Middle school (college) in france is broken up into four grades: sixieme (6eme) = 11-12 year olds, cinquieme (5eme) = 12-13 year olds, quatrieme (4eme) = 13-14 year olds and troisieme (3eme) = 14-15 year olds. So the grade numbering system in france goes backwards: 6, 5, 4, 3. I teach all of these levels. The sixiemes, although having English in elementary school, are considered to be starting from scratch, English-wise. I guess what they teach in elementary school is very basic (hello, goodbye, etc).
I thought that a troisieme in one school would be the same as one in a different school, but I have found some use different books and learn different subjects and appear to have a generally different level of English knowledge. Could this be why they are trying to employ all these foreigners to teach their kids languages (because they suck at them)??
In addition to that, at the moment, I have two “euro” classes, which are students who take two more hours of English classes every week, who are considered to be the brightest English students.
For the most part (or at least, my understanding of it was), I have a one hour class, broken into two 30 minute sections where I am given half of the class (15 students max) to teach something by myself, then we switch and I get the other half to do the same thing.
So imagine my surprise, when I show up to my first class, Monday at 8:55 at College Marlioz, and find that this teacher would prefer that I only work with her best students for the entire hour. I guess that is ok, except I had just made a lesson plan about clubs in schools that I thought would last 30 minutes, and now I have to figure out a way to stretch it out!
I ended up just making the students read a bunch of club descriptions out loud before answering the questions I had written down, which I know, was probably not thrilling for them, but good for their vocab and pronunciation. It ended up working, it took the whole hour, and they still seemed like they were paying attention in the end. I felt pretty good about that. Also they were so jealous about the types of activities schools offered in the US!
So then I was supposed to do that all over again, but the next teacher hadn't read the schedule carefully and thought that I wasn't coming to her class that day and scheduled a test instead. I was supposed to have a 1 hour 40 minute break after her class (the typical amount of time allotted for lunch!) but since I had no class to go to, it turned into a two hour 40 minute break. And this isn’t the first time that a teacher didn’t know I would be there, or scheduled a test, or decided they didn’t actually want me to come. It can be quite frustrating, when the schools are too far away to actually go home for breaks and there is nothing to really do there. I’ve got to start bringing a book.
After the break, I was supposed to lead an English club during the second half of the kid’s lunch break with the youngest grade (6eme), who know very little English. The teacher from the first class made it sound like she was going to stay with me, since I didn't know what to do with an English club, and didn't know what they knew, and didn't have anything prepared, etc, but instead just showed me to the room and said "ok you can let them go in about an hour, just give them a little time to go to their lockers" and walked out the door. So there I was with like 15 little 11 year old faces just staring at me.. great. Well, it actually turned out pretty well, after the initial difficulty of them understanding just about nothing that I said.. but the teacher did say I could speak French to this group, (I’m not supposed to even let on that I know French to the rest!) so maybe it will be good practice for us both.
I just ended up speaking really slowly in English and using really simple phrases, and they surprisingly ended up getting it most of the time. I thought about playing a game I had done with the other classes last week, but I didn't know if they knew enough vocab for it, so I just ended up using the hour to ask them questions about themselves, which for the most part, they could answer. What I really liked about it was how enthusiastic they were. They took their own time to come to the English club and every single one of them raised their hand for every question I asked and would be fidgeting in their seat if I didn't call them first, calling me "miss!! miss!!", it was pretty cute. They spoke in French a lot more, but it was understandable. And they still managed to be clever with responses sometimes too, even with limited vocabulary.
Then just one more class at College Marlioz. It was my first time in this class, so again the introduction thing (“my name is Christine, I’m 22, I’m an English assistant and you?”). this had got to be like, what, the 15th time I’d done this at this point. of course the first question (always) had to be from some teenage boy asking if I had a boyfriend (or “little friend” if they choose to directly translate it from the French term – petit ami), but after that, the teacher did have some good/original questions herself (like, where were you on September 11th?). And I only had to stay for about half the class. So I was done around 2:40, or maybe a little earlier. So 8:55 – 2:40 is a pretty long day, especially to only work 4 hours (believe me I have mentioned this several times.. but apparently there is no getting around it/no way to group my hours so they fall only in the morning or only in the afternoon, like some other schools have done), but at least I was done with my 4 hours at College Marlioz for the week. Since Thursday morning is their other time from which they get to pick hours for me, it meant that I had Thursday morning this week free.
at this point I had a couple of hours until I needed to be at my next school, College Jean-Jacques Perret, for an hour of class from 4:30-5:30. That left me just enough time to make it home for about half an hour before I had to leave again to go to the next school. It was either go home for 30 minutes or go sit at the next school for like over an hour, and I’ve already described how thrilling the teachers’ lounges are, so that just wasn’t going to happen. I’ve told the school several times how inconvenient/annoying it is for me to come in for just one hour, when the commute itself is 30 minutes there and back, but they continue to stand by the fact that the euro (honors) section is the most important class to them, and needs the native English speaker, so I would just have to come in for it. I’ve also tried to get them to schedule a class before it so I would be there for at least two hours, but there is a conflict with one of the other school’s schedules that occupies that time. Again, it’s complicated, and I don’t think it will be changing.
Half of this class was on a trip to Spain, so I got the whole class (like 13 students) for 30 mins and we talked about clubs, like this teacher wanted. Then she made me stay for the second half of the class and watch them have a debate over homeschooling and made me interrupt them anytime they made a mistake or mispronounced something (kind of awkward).
Teachers here tend to be less forgiving than those in the states, and based on my past experience at a French university and what I have learned from classes about French society, this is pretty typical. Making mistakes in the classroom is not as forgivable as it is in the US. This reminds me of my Langue Orale professor from Nice who would blatantly tell us that she didn’t like our ideas/work/pronunciation and read our grades/papers out loud to class, commenting on what she didn’t like. She might have been a particularly harsh example (she was, after all, Parisian) but I don’t think that kind of attitude is completely out of line here in France. Teachers here haven’t hesitated to point out to me which students “aren’t really good at English” in front of the student themselves, or the entire class. Some teachers nitpick the pronunciation, which I guess is, in a way, useful, but I understood what they said, so do you have to be so mean about it? I guess it’s just not the style I’m used to, and I think mistakes should not be looked down upon, especially in a language class! If your fear of making mistakes causes you not to speak, then there is no reason to even be in the class. I guess it just isn’t my style of teaching either.
Tuesday, I worked at College Garibaldi. I spent the first hour being a judge for skits about speed dating, which was fun. They really went all out, costumes and all! The next hour I had a new class, so it was introduction time again. I was supposed to then have an hour break and then one more hour class, but the teacher for the last hour is out, and her substitute didn’t know I was coming and wasn’t prepared for me, so I instead went to a different class right after the second one, and got to leave an hour early.
I always have Tuesday afternoons (past 12) off. And I always have Wednesdays off. Kids in school only go for the morning on Wednesday, anyway, so even if I did work then it would only be until 12.
I had Thursday morning off since I had already completed my 4 hours at College Marlioz on Monday, and I had to go in for one hour at College Garibaldi right after lunch. The teacher had given me a worksheet and examples of things she wanted me to talk about (all in the past tense, what they are currently learning), but decided when I got there that she would rather I talk about Halloween. Well I told her I hadn’t prepared anything, but she didn’t think that would be a problem, and I guess it wasn’t really. Halloween is barely celebrated here (as evidenced by the tiny Halloween display in the biggest Wal-Mart-type store in town – it was literally, one tiny shelf, whereas the Christmas displays are in full-force here, already!), so talking about the differences, and what was typical of American Halloween celebrations was pretty easy and seemed interesting to them. No bus runs back form the school to where I live in the middle of the day, but luckily it’s only a 20 minute walk home.
Friday is one day that is always the same. College Jean-Jacques Perret has decided that they want my schedule to be the same, although they are changing it after the Christmas break a little. So I have one class from 9-10, where I talked about jobs to both sections, another from 10-11, where I did the same thing. This second class, though, is easily the worst class I teach all week. The students are unmotivated and rowdy; I am constantly having to tell them to stop talking. They refuse to answer my questions, or speak when I call on them, even if it is just to read a passage (I can’t read”, one said!). The teacher offers little support, but mentions that “this is how they always are”. It is during times like these that I begin to have that “glorified babysitter” feeling that I got while working with ASA this summer in Florence. Like the teachers just want a way to get the students out of their class, and this seemed like a convenient way to do so. I get that feeling when they continuously tell me they really don’t care what I talk about, nor do they care if it reinforces what they are teaching, or if it goes in any type of order. I guess the flexibility is nice., but I can just see so many ways that I could be better used!
On the other end of the spectrum, I actually had a teacher complain this week that it was “hard to teach a lesson in just 30 minutes”. Well, newsflash, I didn’t ask to be here or in your class, so if you don’t appreciate my help, then I shouldn’t have to come!
Fridays tend to be frustrating, but at least it is the end of the week. As you can see, with the commutes, breaks and long lunch breaks, 12 hours is stretched over 4 days and makes my week seem pretty full, especially considering that outside lesson planning is required – it’s like being a student and having homework all over again! I should mention that most assistants have Monday or Friday off, and work between two and three days a week. Those only working in one or two schools have an easier time, as they don’t have several establishments fighting over hours. I also have a “main” school that is supposed to be in charge of dealing out the hours, making a master schedule, dealing with pay roll and all that, but they haven’t been that helpful when dealing with the other schools. I have found I need to talk to first the principle, but then mainly the teachers, if I want to get anything done/changed/fixed with regards to my schedule or anything else.
More about what else is going on in France in the next entry…
No comments:
Post a Comment