se faire remonter les bretelles - to put back on track / put back in line
Literally, it means "to make someone readjust their suspenders"; it's what teachers in France say to describe the process of getting a student back on track academically. Used often at les réunions (conferences).
We are a week from the two-week April break, so I am almost done with my final big chunk of teaching here. The good news? I applied for une prolongation du contrat (an extension on my contract), which is difficult to get - the number of people chosen depends on how much money the Académie de Nantes has left over at the end of the year. But I got it! That means that, after the April break, I don't have to pack up my life and flee the Schengen Zone: I now have at least until May 31 to continue working at my schools. That also means that I can finish up teaching my course at the Université properly, and I can play in one more concert with the Philhar (the orchestra)!
So, here are a few whimsical school stories from the past month.
At the collège (middle school), a couple of classes of students are learning about cinema culture and Hollywood. They have to be able to describe movie theater vocabulary as well as several blockbuster films. The 3ème students (9th graders) are working on Titanic, and I got to quiz them orally on it; I asked how Jack died at the end, and a student responded, "He was fried!" The teacher and I were in stitches; he was looking for the word "frozen".
A class of 4ème (8th graders) is learning about the same topic but with the Avengers and Spiderman; I had to confess that I've never seen a superhero movie in my life. They think I'm crazy but are having a blast trying to teach me and then quiz me about Spiderman specifics. I asked, "Who is Spiderman's girlfriend?" and one girl yelled, "It's ME!"
I've also taught three-and-a-half week's worth of lessons on St. Patrick's Day at this point. When I ask what they know about the holiday, the answer is always "green beer!" or "les lutins?"
les lutins = leprechauns
Every class, without fail, was mesmerized by the process of dying the Chicago river green. I showed a news clip from a year or two ago in which someone in St. Paul dyed his beard green; they got a huge kick out of that. And, when I shared the elementary school tradition of pinching friends who forget to wear green, I accidentally started hallway pinching wars...even in the high school.
At the university, we've been talking about slightly more serious topics, like political institutions. To properly explain our process of elections (specifically the popular vote and the electoral vote), I showed what happened in the 2000 presidential election. They were horrified. In the last class, sporting a completely unconvinced facial expression, one student asked, "Aren't you guys going to change that system?" I redirected her to our Congressional lawmaking process and said, "well...probably not".
Groups of students both at the collège and lycée spent time in England last month. I asked them what differences they noticed between French and English cultures. According to the middle schoolers, England has different electrical plugs and their carpeting covers the entire floor of a room (unlike in Europe where they have hardwood floors sometimes covered partially by small rugs). The high schoolers, on the other hand, recounted that England has different electrical plugs and that the English walk their children on leashes. ... ...
In addition to teaching, I've been working to organize documents and applications for various projects for next school year. I went to Paris this week to take a test determining my level of French. I was happy to have scored overall a level higher than I expected! And I very nearly hit the level above that. The overall score is comprised of three categories: in not one but two of the three, I missed the next level by just one point (out of one hundred). The man who proctored the test shook his head as he handed me the results, saying, "Je n'ai jamais vu un résultat comme celui-là" ("I've never seen a score quite like that").
Un très bon 126ème anniversaire à la Tour Eiffel - a very happy 126th birthday to the Eiffel Tower!
