Happy holidays are nearly here
Lots of fun and Christmas cheer
Roaring fires and warm mince pies
Excitement sparkling in the childrens’ eyes.
Christmas Day, that special day
Lots of surprises coming your way
Time to party, time to say
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Good Health to stay !
Poem by Jenny Léger, yes, that’s me !!
My Elf name is Pudding Sugar-Socks, my husband is Nipper Sugar-Socks, and my kids are Twinkle-Snowballs, Sugarplum Tinselpants and Tinker Twinkletoes. What about you ??? What’s your Elf name ?
I love the number of hits and I also love the fact that so many of my students will struggle to say both the title of this post and the answer to my question. I dedicate this post to you all. Happy practising and no spitting, please !
… of my new cover image ? It was custom designed for me by one of my 1ère students, FG, who will, I know, recognize his work. He spends a lot of time drawing and so I asked him to create a design for my blog. Here you can see it. We negotiated the fact that he wouldn’t make it too gory, no skulls, no blood , no death and destruction – he has done a good job and this is my way of publicly thanking him for his time and effort. I really appreciate it. And to the whole class where I am form tutor, I haven’t forgotten that I have some debts to pay before Christmas :
Click HERE for more on the Christmas Truce 1914.
I know a number of my students are keen historians and budding archaeologists and this TV programme will be right up your street, I am sure. The Guédelon project in Burgundy, building a medieval castle from scratch using tools, materials and techniques from the period is a fascinating place to visit. We had the pleasure of going there last October for a couple of days and it is a kind of step back in time that I rarely have experienced. The added advantage is that my niece, Sophie, is a carpenter on the project and so was able to show us around from the inside and we were able to see her at work.
My students are familiar with Sophie’s story as it is one of these zigzagging career lines that I talk about to them. After a Prépa Littéraire of two years, she completed a History degree. She then went to Poland on a European programme, working with children and adults. She also became involved in restoring graveyards in Ukraine, rebuilding and restoring. A year in England as a language assistant and some charity and humanitarian work led her to want to learn a trade, to be useful to society in a manual way. She went back to school (with mainly 15-16 year old boys) and served a 2 year apprenticeship with a carpenter, obtaining her CAP at the end of it. She is currently working at Guédelon for eight months of the year and travelling around the world for the remaining months : Martinique and the surrounding islands last year, India this year …
I love quoting Sophie to my students because she is proof that a life is built up of various small experiences and choices. It is so rare to know at the age of 16 what you want to do and then to go on and be actually doing it, having followed a perfectly straight line, ten years later.
The BBC has produced a series about the Guédelon project and the first episode was aired on Tuesday November 18th on BBC2 in England. A French version is apparently planned, but in the mean time, if you would like to know more, you can watch the English version at this YouTube link. It sure makes fascinating viewing and there is even a glimpse of Sophie near the beginning at 1’21 and you hear her voice (she says Yes !).
Enjoy !
To start to get us in the Christmas mood and also because my primary teacher colleagues have to prepare in advance for Christmas, here are a few of my Christmas favourites for you to enjoy :
And an end to this : 
As a child of the 60’s, I grew up knowing that there was a West Berlin and an East Berlin. I didn’t really understand what it meant and what the wall was really all about. On the day it “came down”, in 1989, I was a teacher in a school in England and I remember the Headmaster gathered us all together in the assembly hall to announce what a momentous occasion it was and how we were all living a piece of history at that very moment. Can it really be twenty-five years ago ? And have I still not achieved that ambition of going to Berlin to visit ?
And to finish, how can I not mention the comment of one of my students when we studied this image, a photo taken during President Kennedy’s visit to Berlin ? The student asked me, in all seriousness “Was Nicolas Sarkozy there in Berlin on that day too ?” When you look closely, you can see his point !!
A beautiful photo from my old school-friend, Linda, who has been one of the volunteers, planting the poppies at the Tower of London. Thanks to her for this lovely, vibrant picture.
To anyone who has ever participated in one of my Dakar training courses, you will be familiar with the song “Dem Bones”, which is one of my favourites. Here is a film of a couple dancing on the TV show “Strictly come dancing” from last Saturday. I thought of you all as I watched it and decided to post it up here as a reminder of happy times spent together.
The Big English Blog 