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.
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| 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.
