating -in French and to 8 year olds- the importance of NOT stepping on archeological ruins! The most troubled child that I work with (and believe me there are plenty) decided he would throw one of his fits at the ruins because he didn't like that the teacher had pulled him off one of the walls. After this he decided he would not do any work (the kids had to draw what they saw) and that he would run away from the teacher and all around the ruins yelling "Je suis libre." ("I'm free"). When I wasn't trying to catch him I was busy trying to suppress my laughter. This child is really cute but really troubled - he often tips his desk over and has threatened to jump out the window. I've also seen him with ink all over his face after trying to eat his pen. The teacher refers to that time of the year as the time when "Donovan used to drink his ink."
Despite all the terrible things that he does and the fact that he is really not well, I kind of like the kid. He wanted to sit next to me in the bus and so I let him and he told me stories about his chérie:
On n'est plus ensemble, elle sortait avec un autre depuis le début....j'ai fait tout pour la récuperer. Je lui ai même fait un licorne (We're not together anymore, she was going out with someone else the whole time...I did everything I could to win her back. I even drew her a unicorn).

This kid is 8 years old and his chérie is 6 but I somehow managed to not laugh in his face.

In the afternoon I was left alone with all 27 monsters (and yes, after they were fed they became monsters) for a few minutes while the teacher went to get the bus. Between telling the kids to stop running around the thermal baths and keeping crazy Donovan out of the sarcohphagus I had my hands full. I won't lie, I seriously wanted to hit a lot of those kids. At one point I couldn't take it anymore and yelled "SIT DOWN." The mimicked me but they understood and in case they didn't, I said it in French too. As soon as I got them all to sit down the teacher came in to find them all seated (almost) calmly. I wish he could've walked in when they were running and being little jerks.

It was a long day, here are the photos to prove it. The flowers I have in my hand are from the kids who picked them in the Roman ruins. Aren't I a lucky girl? And, yes, the children - despite my best efforts- are sitting on the Roman ruins.