That's the main topic of "Les Fondamentaux", written by Baptiste Amann.

There was a play at school last night. 

Directed, performed, by the Drama section's students (TL2). 

They had already been on stage on Monday and Tuesday, in front of their schoolfriends and teachers, but unfortunately I couldn't make it. (Teachers' missions are nonnegotiable!)

So last night I was there with many former Chagall Students, teachers, parents. And judging from the emotion-filled silence throughout the play and the sustained applause at the end, it was a tremendous success.

Thanks to the 10 students who gave their commitment and passion for our intense enjoyment.

Here is what Baptiste Amann says about his play:

"On habite de petits appartements. On cherche une idée. On peine à évoquer. On essaye des choses. On veut y croire à nouveau. On est concerné. On connaît par cœur. On boit pas mal. On est forcément déçu. On part en guerre. On se souvient. On s’éloigne. On oublie. On ne comprend pas tout. On ne se rend pas compte. On veut se marier. On veut des enfants. On verra plus tard. On s’organise. On ne se fera pas avoir. On n’est pas comme eux. On a vingt ans."

Baptiste Amann

One class has taken part in a video contest about road safety. Congratulations to the 2nde 7 for their work. Of course we hope to be able to congratulate them even more when they have won. But if you want them to win, you've got to go and visit a facebook page, and like their video in the comments.

You can see their video here : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5h6dfc_concours-60-secondes-pour-le-dire-lycee-marc-chagall-reims_news

But you MUST vote here : https://www.facebook.com/jeuconcours60secondespourledire/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf

Show you have understood all my explanations ! Show you appreciate their useful job ! Encourage them ! 

Vote for 2nde 7 from Chagall High School !

So this is the end of the European Month in Chagall.

It has been legendary !  - Yes, I've been watching How I Met Your Mother recently... :-)

First there was the transformation of our entrance hall by the MANAA students, under Ms Recorda's supervision. I loved it !

Then all the students of the school had an hour free to enjoy a nice cup of tea, gather in the yard on a sunny day (we've have plenty of them this year and that's so cool.) and have our photo taken to concretize and remember that we are Europeans with all our differences but also with all our common dreams.

In the corridors of the school the science teachers displayed all the posters and documents their students have produced in European languages about health. 

At the canteen every day saw a different country visit us. I loved the Greek meal. 

On Tuesday we were all supposed to wear something reminding of a European country. Here are my British accessories .

A poetry and  a photo contests were launched. Maybe we hoped more students would get involved, but honestly, the works I saw displayed on the mezzanine were worth spending a few minutes reading, admiring and letting one's mind wander across Europe and young people's utopian, romantic and artistic expectations and inventions.

Thanks to everyone who has taken part in this month's virtual trip, and particularly to Ms Sacksteder who has been their inspirer and organizer.

I don't want to spoil anything, but confidentially I can tell you I've heard there were great plans for next year. 

Not only are 2 10's students poets, but they are also very much aware of all environmental issues. They've put a lot of energy and imagination in writing the following poems.

~The boy and the polar bear~

It’s the story of a little boy,

Who eats candies,  

It’s the story of a polar bear,

Who picks the papers of these candies,

One day,

The bear meets the boy on the quay,

And says “Why throw your papers into the water? Do you know the impact?”

The boy answers “Sorry, I didn't know! It’s a grave act?”

The bear surprised, thinks:

“If no one tells the people,

Nobody will think to protect the planet!”

But, why don't we do the first step?

                                                                                  Philippine

See and change

When  I  see  the  world,

I  ask  myself  if  my  children  will  be  happy,

If  they  will  need  to   worry  for  their  health  at  every  step  outside.

I  want  us to save the Earth  for  them!

When  I  see  the  ocean,

I  take  fright  for  submarine  life.

Will   this   world   be  as  fabulous  in  thirty  years?

I  want  us to  save  the Earth  for this!

When  I  see  humans,

I  ask  myself  on  their  capacity  to  react,

And  I  only  see  pretexts  and  lies  but  no  action.

So  first,  I  want  us to change  this  for  save  Earth!

                                                                                                     Eva

              Today

There wasn’t snow this winter,

Today hurricanes, earthquakes, flood sreplace it.

The atmosphere gets warm, silently, slowly.

In the far north, ice is rare,

Penguins and polar bears play hide and seek with the ice cap.

Lower, the sky rumbles.

Drops fall like a threat on earth.

Earth is threatened by  our carbon footprint, by men.

Our planet is in pain

But today,  who will hear its tears?

                                                                                             Anaïs

The environmental warning

Humans are destroying the planet !

They exhaust natural resources without fear.

They pollute the atmosphere.

They deforest without care.

The pollution products a lot of greenhouse gas,

And global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect.

It brings the extinction of some species.

Humans… Is that your project ?

You have to react !

You could consider ecology,

And use renewable energies !

If you did that your future would be happy !

                                                                                                                 Gabyn

The human beings' story

For decades, human beings polluted the planet.

They built factories, and nuclear plants,

The animals started to become extinct;

The ice-cap was melting and ecological issues were abundant.

But, one day, some of them woke-up,

And realized that they had to do something.

They had to reduce their carbon footprint, and their green house effect.

They installed solar panels, wind turbines and other things.

They started to treat their planet  with respect.

That story was easy to relate

Is it really hard to make it ours?

                                                                                        Juliette

Life goes on smoothly in our high school. A lot of projects are being run and completed successfully.

(By the way, teachers or/and students, you are more than welcome to send me articles about what happens in your classes and I will publish them.)

Today let's put the spotlight on a virtual exchange that started a few weeks ago between a group of 2nde 6 and 2nde 7's students and American students from Brick Township High School in New Jersey, USA.

These students are just beginners but they are very keen on letting us know more about their school. Here is the powerpoint they sent to us:

A big thank you to them and their teacher Carol. My students were very happy to see this. "It's just as in American series," they said.

If you want to see what New Jersey looks like, visit this page. 33 photos and a bit of humour will are waiting for you: 

http://www.movoto.com/blog/opinions/photos-of-new-jersey/

Jeremy has been with us for more than two months now. Here are two articles that TS2 students wrote after interviewing him in October. Meet Jeremy, our English assistant !

The new English assistant

Jeremy, 21 is our new assistant. He comes from England, more specifically from Oxfordshire (really near Oxford). Even if he grew up in England for 8 years, he has got a Belgian passport because he was born in Belgium, in Brussels and his mother is also Belgian. That’s why he understands french and speaks it a little bit. Moreover, Jeremy has got 2 brothers, one older who is 22 and one younger who goes to 18.

He also has two hobbies : sport and music. Furthermore he plays football and his favorite football team is Oxford United. Then he also plays the guitar (acoustic song as well as electric songs, for example he can play some Eric Clapton songs along with Oasis songs). And some evenings he goes to the gym. To finish with he also used to draw and paint but he doesn’t play video games.

Our assistant came to France in connection with his studies. In fact, he would like to work in an International Organisation, and more specifically in the field of economic development. And this project requires to spend years in different countries. For example he also used to live in the Seychelles. Nevertheless he only went on 2 of the 150 islands that exist. Moreover, before coming in France he studied French and politics in Swansea University. So for this current year he had to make choices of places where he wanted to study. Martinique was his first choice and Reims his second one. Anyway, he is now happy to live in Reims because, being interested in architecture, he wanted to come in our city to see the cathedral. And his wish has been realised because several weeks ago he had a tour of the cathedral. And since he lives in Reims, he lives with one flatmate : a French-American student of Political Science’s Faculty.

Moreover he had already been to France before. In fact, he went to Paris quite often when he was young because his father worked there. Thus he prefers Reims or London to Paris because according to him, Paris is too congested and less clean than London or Reims. However he likes French cooking better than English one.

To finish, next summer he is doing an internship to the United Nation (because later he would like to work in Asia). But usually when he is on summer holidays he doesn’t work : he has two types of summer holidays, one more fun during which he goes to parties and others during which he do crosswords.

LET’S TALK ABOUT JEREMY !

He’s the new English assistant, but we don’t know him that well yet. So, with the class, we asked him about his life and hobbies.

Jeremy is 21 years old and he’s got two brothers who are 22 and 28. He lives in a town near Oxford in England, and now he’s with us in Reims. He speaks fluent English and a bit of French because his mother is part Belgian, part Italian.

This job is the first one he has ever had in a high school, although he has already done some tutoring in the past.

Reims was his second choice on his wish list, while his first choice was Guadeloupe. Indeed when he was at school his teacher showed the class pictures of French cities including Reims and he found the town pretty. Now he lives near the Avenue de Laon with his roommate who is Franco-American and studies politis in “Sciences Po-Reims”.

He wants to promote economic development in poor areas through an international association, which is why next summer he’s going to do an internship in Kenya and later he’ll go to Asia because he lived in Malaysia when he was younger.

Jeremy plays football and his favourite team is Oxford United. He also plays the guitar and he likes to play various types of music. He goes to the gym, but doesn’t play video games. He likes to read the newspaper. He listens to the same music as us, like Drake or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We asked him what he liked best about France compared to England. He told us that he thinks French food is better than English food. He watches a lot of TV series like GOT. His dream destination is the Seychelles. He lived there for 3 years. He also went to Ibiza last summer. It was fun holidays !

If you click on the logo , the BBC will tell you how to be polite in  conversation. Rules are not the same according the nationality of the people you are talking to.

Look at what they think of us in the fourth paragraph which quotes Sylvain Barrett, a Canadian citizen. 

WRITING

This is one of the skills our students sometimes find difficult to master. Yet I feel they are more skillful than they think ! Just read what my 2nde students were able to write by the end of May. It was an "In the style of" exercise. 

Here is the original text, found in their textbook, New Meeting Point 2nde, page 196.

I asked my students to choose a city, town or village they liked and to introduce it in the style of this paragraph. Enjoy !

 This is a little city in the south of France, in front of St Topez, not far from Cannes. There are prints of a lot of sports players with their names. In this city, we can eat all the specialties from the sea, like mussels. Every year many people come from all over the world to admire the procession organized in the honour of WW2 Landing. To join another city on the coast, we can use the boat. At any time, there is always a very good atmosphere. The inhabitants are welcoming and warm. We can see a beautiful landscape thanks to the sea, the pine trees and the hills. This is Sainte-Maxime! 

Victoire and Justine

This city is the city of lights. This place is inescapable. This is the centre of fashion. This is tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower and the most fabulous monuments you can visit. This the Champs-Elysées Avenue: The most famous street in the world. This is the best baguette and frog legs. This is Coco Chanel's clothes and perfumeries selling goods around the world. This is huge department stores. This is Montmartre and Rue de la Paix. It's cheering the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre. It's Paris. 

Alain, Charlotte and Eléonore

It's a European city. The city of love, the city of culture, the capital of France. It's the heart of France. A city densely populated with 10 million inhabitants. This is the city of the revolution and the city of evolution now. The city where there are many sport events. The Eiffel Tower and its illuminations. This is the most visited city of lights. Everywhere you go, you can eat in a bar. This is the city of fashion. Famous and fabulous monuments. Cars, planes, buses, subway, RER tube, trains, all the means of transport we can use. This is a cocktail of modernity and old times. This is Paris.

Anaïs and Safiye

It isn't a little city ; it's a big city ; it's the angels' city. This is Clippers in Staple Center. This is Californian wine and donuts. This is Beverly Hills and Hollywood with all the famous  stars. This is Venice's beach with surfers and big waves. This is the E3 with new technology. This is the Walk of Fame. This is the place to be, an important place for movies. People go to parties, get a tan. This is cool, impressive. This is Los Angeles.

Alexis and Théo

This is not just any city. This is the city of Champagne. This is the place where many kings were crowned. This is the big city of Champagne-Ardennes Region. This is the most fabulous football matches you can see in Reims Stadium. This is Fossier biscuits. This is Notre-Dame Cathedral. This music at the Conservatoire. This is many stores in Vesle Street. This is using the train, the bus or the tramway. This is Croix-Rouge. People moving, going. Stress and happiness. This is many trees, parks and the canal. This is a lively city and happy people. This is the centre of France. This is Reims.

Julie and Gaétane

This year we worked a lot about Australia, from different points of view : historical, architectural, cultural, etc. We were extremely lucky as one of my trainee teachers had a friend in Australia who sent us a video about his home city, Melbourne.

Being optimistic, as teachers sometimes are, I asked my students to choose a place or a monument, they liked in Reims and to sum up information about it, explaining why they liked it. Of course I dreamt we would be able to make a video to answer Matt. But of course we had too many things to do before, and we never achieved this. Yet I don't want my students to have worked for nothing that's why I'm publishing here the texts they produced, as long as these texts are accurate.

Laure, Charlotte and Aïda. Lycée Chagall: "We like its vending machines for food, coffee, especially nut coffee. We're free, so we enjoy ourselves. We're proud to be in this high school where we get great marks. There are European classes, International classes, Design classes and Drama classes. And to finish, there is a "Drawing Wall" where students can express themselves.

Jade, Marie-Amélie and Léna. "The Boulingrin was restored recently. It's a (covered) market every weekend. There are many different restaurants around the market where friends, families can meet to spend a good time together. Particularly there's a restaurant called "The Clos" which is really famous, original and cosy. It's the meeting place of Reims's inhabitants.

Hugo, Axel and Paulin. Reims's Stadium is the only official football (soccer) stadium in our city. The place was restored in 2009. There are 21,000 seats for supporters, but there aren't so many people attending every match. This stadiums welcomes only football games.

Imane, Philippine S. and Clara. The Opera of Reims, well-known till recently as "Le Grand Théâtre", was built in 1873 by Alphonse Gosset. Unfortunately it was destroyed by WWI in 1914 but was rebuilt in 1931. As for the aesthetics, the front of this building is really beautiful with a neo-classic style. Moreover it can welcome 790 people. There are different kinds of shows such as ballet, opera, magic, street dance... It's a lovely place to visit with your family or your friends.

Clotilde, Morgan and Justine. The Porte Mars is a famous gate in Reims. It's situated near to the town centre. It was built during the Roman Era to glorify the God of War, Mars. That's why you can see his face at each end of the three arches which compose the gate. During Antiquity it was used to protect the city from enemies' attacks. It is being restored.

Marianne. Food Avenue is an original place where you can eat lots of different kinds of food. There are five restaurants in one.You can traditional American fast food. There is also a healthy restaurant where you can compose your own salad by putting many vegetables in it, but also meat, eggs or fish. So in my opinion it's a very good place to eat something with your family or your friends.

Laëtitia and Manon. Rue de Vesle (Vesle Street), this street is like the heart of the city because there are many shops. It's very easy to access by bus or on foot, so, if you want to do some shopping, it's the right place to go !

Unsigned: The Cartonnerie is a really good concert hall which attracts a lot of famous bands such as Machine Head or  Amon Amarth. The hall is really comfortable, spacious ; it's cheap and the staff is very friendly. You will really enjoy the music, the artists and the time you spend there.