I know it has been a while since I updated, and I must tell you about one of my highlights on the island thus far - It all happened when I returned to Dominique's classroom, where a student was waiting patiently with a notebook with scrawled out English....which turned out to be questions for me: Miss Laura, have you done a tour of the island yet? Answer: Not yet, but I would like to!
Question 2: Would you like to do a tour with my mother and me?
Answer: Really? (well, that's what I was thinking, no way this could be happening, right?) But the real answer was a "yes," that came out awkward because I was surprised.
Well the big day came, and up came a van, with three girls from my school, plus one mother! It was rather comical to see the girls pull open the door for me, and squish into the back, with their English dictionaries poised on their laps. The girls at this point had no idea that I spoke French, but later on I slipped when we met up with their mother's friends from "Metropole," who had an extended conversation with me about travels, jobs, etc. "AH!! Elle parle francais!!!!" They cried, all shocked, with a look that made me feel like I had just ruined Christmas. But then we all laughed, and they became even more determined to talk in English. Not once did I speak to them in French.
It's moments like these where I feel glad to be a teacher. Sure, in class these students probably don't learn much from what I give them to work with, but it's outside experiences like these that are exciting for everyone involved. I got to see a window into their world, see some incredible places that I hadn't seen yet, and have a wonderful afternoon with 3 13 year old girls who showed me that there are some students who can hold their own in another language, and have the desire and determination to look up every word in the dictionary for 10 hours straight.
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