Les Écoles Française

It felt so great to get back into the schools twice this past week, even if it was just to observe for the day. I definitely feel complete when I am able to work with my students and I have been missing it very much since May. I have been anxious to receive more information about hours, grades, and even what days I would be teaching and where since I arrived 3 weeks ago. The majority of the other assistants received this information as early as two weeks ago, some just last week, but that was because they will be working in the middle schools and high schools. Apparently, the process of placing assistants is different in the elementary schools because I still have very little sense of what is going on.

View from the school in Saint Chamond

So far I know this much: I will be working in two elementary schools, one in Saint Chamond and one in Rive de Gier which is the next town over. I will be teaching four hours in Saint Chamond on Tuesdays and four hours in Rive de Gier on Thursdays and both will require a significant commute due to their location. I will have Fridays completely free from work. Because students only have a half day on Wednesdays, it is likely I won't work then either.

However, I will also be teaching other schools from a distance through Skype. I don't have much information about this either, but I know through process of elimination it'll likely be on Mondays for four hours, or possibly split between Mondays and Wednesdays. The point of this will to practice speaking with kids in small groups for about 10-20 minutes a piece. When they finish with me on the computer, they will return to their teacher who will have a written activity of some sort to accompany my lesson. Apparently, they are introducing this into the assistantship because schools that are far away from a larger town don't tend to benefit from the program. This way, they will be able to interact with a native English speaker, even if at a distance.

Although I may have only just begun to get a taste of the French school system through my observations, there are definitely plenty of differences. For instance, French students don't raise their hands, they are told to raise their pointer finger instead. I also noticed, at least in one of my two assigned schools, there were no cubbies or lockers for the students to put their things. This results in everyone putting their backpacks and jackets under their desks and chairs. Every class in the school takes turns going to a local pool on a weekly basis, at least through fall, then they do some sort of activity for the winter.

The biggest differences, however, can be found in the day to day schedules of the elementary schools themselves. French children get two twenty minute recesses, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, before and after their TWO HOUR lunch from 11:30am until 1:30pm. This allows students to go home and eat with their families, as long as their parents are afforded the same lunch hours. If not, they do have the option to eat at the school. The lunch menu features lots of French classics, like boeuf bourguignon, and every lunch is completely different throughout the entire month.

This is also the first year that elementary students have any school on Wednesdays. Before, they had the day off in order to help them do activities outside of school, like sports, but as of this year they now go to school for a half day then too.

The school in Saint Chamond... Francois Villon

Le Directeur or La Directrice is the equivalent of a principal in the French school system, however, the job is very different. They still have classes that they teach daily and they are not considered a level higher than the other teachers at the school. Le Directeur/La Directrice helps organize and manage the school, but there is no real special differentiation between teacher and directeur/directrice outside of that.

The teachers I will eventually be working with have been nothing but kind to me and seem excited that I will be there to help out! This is a huge relief because I have read experiences of other assistants describing the other teachers as standoff-ish and unwilling to help organize what will be taught. I am looking forward to beginning the planning of my lessons so I can get back to the creative side of teaching that I love so much.

I will continue to switch off my blog posts between my experiences in traveling, teaching and as an au pair. All these things are still coming together, and when I find myself stressing out because of one thing or another is not feeling completely set up, I actively remind myself I have only been here three weeks and it's not worth being worried about and to just go with the flow, which is not something I excel at! Hopefully, my next post will explain how everything has come together perfectly :)

Things I've Learned:

• How to line dry ALL of my clothes... we don't have a clothes dryer and apparently that's pretty common in France.
• Because the French are really good about energy conservation, when you turn on a light, the light bulbs are designed to take a bit longer to reach their full brightness potential. 
• Similar to the lights, the heat is never on in their house... even when it is 40 degrees Fahrenheit outdoors. I've been wearing slippers all day every day for the first time in my life. Hopefully the winter won't be too harsh here...
• I've been told multiple times IF it does end up snowing this winter... almost everything shuts down because they are not equipped to handle the snow. Should be interesting to see how this works out.
• There are barely any commercials for French television. AND many of the shows are French twists of American shows-- Super Nanny, American Idol, etc.
• The cops in Saint Chamond don't work every Sunday... so the cops from the next town take over. Found this out when our home was broken into the other night.