Finally have the urge to write another blog entry! It's currently 9:30am here in Le Port-Marly, a quaint Western suburb of Paris. I'm sitting in the empty teacher's lounge at Ecole Alexandre Dumas, drinking a much-needed second cup of coffee from the pot someone thankfully left full (I have the guts to pour myself a cup, but probably not enough gall to actually brew another pot, I still feel very much like an outsider here as it's my second day teaching). It's nice and quiet in here with all the teachers and students in class, but I must say if I had my druthers I'd add a nice big comfortable couch and wifi...American much?
I've just finished sitting in on Madame Barroche's 8:30am Friday morning (ouch) English class (level CM 1, mean age around 9 I think?) She is one of the few (two?) teachers who is allowed to teach English by law in this school, so I'm going to be primarily helping out in her class, preparing short presentations on American culture, etc. or telling stories in English. Today I presented myself to the class in English (class comprehension was around 50% I think... could have been worse!) and then mostly observed, took notes, and helped the kids out and answered questions if they were struggling. This class in particular seems to be really keen on learning English, and the kids seem genuinely interested in the United States and learning new vocabulary. Today's word queries: "blade" and "sea". I struggled for a moment with "blade", torn between wanting to explain the different between a "blade" of grass and the "blade" of a knife or ice skate, but I settled on a simple translation to "couteau". (Sidenote: just found some chocolate biscuits in a tin on the table, goes perfectly with my coffee! I'll have to remember to bring something in later today or on Tuesday, there's a big supermarket a block away and I don't want to be the moocher!)
Anyway, Mme. Barroche told me she'll e-mail me the week's lesson plan in advance so that I can come up with a short add-on presentation, story, or game that will go along with her lesson. I'm enjoying the fact that I get to work WITH the teachers here and that I'm not all on my own like some of the other teaching assistants I know. I'm also very thankful that I'm teaching in primary school, because I've been hearing some horror stories about discipline/respect issues from teaching assistants assigned to high school or even pre-college level.
This afternoon I have two more English classes, one a combination of CP and CM1 students, and the other CM1 again. There's quite a large different between the levels of comprehension of the CP and CM1 students, and the CM1 students seem proud to use the skills they learned in their first year of English classes, which is great! The combo class is a little tough, because I feel like I'm either leaving half of the class behind, or boring the other half. On Tuesday I spoke too much French in these classes, so I'm going to make a real effort to speak mostly in English today, and only translate if the kids are totally lost and there seems no hope in making them understand through pantomime/Vulcan mind-meld.
As for me, I am sick and exhausted this morning. I've been fighting off a cold for a couple weeks now, and I've finally begun to succumb over the last few days. I'd be surprised if I slept more than an hour or two last night. I'm supposed to finish at 3pm today, and then it'll take me between an hour and an hour and a half to get back to the apt, at which point I plan on passing out until I have to be at dinner at 6:30pm (might be a little late). I'm going to the France vs. Japan soccer match tonight, and I've been really looking forward to it, but right now I'm so tired that all I want to do is crawl into bed and not wake up until tomorrow. Hopefully a nap will give me a second wind!
Tomorrow I'm going to be spending time with my au pair family, learning their routines and helping them celebrate their daughter's 5th birthday (that reminds me, I still need to find a present! I'm thinking a super easy picture book in English that I can read to her). If all goes well, I'll hopefully be moving in with them on Wednesday, and it'll so nice to have my own bed, room, and bathroom for a change. I plan on doing a lot of sleeping.
Anywhoo, I think it's time that I go in search of a warm cafe with wifi. A bientot tout le monde!
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