Well I might as well start talking about Histoire Des Arts this Week, seen as The Art Teacher devoted an entire lesson this Week to it. If you don't know what this is, Histoire Des Arts is an exam that you take as part of the Brevet later on in the Year. It consists of writing an essay (around 2000 words) about any art form (you can choose a topic or select one from a list) from the 19th Century and then presenting them to two teachers (at least one history teacher has to be there) for about 10-15 minutes and then answer any questions that they ask. This year the theme is 'Art, State, Power', so it has to be a piece of Art centered around politics and all that. It's probably the most terrifying thing about the Brevet in my opinion and I'll explain why soon. First let me just go through the usual recap of the past Week:
French: I'm starting off on a bit of a down note this time as my dictation this past Tuesday didn't go all that well. In fact it scored rather miserably, a meagre 2,5/10. It isn't that bad, (I've had far worse certainty) it's only the second Test thus far to hit the negative zone this Trimestre and for me that's very, very good considering my previous efforts. Without a doubt my score for French in the first report will be the best one I've ever had in this subject, but Results like these just make you feel awful at the end of the day. My Redaction got a 8/15 though, which was slightly better than average but again, still WAY better than some of my previous efforts. This Week in French we primarily looked at a lot of grammar (as usual) and studied a lot of boring texts (as usual). One of the texts we looked at was rather funny though, it came from a French writer's autobiography and detailed how he was awful at school when a new French Teacher came along and taught him how to read and write...apparently 'saving' his life in the process. I looked at my French Teacher and just thought 'Good luck trying!'
Geography: The Teacher was off for most of this Week, but she did give us some work on geography while she was away. Apparently we've finished looking at Stalin and are now setting our eyes upon the U.S of A, which will be a fascinating topic I'm sure. Although I don't despise Geography it can get a bit tedious at times, I mean do I really have to learn ALL of the bloody rivers, mountains and cities?
Maths: Maths was for the most part fine this Week, and I was happily surprised with my Results. I scored a 14/20 in the Test that I moaned about a few Weeks back and a 16,25/18 in an old Homework Test, so neither of them were the catastrophe that I predicted then! Very good indeed, but considering the okay-to-bad Results at the start of this Trimestre I'm not looking forward to the final score. So on Tuesday we went to the Technology class and spent an hour fiddling with this Maths program called Geogebra were I was trying to create these parallel intersecting triangles (geometry stuff) and really failed (NOTE TO SELF: ME NO GOOD AT MATHS ON 'COMPUTOR). The rest of the time it was pretty easy but on Thursday I was having a few problems with the Thales' theorem but I think I've worked it all out now (put this one down to more boredom on my part, I could have been concentrating more).
Science: I was bang on the money last Week, the last Test scored me a 15,5/20. The lesson this Week was mainly devoted to magnetism (how it works ect...) and we did a nice little experiment with a metal ball being attracted to a steel pole and vice versa. Not much to comment about other than 'meh' really.
English: We're still on global warming! We had to write a paragraph about the effects of global warming and as usual I finished it in seconds and just waited for the rest of the Class to catch up. The spare time I had all to myself was generally spent scribbling things onto a piece of paper, looking at my watch or fiddling with my pen ect... What can I say? English is my speciality. Oh yeah and my Team this time scored another 20/20, which was good considering the fact that I rarely had to help them this time.
Sport: Last Week of Endurance, YAY! For the Test we had to run/fast jog through thirteen minutes without stopping. Of course I had the usual urge to throw up and pass out half way through but I kept my 'A-Game' as they say. Well okay I slowed down a fair bit in the final minutes but I'm sure the Teacher won't penalize me a lot for it. And considering my previous performances, I think I've done okay. All I have left to say is 'GOODBYE ENDURANCE, I SURE AS HELL WON'T MISS YOU!'
Technology: We had to do exactly the same thing as before, just with a bit more complexity really. So on a scale from one to ten this ranked very high on the OH GOD I'M BORED!-o-meter. There's only so much interest generated by this idea of putting panels around the lake informing people on the tree's/local wildlife. Does it really have to take up the whole year? Why can't we design something cool/inventive for once? My Team also got a 4/5 for our previous work, so that's always good. Who know's maybe I can salvage my score a bit before the end of the first Trimestre? Probably not, it finishes in a few Weeks.
D.V.P: Remember when I chose the 'Media Consult' job from the 'techie' industry list Week? Well turns out our school actually HAS a media consult on it's staff (albeit one that's rarely seen by us mere mortals) and the Teacher thinks it would be great if we could interview him next Week for our diaporama. Ugh, more work to do. Still it does freshen things up a bit after this never-ending formula of 'Look something up, do a Diaporama on it'. And for crying out loud the guy with me has an APPALLING taste in colour, he just want's to paint everything in different shades of green!
German: We looked at a bit of grammar this Week and as usual we lingered over one sentence in German for about half-an-hour. Then it got a bit difficult, as we went from studying a sentence to a full on paragraph. Learning curve anyone? And when the Teacher does explain what it means her voice is overshadowed by the Class' constant antics: it's more disruptive than ever, the Teacher is just another voice amongst the sea of conservations going on at any one time. One kid even got sent to the Headmistress' office, but she came back the following day with exactly the same attitude as the day before! Wow, now if Mme Philippe can't sort you out then you MUST be the human version of Bart Simpson! Another girl chucked a plastic glue tube at someone, which missed and dented a window! Animals, the lot of them. What's even more shocking is the fact that they're generally not like this in the other lessons, but the Teacher's lack of authority basically gives them free reign to do whatever the hell they want. So in short the subject is boring/hard and the Class is extremely annoying to watch. But we have only had one Test so far though, so that's a positive right? *LOOKS AT CALENDAR* Oh boy we've got a big one coming up...
S.V.T: Good news: Test has been rescheduled to next Week. Bad news: I've got even more to learn and understand, great! Really Bad news: What happened to the time when S.V.T was easy? I FEEL LIKE MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE HERE! IT'S OFFICIALLY MORE COMPLICATED THAN FRENCH AND MATHS ARGHHH!!! On a lighter note, it wasn't that bad this time around and I at least STARTED to get my head round this DNA/genes/Chromosome fuelled complexity. Well okay it isn't nuclear physics or anything, but the use these 'Scientifically complex sounding' words is very difficult to get your head around. I'm going to go into this Test having learnt everything but understanding little, so let's hope it'll just be a slew of 'What is the Definition of...', 'What is a...' or the classic 'Describe this...' questions or I'M DONE FOR!
Music: Unfortunately Mme Jouet is back and all the more boring for it. She wasn't very happy that we haven't had any Tests so far either. We're now looking at adverts and how music can change the feeling someone can have about the product. We've also gone back to writing endless amounts of text which just serve as filler for the eventual Test. *SIGH* Goodbye interesting lesson...
Art: I've finally got to Histoire Des Arts have I? Well the Art Teacher gave us a crash course on how to describe and 'emote yourself' onto a painting. This is so we're all prepared for Histoire Des Arts, and describing 'Art' his hardly my forte. I don't even know what to pick, it can be anything from Charlie Chaplin to World War 2 songs to even the Louvre pyramid. Apparently I have to pick something before Christmas and as of yet I'm stumped on what to choose. Here's the list given to me so far:
I'm also bricking it. First Week of January I've got Les Epreuves Communes (just like last year), then I have the two Weeks of bloody internship coming up (how am I going to get through that? What job to a pick to be an Apprentice on?), I've got two more Brevet Blancs AND the actual Brevet with Histoire Des Arts packed in there as well. So basically from Christmas onwards I'm going to be a blubbering wreck of nerves. Why does living in the Stone Ages feel so appealing now? It's Histoire Des Arts that troubles me the most, because I have to speak to a group of Teachers for 15 mins and become a master know-it-all on a piece of 20th century art. Oh yes and did I mention it's in French? HOW AM I GOING TO DO THIS?!!! *CRIES OUT IN PANIC* It's okay Tim, everythings going to be juuuust fine....
So that's This Week done then. Pretty boring really, mixed in with a few moments of severe depression but hey that's how life rolls. Til' next Week then...
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