There are countless perks to teaching at a posh private school in France, one being the paid "sorties" aka "outings" with the students.
If only I had stuck around one more year, I may have had the shot to go to New Zealand and/or INDIA with the English-speaking section of students; and if not one of those totally awesome destinations, London would have been a definite destination...oh the sacrifices one must make...
Nevertheless, I DID have many opportunities to do outings with the kids. Early on in the school year for instance, I organized an outing to visit a Budhist MANDALA (a sand mandala sculpture in-the-making with explation). We were able to speak to the Budhist monkes very freely, asking questions, finding how very friendly they were as a people! The highlight of this outing however, according to my students, was the Budhist meditative music; the monks played large horns and bugle-type mountainous instruments, and strange noises and vibrations filled the room, inciting a mysterious kind of laughter...
Not much later, I took a group of 8th grade kids to see an exhbit at the BNU (the good ol' Bibliotheque nationale et universitaire) covering CALVIN's stay in Strasbourg during the Reformation period. Since I was not very well educated on the reform, personally speaking, I invited the school Pastor to join us (in case the kids were to ask me any tricky questions). Incidentally, she was very quiet, even when my students were quite noisy and curious. I tried my best to keep them attentive and interested; and luck had it that I had given them an assignment - some type of treasure hunt to complete during the visit - so as to ensure their committment to reading SOME of the information provided at the exhibit...a rather dry outing it turned out to be...
I later visited the city, Nancy with a group of 9th graders(the same group with whom I visited the Budhist mandala). This group of students apparently belonged to a German exchange, and had therefore arranged for their exchange students to accompany them for the day in Nancy. Nancy is located in the mountainous region of Lorraine, just West of Alsace, (a Burgundian territory where Joan of Arc was said to be from). We spent an entire afternoon strolling around and visiting the lovely Prussian city at leisure. Fortunately, the kids were separated from the teachers (there were 4 of us, myself being the only non-German speaker) so we were free to do as we pleased - drink some beers, sip some coffee, with the exception of the guided tour in the historic section of the city at the end of the afternoon. What a very small section indeed! Typical to French weather, the clouds rolled in & out, and we got caught in rain showers on the bus-ride home, at which point I used my time to correct some papers & to make chit chat with oollegues before biking back to my apartment.
Four times over, at the end of the schoolyear, I was invited to accompany my students on sports outings, and not to mention my ski-week with the 9th grade back in February (see other posting on the ALPS). During one outing, we did ACCROBRANCHE, or tree-top/canopy ziplining and for the other 2, I enjoyed CANOEING trips and and around Strasbourg. Canoeing was certainly my favorite outing, since we all got a little bit crazy playing in the water together (splashing one another, racing out boats...) although our day at the track was an equally festive event; during "La course contre la faim" or "the race against hunger," we ran laps around a local track which turned out to be fun despite the fact that my group of 10th graders grew bored very quickly. Nearly 600 kids were there, running...it took me back to my track days & I felt "at home" in a sense.
It was always a positive and wonderful thing to see my students in an environment OUTSIDE the classroom, and more importantly, for them to see ME away from the podium. It certain adds to my "holistic" teaching philosophy/approach...(see other posting on teaching philosophy).
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