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Week 1 of teaching done!

Wednesday was quite productive, we had orientation #2 in the morning & I left with a better idea of how to teach & what to teach. Rushed back home to eat (multigrain bread with jambon (ham) and goat cheese), then met S & M at the train station to catch a bus to take care of our Social Security paperwork. Yep, we get French social security…since the government employs me. All papers are in, so now just hoping for approval! Then proceeded to spend about 4/5 hours lesson planning & researching for today’s lessons.

This morning at T went really well!! I wrote the date on the board in English: Thursday, October 13^th. Ha, didn’t realize it until the first class, but that is quite the date for French kids to pronounce. They have a really hard time with the “th” sound, pretty much nonexistent in their language. Like the French rolling “r”’s are in English. They’ll get a lot of practice, since I’m with them every Thursday. Next, I passed out sheets of paper with a list of American boy & girl names. I read through the names, and then we went through together. With the younger ones, I found that it’s important to say the French pronunciation and English a few times so they can hear the difference. The names were great for working on pronunciation since most of them weren’t completely new (have French equivalents). We then went ahead & designed nametags, “etiquettes de nom”, with their American names (or French, if they didn’t want to change). In my second class at T, I also drew a few American symbols on the board & gave them time to decorate the tags. One girl, American name “Amber”, pronounces it like the French version of “hamburger”. I love it! Other things they wanted to draw: Hollywood sign, flag, dollar sign, dollar bill, football, flag, and an apple. To finish with both classes I had them review numbers. Again, the “th” sound needs to be practiced.

I had a few hours for lunch, so I returned home to watch some Modern Family, have some quiche, and revamp on the coffee. My second school, C, is more challenging. Luckily though, yet another day not teaching all 4 classes! I was just informed that for one of the classes, I’ll only be with them on Tuesdays. So – total of 5 classes again today. Class 1 at C is CM2, but they aren’t as far with English as my CM2 class at T. We did American names again, some counting, and “What is his name? His name is ____.” The difference between “his” and “her”…so many things to teach in each phrase! Class 2 is CM1: we did the date, name tags (not American names), American symbols or things you associate with America, and more counting. Class 3 was CP, the youngest! It’s their first year of English & I’ll really be teaching them basics. I think colors will be first. Today I introduced myself and answered some questions like: Is it nice in America? What are some things that are the same and different in America and France? (very intelligent) Does it get hot? Are there monkeys? The kids are adorable, but according to the teacher – big troublemakers. She’s got them in line, probably one of the strictest teachers I’ve ever met. I also think she underestimates my French ability…or she just wanted the kids to explain words for their own practice…because she explained words like rat, queen, ratatouille, pink – all words I am familiar with. Ah well, can’t hurt to practice & it’s good for the kids to think I speak horrible French.

Tonight is student night in Nîmes, so all the uni kids are out. We’re doing a stir-fry dinner at S’s, then out to the Fox, & then who knows! Tomorrow night there’s a dinner for international students at the Uni which all the assistants have been invited to.

Bises!