#3GoodThings – #67

(Written Tuesday, March 26, 2019)

Today was my last regularly scheduled drive to Angers for a while. I’ll tell you about it a bit more below, but for starters… here’s just one of many beautiful views that are part of my weekly drives:

Now, let me tell you about..

Today’s #3GoodThings

Well… the semester is without question winding down. Today was my last regular teaching day in Angers. While I’ll be back to monitor a TOEFEL exam on April 6th and have a team meeting the following Monday, today marked the end of regular classes. I truly enjoy my students, but it’ll be SO nice, next Monday & Tuesday to not spend four hours in the car each day. That is a GoodThing.
Linked to today’s last day of teaching, I was glad to get a bit of feedback from a couple of students who went out of their way to express their gratitude for my approach to language instruction. My impression is that typically, teachers come down very hard on grammar & pronunciation and use intimidation and even, to some extent, a form of mild shaming to ‘motivate’ students to improve. Totally not my style! I’m like the polar opposite.
Finally, I’m thankful for a little bit of Canada in the garden. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a garden center where they had a promotion on Ranunculus of various colours. I’ve never grown these flowers before the temptation was already alluring, but then to find such a vivid red plant along with a white… well… I caved. The red in particular was so similar to the red of the Canadian flag that there was no question as to which colours would go in the shopping basket. I finally got them out of their nursery pots and into a larger pot by the front door, so whether we’re coming or going… we have a little reminder of home.