New school, same cute kids, really different experience

This morning I hopped on the tram to Le Signoret, Pierre's school. Unfortunately, my enthusiastic director was not at school today, so I was on my own to meet and greet the teachers. I didn't see any sort of main entrance or secretary to introduce myself to, so I just walked into a classroom and said, Hello, I'm the English Assistant. It so happened I walked into a CP class (the youngest grade, 6 year olds) and the teacher said oh yes, I think you're supposed to be with the CP and CE1 (the 2 youngest grades). She was nice, but older, and didn't really give me much more to go off of than that. So I sat in the back of her room while her kids came in... watched as a little boy (Alox-pronounced Aloe-eex) wrote "Putun" on the board (a very bad word, albeit spelled incorrectly), and then sort of looked at him sternly until the teacher noticed what was going on.

The kids were pretty much adorable though. One little girl said, "T'es belle," (You're pretty) and another told me a story about a turtle. I was a little shocked at how "old school" the teacher's teaching style was. Once she had taken attendance, she pointed at me and said this is our English assistant, and then moved right into her French grammar lesson. For being a class of 6 year olds, it wasn't very colorful and the only posters up on the wall were the letters in print and cursive script (which they learn to use much earlier than in the US). The teacher did a lot of 'shhshing', used a long ruler to point to words, and the kids sat in rows of 2. The children were memorizing lines and words from a story. The teacher would read it, then she'd call on a student to read the same line, and then they'd work on pronunciation/letter combinations... a very different approach to learning to read than how I've been taught to teach children how to read... but then again, I was only observing one lesson...

About 30 minutes into the lesson, I got bored and decided I'd move along to another classroom. This was a different CP class, with a teacher who had a little more color on the walls and a little less old school instruction. She at least showed me the 3 books in English she owned (as opposed to the shelves of books in English they showed me yesterday at the other school) and where to go next... out the building and up an outdoor staircase to the CE1 class (7-8 year olds).

This next teacher had an interesting predicament. She taught in this CE1 class once a week, every Tuesday, when I'll be there. But, she also rotated and taught one day in 3 other classes (of different levels). Because she is a new teacher, her job position is to fill in for the teachers when they only teach part-time (something that is apparently very common in France when Mommies have babies.) When she's been teaching longer, her odds increase for a better job. Actually, this is how all the teaching posts work. Candidates wanting to be teachers take a test to become "certified" teachers, and then they are placed by the State anywhere in a region of their choice (so not exact cities or districts). Then, once the teacher has taught for a few years, they can swap up to better cities and better jobs (like teaching one class, instead of 4).

As you can imagine, this doesn't allow this teacher much continuity in discipline, so the kids aren't as respectful to her, but they were still pretty cute... and she was still pretty with it. I got to sing the alphabet (in English) with them and help walk around correcting one of their French grammar assignments. So even though I wasn't answering a million questions today, I was doing a lot of French speaking! This teacher helped explain the school a little better and then showed me to the coffee/tea room during the recreation break. After the break, I stayed in her room a little longer and then switched to another CE1 class across the hall.

I was the most impressed with this next teacher's classroom style. She was differentiating the instruction for varying levels of readers, the kids were drawing and writing to assess comprehension of a story, and she's been the only teacher I've seen get down on the floor with the kids in a sort of circle time. She also had hand-made posters and drawings for different activities and she always had something up on the board for when the students were done with their activity... so I found her to be a pretty good teacher! She didn't have me do much but observe, so we'll see how it goes later on...

Then, it was lunch time, and I skidaddled with the kids and teachers. (They invited me to eat with them at a restaurant, but I had other plans). I had received an email saying my Neufbox (my DSL box) had come into the store that I was supposed to pick it up from. So I hopped on a bus (my new favorite way to go places, much faster in some cases), and went to the TABAC (a type of corner store, selling all types of cigarettes, cards, and lottery tickets).

I got home, ripped open the box, rearranged my apartment so all the wires sort of fit into the DSL box, and realized... oh don't think this thing works without a phone line (which is being installed on Thursday afternoon). I just read online that once the guy comes to install my phone line, it will take 48hours for the number to be activated. Then, 48 hours after my line has been activated, I can get the login and password needed to complete the installation process. AH. So, I still have until at least the beginning of next week before my tv/internet/and unlimited international calling can commence.

I didn't do anything after my mad dash to pick up the Neufbox and figure the thing out because I was too tired and my mom says I still sound sick (I'm not...really, just hoarse). I did however get a call from the oven guy and they delivered my brand new oven/stove! Yay! No more hot plates!

But, tomorrow's a new day! I'm meeting up with the highschool assistant in Saint-Priest who lives on the Fourviere hill to explore the Roman Theaters! Pictures to come:)

Reste cool!