Mardi - more strikes

Normally I would have 6hrs of classes today but because of the strikes I only had 2. 2 of my teachers were striking, the other 2 weren't. This left me with my two terminale students at 10h and then Agnes' terminale students at 14h. I was quite pleased my 8h class was cancelled, it meant I could have a lay in. I got up and had breakfast and then left to take the metro and bus to Lycee at about 9h15. I arrived at Lycee for 9h50 and took myself to the staff room where I realised I'd forgotten my board pens - again. Those board pens will be the death of me! I couldn't face the day without my board pens, even if it was only 2hrs, so I borrowed one. I then went off to my first class. I started working on a new text with these 2 girls. I didn't choose the text, may I point out, the teacher did. The text is about the Mafia, it's an obituary from a newspaper and when I read it I thought it was quite hard. Angelique and Leslie found it hard. Very hard. They are really weak students, hence the reason they get an hour of my undivided attention every week. I don't mind them being weak because they try. They work hard. There's nothing worse than students who sit there in silence refusing to speak - it drives me mad! Anyway, we read the text and then I went through a bit of vocab. It then became evident that they were having trouble with numbers so I went through the numbers on the board before moving on to asking them questions about the text. We didn't get beyond the first paragraph but that doesn't matter because, like last week, I felt that they went away feeling that they'd got something from the lesson. We will continue next week. After this class I went back to the staffroom which was practically empty as everyone was striking. I used the one and only computer to print out the lessons I'd prepared the night before and then sat down to plan how I could make a lesson out of the Arctic Monkeys' song 'They say it changes when the sun goes down'. I then went to my next class. Caroline. She came last week but we ran out of time so she only had time to prepare her image - which was on smoking, not actually tell me about it. So, she comes this week a good 15 minutes late and has fogotten her sheet. I gave her 5 minutes to refresh her mind. She was, however, one of these 'je n'ai rien compris' students. She didn't even know how to say 'je pense'... If she can't be bothered, then why should I? I asked her her opinion on the smoking ban and after a long and painful silence all I got was 'je pense que c'est une bonne idee'. Now, if that's all she can manage in French then what hope do we have for any English?! I sent her on her way after I couldn't stand any more. My next student had an image on global warming. His level was better but to be honest, after Caroline, I really just couldn't be bothered. This class is possibly worst than mes secondes which earnt themselves the title 'classe de merde'. I think this terminale group are worst, at least my secondes are lively! Needless to say I made a quick escape when the bell rang and came home. I prepared lentil burgers before going to the supermarket with Rachel. I then came home and ate before helping Auriane with her English work. I am now ready for bed and it isn't even 22h yet! A demain.