I Can't Believe That I'm A Teacher In France

9 Octobre 2007

I started teaching classes today! OMG. My first class was one of my seconde (sophomores) and they are super curious about practicing their English, which is pretty good for the youngsters of the high school. We worked on a piece about adoption, since they are studying family right now. I also found some funny cartoons that I had them work with. The most popular one seems to be the “macaroni” picture. My second class I meet (première = juniors) with had to take a test, so I sat quietly in the class with my professor and observed the students. My third class was cancelled (yes!) so I had a free period until 3pm when I resume teaching. My teacher for my terminale STG (basically, senior science students) had not provided me with any lesson plan! Because I had already met them the week before, their teacher wanted me to teach them about Native Americans. Teach them about Native Americans? This seemed odd to me, but fortunately with my background and past interest in archaeology, as well as my former employment at Sun Watch Indian Village, I was able to lead a discussion from, well, my ass. Of course, it seems awkward as hell and I know that the students were bored, because at the end of class, they said they were going to talk to their teacher about what they wanted to do with this class. Disappointed, I wasn’t a better “teacher” or at least entertaining, I finished out my day in a class of virtually no English speakers to whom I would later teach English. Oh special. My worst class of the day is my BTS (brevet de technicien supérieur) pour l’assurance. These are basically post-graduate high school students who want to work for insurance companies once they have finished their intermediate studies. This seems to be my most difficult class so far, because hardly any of them speak English. I remember being in their class the first week and having to answer their questions, most of which didn’t present any. And, Céline pretty much translated everything for them into French, which I know that I can’t do because my vocabulary is still a little weak. I was supposed to teach them about how to write CVs, but also explain to them the difference between CVs and resumes according to the US. I prompted them several times, but they pretty much stayed silent or talked to their neighbors. I got pretty angry with them and I think they could tell that I was upset. I think my problem with this class is going to be the lack of interests from the students because they just don’t care. They don’t understand the importance of the language, even though they have studied it for the past eight years in collège and lycée! I just honestly wish that they would make more of an effort to try and participate. I have a feeling that this is probably going to be my most challenging class of the year. Lucky me.