Bonjour mes amis!
I’ve now officially made it through my first week of work! My classes all seem great, and the kids are always really excited to see me – it’s very cute. As soon as I walk into a class, they all say, “Hello!!” As I believe I’ve said before, French children are hilarious. I was in a CP (cours préparatoire, so the kids are about 6 years old) class on Thursday morning and we were talking (in French) about French words that come from English, like “le weekend” and “un hamburger.” (In a class where the children are that young, the main objective is just exposing them to the language, so there’s not a whole lot of teaching that goes on…) The teacher asked the class, “C’est quoi le weekend?” (What is the weekend?) A little girl then answered, “C’est une petite vacance le samedi, le dimanche, et le mercredi!” (“It’s a little vacation on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday!”) Only in France would a child tell you that Wednesday is part of the weekend…
Yesterday, a group of 4 other assistants and I took a day trip to Bourges, a town about 45 minutes away by train. It was a delightful little trip, and Bourges is a gorgeous and really charming town, with a beautiful cathedral (St. Etienne) and lots of half-timbered houses and little medieval streets everywhere. We spent a little while wandering around the Saturday morning market, where I saw the hugest wheel of Emmental cheese I’ve ever seen! Bourges is a rather rich town, and it’s wealth dates back to the 1400s, when Jacques Coeur, Charles VII’s finance minister, chose Bourges as the site for his personal chateau, now called the Palais Jacques Coeur. (Jacques Coeur was later arrested for embezzlement, and didn’t even get to enjoy his palais!) We visited the Palais Jacques Coeur (for free, as many monuments in France are free if you’re under 26), which was absolutely beautiful. None of the rooms are furnished, but everything is so ornately embellished that it was a still a great place to visit.
Bourges has a rather quirky little museum called the Musée des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France; it’s sole purpose is to display the work of those few French artists/professionals who win the Meilleur Ouvrier (best worker) medal in their field of work. The trade for 2009 is roof ornamentation, so we got to see a room full of roof decorations and miniature models of different types of roofs.
We visited Bourges’ main church, the Cathédrale Saint-Etienne, a 13th-century Gothic cathedral that’s just gorgeous. We also got to go down into the crypt, where our tour guide pointed out that during the cathedral’s construction, one of the craftsmen had carved des fesses (a human butt!) at the base of one of the vaulted arches! We also climbed up the cathedral’s northern tower, and the 396 (!) steps led to a great view of the town.
In other exciting news, I’m moving!! The foyer where I’m currently living is really far from the schools in which I work (45-50 minutes à pied – by foot), and I also have no microwave, oven, or table. One of the German assistants and I had been looking for an apartment together, because she didn’t love where she was living either, and we finally found one the other day! It’s in the centre ville, right on the banks of the Loire River, and it will cost me about €150 less each month in rent. It’s 2 furnished bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room – we also have a little balcony! It is EXTREMELY funky and old-fashioned though, and I’m pretty sure the wallpaper hasn’t been changed in about 35 years, but I think it will work out well for us.
I have one more week of work before our first vacation starts, I think I’m working on Halloween (and how we celebrate it in the US) with my classes this week, so I’m excited for that.
A bientôt!
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
[Finally] Starting work!
Dear friends,
I started work on Monday, and I can already tell that this year will be something to remember! First of all, the French school system is VERY different from the American system, and French children are actually quite different from American kids as well. Even though I’ve only been in the French school system for two days, I’m already starting to see where the French bureaucracy and national obsession to detail comes from… Or maybe I’m seeing the result of French bureaucracy and a national obsession to detail – either way, it’s very interesting. Today, for example, I was in a CE2 (Cours Elémentaire 2 – the students are about 8 years old) English class at one of my schools. We were working on asking “getting-to-know-you” questions like “What’s your name?,” “Where are you from?,” etc., so the teacher asked them to make a table so they could record the responses of their classmates. I kid you not, every single one of the nineteen kids in the class got RULERS out of their pencil cases to draw their tables. I’ve also never seen a French person underline something freehand – they always get a straight edge or another piece of paper so as to be able to draw a perfectly straight line. Quelle absurdité!
I am also learning that certain phrases, which I always knew to be uniquement et typiquement français, are learned and utilized from a VERY young age. If you were to ask me for the two most typical French phrases, I would respond with 1) “C’est pas grave!” and 2) “Ah bah oui!!” If you spend any amount of time in France, I can guarantee that you will hear both of these phrases several times a day. In the past few days, I have heard 6-8 year-old French children saying both of these, something I find absolutely hilarious.
But a bit more about my actual job, now that I’ve started and can give you a more accurate idea of what I’ll be doing for approximately 10 hours each week (as I posted previously, they’re having trouble getting me to a “full” 12 hours…) I’ve been assigned to work in 4 elementary schools in Nevers, so my time has been split into 2 halves, and I’m working in 2 schools (Ecole de Mouesse and Ecole Claude Tillier) from now until mid-January and then in the other 2 schools (Ecole Jean Macé and Ecole Brossolette) from mid-January until the end of April. From what I’ve done so far, it seems that my job will consist mostly of working with small groups of students (about 4 at a time), playing games and reading stories – en anglais, bien sûr! According to one of the teachers, the kids always love the English assistants, because they never have to do anything with them but play games!! I also get to put together mini-lesson plans about American culture – for example, I have to put something together on how American children celebrate Halloween for my CE1 (Cours Elémentaire 1 – the students are about 7 years old) class next week. All in all, I think it’ll be quite enjoyable, although I have been warned that there can be some discipline problems in the schools to which I’ve been assigned. They’re all classified as ZEPs (Zones d’Education Prioritaire), which basically means that the kids come from more economically disadvantaged homes. Luckily discipline and punishment is not under my realm of responsibility, so I’m not too worried!
The other assistants and I have been trying to make the most of our time in Nevers and in France, so we’ve been doing all sorts of things we maybe wouldn’t do at home – especially if they’re free! On Monday night, for example, I went with 3 other girls to a dance class for which one of the British assistants had seen a flyer in town. When we walked in, we quickly realized that we were easily the youngest people there by about 30 years… We stayed for the whole hour and danced the cha-cha with old French men – I think we were all just trying to keep a straight face most of the time! (Making the story even better: all 4 of us were taller than about half the men there, something they weren’t shy to point out.) While I don’t think I’ll be going back, it’s definitely an experience I’ll remember (and laugh about!) for a LONG time!
I only have 6 days of work until my first vacation starts, when I’ll be going to Liverpool to visit my cousin for a week. Until then, a few of us are going to Bourges, a town about 45 minutes away, on Saturday – I don’t think I'll be trying to find any parks this time!
A bientôt!
I started work on Monday, and I can already tell that this year will be something to remember! First of all, the French school system is VERY different from the American system, and French children are actually quite different from American kids as well. Even though I’ve only been in the French school system for two days, I’m already starting to see where the French bureaucracy and national obsession to detail comes from… Or maybe I’m seeing the result of French bureaucracy and a national obsession to detail – either way, it’s very interesting. Today, for example, I was in a CE2 (Cours Elémentaire 2 – the students are about 8 years old) English class at one of my schools. We were working on asking “getting-to-know-you” questions like “What’s your name?,” “Where are you from?,” etc., so the teacher asked them to make a table so they could record the responses of their classmates. I kid you not, every single one of the nineteen kids in the class got RULERS out of their pencil cases to draw their tables. I’ve also never seen a French person underline something freehand – they always get a straight edge or another piece of paper so as to be able to draw a perfectly straight line. Quelle absurdité!
I am also learning that certain phrases, which I always knew to be uniquement et typiquement français, are learned and utilized from a VERY young age. If you were to ask me for the two most typical French phrases, I would respond with 1) “C’est pas grave!” and 2) “Ah bah oui!!” If you spend any amount of time in France, I can guarantee that you will hear both of these phrases several times a day. In the past few days, I have heard 6-8 year-old French children saying both of these, something I find absolutely hilarious.
But a bit more about my actual job, now that I’ve started and can give you a more accurate idea of what I’ll be doing for approximately 10 hours each week (as I posted previously, they’re having trouble getting me to a “full” 12 hours…) I’ve been assigned to work in 4 elementary schools in Nevers, so my time has been split into 2 halves, and I’m working in 2 schools (Ecole de Mouesse and Ecole Claude Tillier) from now until mid-January and then in the other 2 schools (Ecole Jean Macé and Ecole Brossolette) from mid-January until the end of April. From what I’ve done so far, it seems that my job will consist mostly of working with small groups of students (about 4 at a time), playing games and reading stories – en anglais, bien sûr! According to one of the teachers, the kids always love the English assistants, because they never have to do anything with them but play games!! I also get to put together mini-lesson plans about American culture – for example, I have to put something together on how American children celebrate Halloween for my CE1 (Cours Elémentaire 1 – the students are about 7 years old) class next week. All in all, I think it’ll be quite enjoyable, although I have been warned that there can be some discipline problems in the schools to which I’ve been assigned. They’re all classified as ZEPs (Zones d’Education Prioritaire), which basically means that the kids come from more economically disadvantaged homes. Luckily discipline and punishment is not under my realm of responsibility, so I’m not too worried!
The other assistants and I have been trying to make the most of our time in Nevers and in France, so we’ve been doing all sorts of things we maybe wouldn’t do at home – especially if they’re free! On Monday night, for example, I went with 3 other girls to a dance class for which one of the British assistants had seen a flyer in town. When we walked in, we quickly realized that we were easily the youngest people there by about 30 years… We stayed for the whole hour and danced the cha-cha with old French men – I think we were all just trying to keep a straight face most of the time! (Making the story even better: all 4 of us were taller than about half the men there, something they weren’t shy to point out.) While I don’t think I’ll be going back, it’s definitely an experience I’ll remember (and laugh about!) for a LONG time!
I only have 6 days of work until my first vacation starts, when I’ll be going to Liverpool to visit my cousin for a week. Until then, a few of us are going to Bourges, a town about 45 minutes away, on Saturday – I don’t think I'll be trying to find any parks this time!
A bientôt!
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