Bonjour Blog-O.
Long time no monologue. What's new in Bar-le-Duc? Well, I've started working basically full time now, and let me tell you--I know there are much much harder jobs out there, but mine is a big bucket of crazy.
I am beyond glad that I only work 12 hours a week. I am also beyond exasperated that teachers in my school district have no concept of what a curriculum is and plan their lessons as they go, which means that each teacher has only a very fuzzy idea of what the students will be doing next week and absolutely no clue what they'll have learned by the end of the year, or in what order.
The poor kids are about to explode from the stress. Especially because French teachers, unlike American ones, don't believe in self-esteem. One teacher told a little boy that he was "the dumbest person she'd ever met" because he was having trouble with her unorganized lesson.
I have 3 schools, 7 teachers, and 10 classes of about 20 students each. They are all different ages, ranging from 6 up to 12. Some schools don't want me to use written words at all. Others would prefer that I use total immersion and don't explain anything in French (to children that are 6? Seriously?) Still other teachers have asked me to do nothing for 2 hours except play Uno, 5 students at a time, for the next month.
May I inform you as to the quality of these ideas? Yep, that's right. They're crap. They don't work at all.
Despite this, I am still having fun getting to know the kids. After the lesson is finished they crawl all over me because they are so starved for affection. One kid just wanted me to write something in English and sign it. I've made friends with about 30 of them so far, which turns out to be the number one cardinal rule--NEVER make friends with the kids, says my boss (a week after school has already started!)
And this is the joy of the system: first you start work, THEN 8 days later you have your first orientation meeting, at which you learn about the millions of things that you have already done wrong: talking nicely to the kids, getting down on their level to talk to them, allowing them to finish their sentences, and explaining to them the French meaning of every English word so that they can follow along. This is all wrong, because being nice sucks. It's genius.
But fear not, brave readers. Today I met the last teacher I'll be working with. She is many kinds of awesome. First, she has a curriculum for the ENTIRE YEAR. Oh lawdy I thought I's gointa lay down 'n' die.
Secondly, she never raises her voice. And miracle of miracles...the kids listen to her.
Third, she explains everything she does in both French and English so that everybody knows what's going on. Doh!
When she asked me what I thought of her teaching technique, I was so overwhelmed I could hardly talk. "What is it?" she asked, concerned by my silence. "I know I don't teach quite like the other teachers, some people don't like it. Do you want me to change anything?"
I almost choked and forgot all my French due to the onset of sudden emotion. The best I could do was smile really big (if you know me, you know it's really big) and say "I'm so happy" over and over again. I think she was probably a little weirded out, but she acted pleased.
The other teachers, by contrast, have opted to let me plan whatever lessons may pop into my head and criticize me after the fact. "I haven't decided what to work on next time," one teacher explained to me, "I'll probably do some planning next week. I was hoping you could come up with a few lessons, maybe make some handouts for each lesson, maybe teach the whole thing..."
Hmm, I don't know. Maybe I'll get around to it next year. Punk.
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