This week has been a pretty easy teaching week for me! Circus on Tuesday and a musical performance field trip Thursday! Now it's already the weekend.... next year is going to be rough haha!
But anywho- yesterday I got to school at my usual time, but we didn't leave for an hour. The CM2 class was without a teacher (or a sub) once again, so I didn't get to teach the one class I would have had. Instead, Salima, the special education aid, and the mother of a student I have at my Monday school, convinced me to hang out with her in Hossein's class. I don't teach with him, but I do teach his class with the other teachers. He taught a lesson on symmetry while I was there and it was interesting to see him teach a lesson. He was pretty much a perfect example of how to effectively teach a class using the traditional direct style of teaching. Even though he stood in front of the class the whole time (I haven't once seen centers in any class but Corinne's and I've only ever seen a class set up to work in groups once!), he asked good questions, let kids think for themselves, used technology!!! (first time in a French classroom I've seen that!) and visual aids, had students come up and explain what they were thinking... it was great! ...All except for the few times he went off on one student in particular. This one student would drive me nuts as well, and usually does during my lessons, but instead of working with him on fixing his constant calling out and fooling around, the maitre just got up in his face and yelled. And I thought.... it was too good to be true! I'm so ready to teach a classroom of my own... so I can at least put these negative observations to some use... to know what not to do. I feel so useless just sitting back and watching kids get yelled at for the same behaviors they do over and over again. Clearly yelling isn't helping the situation!
Which brings me to the rest of my odd and annoying morning. I helped Anne-Laure's class get on the bus and sat with them at the show... and her kids are so out of control! As soon as she is out of sight, they just act like wild animals... And anytime she turned around and saw kids acting up and I wasn't "doing anything" or trying to pull them aside to talk to them about it, she came over and yelled. So I just gave up. Instead I just tried to distract the kids from being crazy... asking them stuff about the show or their family, etc. As we were walking into the auditorium of Saint-Priest, I saw Nathalie's class from my Tuesday school and was so happy to see them quietly waiting in line, waving to me. She had asked me to go with them too, so I knew they'd be there. But seeing these 2 classes right next to each other made me realize how different the two CP teachers are.... I've never heard Nathalie yell at a child or get up in their face. She uses a lot more little behavior techniques to help organize her class... and clearly it pays off. Her kids are no "harder" a population to work with either, so it can be done without yelling!
Once we got seated and watched the show, the kids were mostly well-behaved, minus one kid that thought it would be funny to give a thumbs up or down after each performance. That didn't last long once I caught her attention with an angry teacher glare! On the whole, the show was very, very French, which was interesting for me and the kids seemed to be entertained. The singers played accordions and little kazoos... they wore very eclectic outfits with bold jewelry and colorful glasses... The music was interesting, they sang about everything from what to do when you have nightmares, friendship, and children soldiers being forced to use Kalashnikovs. They also did a little segment on letting immigrant children stay in France where they belong, in their schools with their friends, without the fear of being deported by the police. Despite my personal beliefs, I sort of thought it was a little overly one-sided for a public school event. And then when they asked kids what they wanted to be when they grow up and a couple kids said police officer, the main singer said... hrmmm, we already have enough of those. I'm not sure what she meant by that... but it seemed like they were a little biased towards one political disposition... so it will be interesting to see what Nathalie says about it. Regardless of whether or not being politically unbiased is as important in French public schools, I still thought they were odd topics to sing to 4-8 year olds.
Thankfully, Salima offered me a ride home and I didn't have any afternoon classes. I had an epiphany on my way home too. I've been trying to think of a good going away type present to give to my teachers. I had pretty much decided on just writing everyone a nice card until I thought of giving them a CD. Some of the teachers that I hang out with burn CDs of French music for me... so I thought I could give them some American music they might not have heard (which is hard since they hear a lot of it!). I also thought I could make other teachers a copy of a Raffi CD I have... and then maybe they'll use it in their classrooms or with their own kids!
I'm not doing a whole lot today- laundry and hanging out with Hannah when she comes over later. Since we're leaving for Paris early tomorrow morning, she's spending the night both tonight and tomorrow night when we get back later. It's actually turned out to be nice that Hannah needs a place to stay because she's too far out from the regular Lyon bus system... I haven't had to worry about coming home late at night by myself at all these last few months which I really worried about at the beginning.
Just FYI- since I will be getting home pretty late tomorrow night, and my internet may be cut off Sunday the 17th (since that's the 10 day date I gave them before I leave), you might not hear from me until at least Monday when I get to school and use their computers. I'm also going to see if Free Wifi works again... so we shall see!
Have a nice weekend!
Reste cool:)
No comments:
Post a Comment