Oct 2007

Got up at 6.30 am, opened the shutters to see the stars, got ready, and left at 7.20am. Got the bus sans problemes, arrived at school 8am, to be told that first lesson was not at 8.30am as I'd been told but 9.30am which was kinda annoying but means not such an early start in the future. My timetable is a bit different than I thought too and I have one mixed level class of CM1 and CM2 which I was a bit worried about, but actually they're all about the same level (if anything I think the younger ones were better!).

For me there were two main difficulties of the day:

With the younger students, getting a balance between giving them too much information in one lesson and risking them getting bored and fidgety doing the same thing. I think maybe a shorter lesson would work better with them, I really struggled to fill the 45 minutes well today....but, bah, thats well out of my control. One of my CE1 classes (the youngest) was a lot smaller, and I couldn't believe how much more we got done, how much easier it was to keep an eye on what was going on.

With the older students, stopping them fidgeting and chatting, and having an explosion every time they put their hands up! Oh and stopping them asking straightaway every time "Qu'est-ce que ca veut dire en francais?" (What does that mean in French?").

My basic lesson plan for today and tomorrow (if anyone cares) consisted of three parts which I adapted according to their level:
Introducing myself, where I come from, places where English is spoken
English words which are used in French (le rugby was a particular favourite today)
Introducing the Good Morning/Goodbye songs, and "How are you?" / "my name is..."

Some of the teachers were really nice...others not quite so. I ate lunch from the canteen in the staffroom...soup, french bread (bien sur), quiche, some HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS generic meat in limegreen sauce, rice, cheese and a pear. It was great for my french to sit and listen and chat to the teachers at lunchtime, and they seemed to think my French was not bad, although it felt awful. Had my first real examination of 'bisous' (kissing on each cheek) in the workplace, and it's bloody hilarious, and scary for when I progress from handshaking on Thursday...literally every single person has to kiss every single other person when they first see them in the day, so the staffroom at 8.30am is hilarious, and then sometimes they didn't remember at break time if they'd already seen each other so they did it again just in case!

I am full of respect for teachers: they make it look so damn easy. And my voice is so sore from talking to a class all day, I hadn't given that a day.

Matt just asked on MSN whether anything got thrown at me? The answer is no, and so I guess my first day as a language teacher was fairly successful.

Went into town last night with a group of assistants to watch the semi finals of the rugby world cup, France v Angleterre.

I don't think I've ever watched a full rugby match before and was as clueless as the Americans but I had an awesome time, especially as we won! Rugby is really big down in this part of France, and we joined a big crowd in the old town where they had erected a big screen. The French were really into it, dressed up, singing etc, but it was interesting to see how they all sat at tables eating their evening meal together and drinking wine during the game.

One particular memory which will stay with me is of a young (15 years, approx) guy who refused to follow his friends who had pushed past us and were blocking our view, and even apologised to us a few times for their behaivour. I can't imagine that happening at home. The teenage boys here are funny, much more 'preened' than English 'lads'.

I had a layin this morning, did some ironing and hoovering, and spent the afternoon listening to Radio 2 and lesson planning. I'm cool me.

Am very scared about tomorrow. Had been totally cool about it, but now its so close I'm like ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH! Can't wait for tomorrow to be out the way. Just had dinner with Katie and Lynn, and introduced them to Catherine Tate and Vicky Pollard (they don't know what a 'chav' is!) so now I'm going to go and get everything packed up and ready for the morning, like first day of school, and get an early night!

Wish me luck!

X

Rachel and I got up at 7am this morning so she could an early train back to Montpon and get all her errands done before everything shuts for the weekend. We had that definite feeling one used to get before going back to school at the end of the long summer holidays. I think it was partly because she was going home (we've become something of a married couple in the week shes been here, with our own little routines and sides of the bed!), and also because the training finished yesterday and teaching starts 8.30am Monday. My cold is a lot better now, and I am very much looking forward to seeing Joe on Wednesday and my parents the week after, so I am feeling pretty good. But I have a feeling I am going to be petrified on Monday morning getting a bus to a school I don't really know and standing in front of French children all day with their education in my hands! Am very concerned that I could have 240 names to learn!

The weather is quite nice here, the mornings have suddenly got much colder, and everything feels sort of wintery and crisp, but the sun is still out and yesterday afternoon was really hot and even the evening warmer than when I went out just before leaving Exeter two and a half weeks ago. Perigueux is really growing on me; I'm starting to appreciate all the little fountains etc, and all the winding streets of the old town are really very cool. And the people are genuinely all very friendly; I love that when you walk into a shop or anywhere really everyone will say 'bonjour' and that even the young teenagers will greet each other with the 'bisous'. Its a bit confusing for us to know when we should/should not kiss....but in a similiar way to the no Sunday opening etc, I think its a custom which I could really learn to love.

The last couple of days of the stage were pretty useful. JP gave us a CD with all the songs on and a sample curriculum for the year, and, perhaps most usefully, we got to watch one of our fellow assistants, Louise, give a lesson to a real class of children. It was a daunting task for her with thirty 9 year olds and twenty assistants sat in front of her expecting a lot, but she did brilliantly and the children were very responsive and had already remembered a lot from the year they had spent learning English. I'm trying to remember all the little things that went wrong (for example when she said "a bit louder" and mover her hands upwards they all stood up!), so I can try and avoid them. This afternoon I'm going to sit down and crack on with the lesson planning.

After yesterday's day of training we had aperitifs with some of the headteachers from the various schools, JP and the 'Inspecteur d'academie', M. Coignard. This was really nice, and we got to try the local aperitif, I can't remember its name, but its a mixture of dry white wine and creme de cassis, yummy! We got given a little booklet thing with some interesting facts and figures, such as that there are 460 primary schools in the Dordogne and 2687 in the whole of the Bordeaux academy. I also got a picture of (almost) all of us, which I'm very proud of.

Yesterday evening I went to the Star Inn, the local English pub, with Rachel, Catherine and Molly. Its a proper English pub (as opposed to the French cafe-bars), and the owners are really lovely and welcoming. As we walked in they said "Oh hello, you must be the new assistants!". Is it so obvious?! It was realy weird to go up to the bar and ask for stuff in English, I can't believe how quickly I've become accustomed to using French. Some people understand me fine, others don't quite the first time, but NO-ONE talks back in English. We also met some other anglophones in the pub who offered us various advice, and we joined in with the pub quiz (Rachel and I came joint second with only a little bit of cheating...). They have fish and chips one night a week, so I'd definately like to take our new American friends to that, but I don't wanna hang out there speaking English too much!

Had my frist trip to the lauderette this morning (could no longer makedo with handwashing!), was slightly confusing and VERY EXPENSIVE but all my clothes came home washed and in onepiece so I guess that was successful.

Rugby is really popular in this part of France, and tonight is France-England semi-final of the World Cup which I think I might go and watch in the big screen in the centre. I don't understand the game butI'm suddenly feeling very patriotic and think it'll be a brilliant atmosphere. The town went mad last time they won!

Went out and had a drink with a load of the other assistants last night which was fun. The place we went to had a massive beer menu including beer cocktails...weird.

Had a liein this morning which was nice...am still feeling a bit rubbish so I woke up, took some parcetamols, wrote a shopping list and then fell back asleep again while Rachel was in the shower, she said "You're a bit spaced out Lucy" he he. Talking of showers, mine makes a right mess of my bathroom, theres no shower curtain or anything so I get a massive flood on the floor...not sure what to do about that. Talking about water, the water here is really hard, 'calcaire' and leaves white skanky stuff on everything. Not nice.

My French debit card and cheque book and stuff arrived today which was exciting...well, you know, kinda. Seem to have just spent the last couple of weeks spending, spending, spending, so looking forward to payday on the 25th and hoping it'll calm down a bit when I get into a routine.

Also need to find more ways to speak French etc. Gonna look into dancing lessons.

Then we took the bus on a practice run out to my Mon/Thurs school; takes about 15 minutes and stops 5 minute walk away from the school so that should be fine, but seeing as first lesson starts at 8.30am on Monday will still mean quite an early start. From there we went to the pharmacy where a nice Monsieur stocked me up with throat sweets and disolvable paracetamol (yuck yuck yuck). Also did Lidls for my favourite orange juice :-) and an iron from their bargain stuff...trying to find any way possible to reduce how often I have to go to the launderette cause apparently it's really expensive. Also went to massive hypermarket, L'Eclerc, and got some food shopping for next few days (Rachel is such a great guest, she cleans AND cooks Spanish rice and meatballs!), as well as stationary for teaching. Ah I love stationary shopping.

Came back and had some lunch (L'eclerc baguette wins so far on the 'not-destroying-your-mouth' front). The plan was then to do the market but it was raining so a lot of the stalls had packed up, and it looks more like chavvy clothes and towels and stuff than the little homemade goods I'd hoped for. But we then went and wandered aimlessly round the old town which it seems is the best way to explore it. Found a fantastic little creperie/cafe/restaurant, and eyed up some other restaurants to visit with Joe next week. Also lots of lovely little knick-knacky shops which I know mum will love. Need to start writing a list of stuff I want them to bring out.

He he having muchly fun now, Rachel is cooking and I am, ahem, assisting, with Spice Girls pumped up to the max. Amusing.

It looks like some of my entries have had 900+ views?! What is with that?! Surely can't be right. I only know of three people who read it!

We are two days into the training week thing which has been very useful so far. Have gone down with a stinking cold which is not making life fun, but am really pleased that I am not finding it too difficult to stay tuned into French all day. JP has been really great actually, an endless source of information, and has been good to get to know the other assistants a bit better; one of them has had a really awful experience with an old lady she was living with in a nearby village but looks like she'll be able to sort something else out now which is good.

The pedagogy (teaching methodology) is a bit different than I (and the other assistants) expected. What we're not meant to do is 'themes' so 'colours' one week and 'fruits' the next, but 'situations de communications'. So we will do 6 related 'seances' (lessons) which will allow the children at the end to use what they have learnt in a 'real' communicative situationm, such as a commentary for a fashion show or buying fruit at the shop.

There is very little written work, it's all oral, which means more work for the teacher I think, literally having to stand there and lead for 45 minutes 16 times a week. For 5 of my 8 classes it is the first time they have had any English classes and apparently they are all really excited as have been told that next Monday is when English starts...which is cool, but also somewhat pressurising. But I think its good to have a blank slate and no "we've done this before Miss!". Have been a bit scared in the school playground where we are having the training by quite how small they look. Not sure how to introduce myself to them, JP has suggested we use our first names, but I feel I'd get more authority with Miss Hawker, and seeing as I am going to be the teacher (as opposed to an assistant helping out) I think that would be better. The idea is that you only speak English in the class, or, in fact, that you have 2 songs for "Hello" and "Goodbye" and only speak English between them, allowing you time for questions, explanations etc. For learning vocab it's all about bingo, kim's game, memory games, etc etc. I think for most of my first lessons I will spend a while introducing myself in French, teach them the songs and, maybe with the older eleves, ask them about themselves in English to gauge their level.

All tres exciting!

On other news: much colder today, brr! where has the sun gone?!