My fourth day ! :)

 

 

 

 Seba wasn’t there on the fourth day; it was a lot calmer than usually. They did a special drawing activity; they had to draw their country’s flag with markers. I found that a very interesting activity because I could see who was coming from which country etc. The majority of the children were from Africa and Asia.They looked so pround of their country, it was really nice to see.

  As they were drawing, there was French music playing; the song of Caillou. It was a good thing because as they were drawing they could also listen to the song and sang instead of screaming in the room. It reminded me of when I was young because Caillou was one of my favorite shows.

  I noticed that the children were often talking about nothing and everything sometimes, so it was confusing for me to understand what they were trying to tell me when I’m not even speaking perfectly in English. I think that it will push me to improve a lot my English because I think I would like to be a bilinguisme teacher in an elementary school in the future.

I also noticed that when the parents came to get their child, they were not talking a lot with the supervisors. That's why we didn't have the opportunity to talk with them, because there were a few parents who were not able to speak either in English or in French. It was kind of hard for the supervisors to tell them if everything went well with their child because they had difficulties to understand what they were saying.

  Well, today was my last day with them; the group of little friends. December 27^th will be my last day at the boys and girls club, with another group for the camp day. It will be a new adventure to complete my internship.

I allready miss my little friends! :(

My third day ! :)

 

 My third day of internship was probably the best one I had since the beginning. Simply cause we sang Christmas’ songs. I was so happy because it reminded me of when I was young. I found interesting to see that even if a few kids weren’t Christians, they were still singing those Christmas’ songs with enthusiasm. This is quite the opposite today, because now diverse cultures other than ours complained about these songs that we can hear in stores during the holidays and about the Christmas’ decorations. So I'm really glad to see that these young children are dazzled by this enchanted atmosphere worthy of a Christmas story.

  Throughout my third day of internship that I realized why supervisors were strict with the children. It was simply because some of these young children were such manipulators and they had to show them who were imposing the rules. I also found a way to catch their attention when I was talking to them.

1- Articulate when we speak.
2- Use different voice tones.
3- Use gestures when we speak.

  I tried with them and it worked quiet well. They were concentrated on me instead of being concentrated on something else in the room.

  I noticed as days went by, that the children had difficulties to make complete sentences. For examples, they always put the subject + the verb + the thing, to make a sentence (Me want that.)

  I think that one of my challenges would be to improve a lot my English during my internship because I would like to be understood correctly. It is not like in classroom, where I can use French words if I don’t know how to say something. I am with young children who only speak English, so I don’t have any choice to speak properly in this language. That’s why there are no new words or new expressions that I learnt there, because it is not with young children that I will learn those things.

 Well, already half of my internship collapsed, I cannot wait to see what'll reserve the rest of this great experience.

My second day ! :)

 For my second day of internship, I have been placed in another group. I was happy to meet new kids but, I was also sad to see that the other group which I was in last week were unhappy to see that I will not be with them this week. It reminds me of one of the interaction that I had with a little girl last week, when it was time for me to leave:

Girl: When are you coming back here?
Me: I will be back next week!
Girl: When it’s next week?
Me:  In seven days!
Girl: When in seven days?
Me: Next Wednesday!
Girl: When it’s next wednesday?
…
  I did not know what to answer so I tell her to sleep seven more nights and then I will be there. She just replied to me: '' Okay! '' She did her little smiley face, she hugged me and I left the room in direction of the exit door of the club.

  So when I saw her today, she didn’t have the exactly same smile as she had the week before, when she saw me with the other group. But when I saw her in the washroom, she came to me, and I told her: ''It does not matter if I'm not with you, because I'm going to talk to you even if I will not be with you for the rest of my internship.'' She did again her little smiley face and hugged be again but stronger than the first time.

  Back in class, it was the time of the story. We were all sitting on the floor waiting for Nelly (one of the supervisor) to read the story. As she was reading the story, she was doing gestures so, it was much easier for the children to understand the story, mainly when it was in French. Of course, there was the images that was helping them to understand the story but, the gestures were helping a lot to understand some words for examples, the adjectives. (long, short, small, big, etc.)

When it was the lunch time, I noticed that the kids were pretty polite when it was time to ask something by using those short words, ‘’Please’’, ‘’Thank you’’, ‘’ Can you.. ‘’. Through their food, I could see that they were all from different countries. Sometime, it was very sad to see what they had in their lunch box because, it wasn’t looking that good. The strawberry’s jam on the toast of a little girl wasn’t red, it was almost brown. She kept telling me that it was disgusting, but I couldn’t do anything for her. The supervisors were telling her to eat so, I didn’t have choice to tell her the same. While I was supervising the kids, the supervisors were busy with Seba, an Arabic little girl of 4 years old. She didn't understand either French or English. I found that sad because they were punishing her cause she was running instead of walking. I didn’t found that fear because the little girl couldn’t understand at all what the supervisors were trying to tell her. Of course, after they had a good reason to punish her, because she didn’t want to share the toys with the other kids.

Here is what concludes my second day of internship. :)

MY FIRST DAY! :)

On my first day of internship, I was excited and also anxious about meeting the people with whom I would work and also to meet the children. I was worried for nothing because the two women with whom I worked with were pretty welcoming.
 Regarding the children, the first 15 minutes of the day, they were suspicious of my presence, but after that, they started to ask me a few questions as: ‘’What is your name? ‘’, ‘’What are you doing here?’’ and my favorite one; ‘’Can you play with me?’’. I was really happy to see that they appreciated my presence.
 As as the day went on, I made a few observations. I realized that the children had the ability to sing songs, whether in English as their first language or in French as a new one. I was very surprised, because even I have trouble doing it. In the class I was, there were two children who spoke neither English nor French. I was wondering about how they could integrate well with the class when they were hardly able to communicate with others. I realized that it was hard for them to understand women when they asked them to do something. It is at this point that I realized the importance of doing gestures when we speak because it helps to get the meaning when we speak to someone who does not understand perfectly the same language as ours.
 What I found interesting is that the majority of children who were there came from other countries, and despite the fact that they did not have the same culture; they had almost no trouble communicating together and get along together.
 I am proud to say that while the children learned the words to describe the temperature outside, I also learned a word; foggy. I did not know before that ‘’brumeux’’ in English was that.
 We learn a little every day and this is why I really like the place where I am. I cannot wait to see again my little new friends.

MY FIRST MEETING AT THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF LASALLE ! (:

Hi everyone!
 As you can see, this entry will be the first one about my internship, which I will explain in detail.
 I am very happy to announce that everything went well for my first meeting; the woman was very understanding with me even if I had a few difficulties to talk in English because I was too stressed about the idea to meet her. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes, she explained to me what my tasks would be here with the 3 to 5 years old kids, she showed me in which room I would be working for the weeks to come, and we also fixed the day I would be there. The only day that was good for me and the group that I would be in was Wednesday; so I did not have choice to do my internship on this day, 10 o’clock to 3.
 When I left the place after the meeting, I was so happy because now the first big step was done, but, I was wondering how the first internship day would be. I started to stress again, I was afraid to have some misunderstandings, that the little children I would work with, wouldn’t like me and much more. I told myself that I was amplifying the situation so, I decided to stop thinking about this, and I started to think in a positive way; because it is the best attitude to take when we start something new.
 For this new experience, my goal is to improve my English and also to learn to communicate in an English environment which is not the environment I am used to. I think that during these few weeks, I will use body language when my language skills would not be effective enough and I will also analyze words to try to deduce their meaning by breaking them down into their components. Also, I will keep practising, because it is by practising something that we get better.
 This internship will not only give me the opportunity to improve my English but, It will also be a ‘’test’’ for me to see if being with young children is a thing that I would like to do in the future.
 I cannot wait to see my little new friends, and also to learn a lot through this new experience that is opening to me.

Here is the link if you want to know more about this place. :)

How to make a first good impression ?

When i watched this video, I have been suprised to learn that when we meet and employer for the first time, our body language can tell a lot about our personnality. By the way that that we are walking in the room, they can see if we are someone confident or not. I think that this is a very good advice, because i did not know it before, and now that I am thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense. I think that is a strategy that i will use now, because if i wanna do a first good impression, i have to show them that I am confident and that I am ready to start a internship with them ! (:

There here, if you want also to watch the video! :)
Enjoy!

Hello ! :)

Hey everyone ! :D
I just want to say that this is my first blog, so you'll be able to see and measure as you read that I have NO experience regarding writing a blog.
Anyway, I decided to create this blog to share with you, at every week, my experience during my internship that I will have to do for my English class.
I hope you will enjoy.
By the way, I'm sorry for the mistakes of writing, I'm pretty bad. :(