It is my Toussaint (All Saints) vacation, and I am taking the almost two weeks to see some new parts of Europe. On Friday, right after classes ended, I left Blois for Paris and then took the train from Paris to Brussels. There I met Brook (who took the train from Cologne) at our cute hostel, and we proceeded to find a Turkish/ Italian restaurant (I got turkish pizza) and then a neighborhood bar, where we tried a selection of Belgian beers.
On Saturday, we wandered the city, seeing all of the main attractions. We got falafel and frites, went to a cafe that was a hit with literary greats, and played in a playground that had some of the best playground equipment I've ever seen. Then we went to the natural history museum, where it was the opening weekend for the new dinosaur exhibit. So it was totally packed, but free! After the museum we went to a beer store/pub and sampled some more Belgian beers, and then got totally lost and wandered in a big circle for an hour. Luckily we had bought some pasta and made a nice, home-cooked meal in the hostel kitchen.
Today, Brook and I wandered the botantical garden and then split up. I went to the art museum and saw some of the main squares. Now we're in Bruges, which is very cute but (of course) slightly more touristy.
That's all for now!
dimanche 28 octobre 2007
dimanche 21 octobre 2007
Last week was my first full week of teaching. Things are going very well--the kids and teachers like me, I generally get my message across, and some of them at least seem to be learning things. Right now I'm planning my lessons for this week, trying to figure out how to teach Halloween and how to not get way ahead in my classes that I'm going to end up seeing two more times than the other classes. Its interesting how much difference there is in terms of how quickly the different classes pick up not only the material but also what I'm asking them to do.
Thursday night I went to a concert at Blois's only small music venue, which happens to be right near my house. It was good to see interesting looking people who were older than lycee age. The music wasn't very good, but it was definitely worth the 4 euro subscription fee (for the year, now other concerts are discounted) and commitment to volunteer there in the future.
This weekend was a big conference/ festival called Rendez-Vous L'Histoire (means "Meeting with history") that was really four in one--lectures and debates on the theme "Opinion," lectures and debates having to do with historical subject matters, literary cafés, and a film festival with films that either had to do with the theme of opinion or history. This is more stuff than is going to happen in Blois for the rest of the year. However, it was so overwhelming (and all in French) that I only managed to go to one thing, which was about the importance of history for contemporary intellectual life and which was way over my head. I might go to some stuff later today, but I have lesson planning to do. There was also a counter-summit called "Rendez-nous l'histoire," which was put on my some radical anti-mainstream-media groups (Plan B and ACMED) that I stopped by for a while today. I could actually follow some of what was going on, and it was pretty interesting, including a discussion of the relative merits of holding the counter-summit versus having tried to get involved in the main event and reaching a larger audience. Unfortunately I had to go home to drop off some stuff and now I don't know whether I'll be able to get out again to hear more.
Its also very cold here!
Thursday night I went to a concert at Blois's only small music venue, which happens to be right near my house. It was good to see interesting looking people who were older than lycee age. The music wasn't very good, but it was definitely worth the 4 euro subscription fee (for the year, now other concerts are discounted) and commitment to volunteer there in the future.
This weekend was a big conference/ festival called Rendez-Vous L'Histoire (means "Meeting with history") that was really four in one--lectures and debates on the theme "Opinion," lectures and debates having to do with historical subject matters, literary cafés, and a film festival with films that either had to do with the theme of opinion or history. This is more stuff than is going to happen in Blois for the rest of the year. However, it was so overwhelming (and all in French) that I only managed to go to one thing, which was about the importance of history for contemporary intellectual life and which was way over my head. I might go to some stuff later today, but I have lesson planning to do. There was also a counter-summit called "Rendez-nous l'histoire," which was put on my some radical anti-mainstream-media groups (Plan B and ACMED) that I stopped by for a while today. I could actually follow some of what was going on, and it was pretty interesting, including a discussion of the relative merits of holding the counter-summit versus having tried to get involved in the main event and reaching a larger audience. Unfortunately I had to go home to drop off some stuff and now I don't know whether I'll be able to get out again to hear more.
Its also very cold here!
vendredi 12 octobre 2007
First day!
Today was my first day of work. I taught three classes at the E.Q., one CE2 (the first year most children in France learn a language, usually 8 years old), one CM1 (9 years old), and one CM2 (10 years old). This will be my normal Friday schedule from now on. The CM1 and the CM2 have both had English before, and so they picked up on the things I was saying more quickly, but it is very much like starting from scratch. The trick will be to figure out how to make sure I keep things interesting for them without having to come up with 3 (or 4, because I have one CE1) lesson plans for every class. For the first day, though, it went very smoothly.
I've also observed classes at my two other schools, which are basically opposites in terms of the populations they serve. V.H. is right downtown and the children are almost all white. B.A. is right near me, in the ZUP (Zone à urbaniser en priorité), and the classes are much more diverse, and also much less well-behaved. On the other hand, the standards for children in France is much more strict than that in the US--for example, the kids at E.Q. wouldn't start writing the title page on their notebooks until I told them where to start on the page (all of the paper is like graph paper), and when I gave them stickers, they asked where they should put them. Also, the schools are much smaller than they are in Philadelphia--each school I go to only has one class for each grade (or sometimes two combined classes), and the classes have 25 students in them at most.
So far the teachers have been very friendly to me and have been helping out a lot. This seems very different from what I've heard is the case, with teachers who leave the room during the class or are even disruptive, and act like the assistant is a nuissance for them. Most people so far have at the very least been pleasant, and some of them have seemed genuinely interested in me.
I've also observed classes at my two other schools, which are basically opposites in terms of the populations they serve. V.H. is right downtown and the children are almost all white. B.A. is right near me, in the ZUP (Zone à urbaniser en priorité), and the classes are much more diverse, and also much less well-behaved. On the other hand, the standards for children in France is much more strict than that in the US--for example, the kids at E.Q. wouldn't start writing the title page on their notebooks until I told them where to start on the page (all of the paper is like graph paper), and when I gave them stickers, they asked where they should put them. Also, the schools are much smaller than they are in Philadelphia--each school I go to only has one class for each grade (or sometimes two combined classes), and the classes have 25 students in them at most.
So far the teachers have been very friendly to me and have been helping out a lot. This seems very different from what I've heard is the case, with teachers who leave the room during the class or are even disruptive, and act like the assistant is a nuissance for them. Most people so far have at the very least been pleasant, and some of them have seemed genuinely interested in me.
mercredi 10 octobre 2007
Bikes in France
Today I went to LeClerc, a hypermarché chain that is near me to buy a bike helmet and some other stuff. I noticed that, unlike its relatives in the US, not only were there bike lanes almost all of the way there (along major roads), but there was a covered bike rack next to the parking lot. Can you imagine people biking to Wal Mart?
On a related note, it took me a while to figure out the bike racks here, as almost all of them are just tiny things where you can stick your front wheel. The trick--here in Blois, people are content to just lock there front tire to the rack, whereas if you did that in the States (or maybe in bigger places here) you'd come back and your wheel would be there but your frame would be gone.
Also, the mail people deliver mail by bike.
On a related note, it took me a while to figure out the bike racks here, as almost all of them are just tiny things where you can stick your front wheel. The trick--here in Blois, people are content to just lock there front tire to the rack, whereas if you did that in the States (or maybe in bigger places here) you'd come back and your wheel would be there but your frame would be gone.
Also, the mail people deliver mail by bike.
vendredi 5 octobre 2007
My work is actually getting started. Yay!
Tuesday we had to go to Orleans (about 45 minutes northeast of Blois by train) for a training for all of the assistants in the Orleans-Tours academie. We go introduced to the structure of education within the region and had a tour of the town. Because there were German, Italian, and Spanish assistants as well as English ones, all of the training was in French. I was actually able to understand almost everything, so I was pretty impressed with myself. It did make it harder to meet people, though, because it felt awkward to introduce myself in French to people who might be English speakers, but I didn't want to introduce myself in English to people who didn't speak it. The program also wasn't really designed to faciliate people meeting each other. We had a second training in the afternoon, which was only for primary assistants, but it was still only in French. By the end of the day, I was totally exhaused. We did meet some other assistants from Blois (two German and one English) on the train back, though, which was exciting.
Wednesday and Thursday we had training here in Blois, just the six of us who are teaching primary schools (two are in neighboring cities). There was a lot of paperwork to fill out, we got our schedules, and then we got a lot of information about how to teach English, in English, to little kids who don't speak any English. Nancy, the person in charge of us, was really helpful and gave us a lot of ideas. She is American but has lived in France for over 20 years and has taught regular French school, so she knows a lot. Taking care of the assistants is only part of her job, though, so she hasn't been totally on top of things. For example, I still haven't visted the schools where I'm teaching (I'm going to go to at least one later this afternoon) or observed any classes. On the bright side, this leaves me free to go shopping for school supplies (and groceries) and get my cell phone, finally.
Tuesday we had to go to Orleans (about 45 minutes northeast of Blois by train) for a training for all of the assistants in the Orleans-Tours academie. We go introduced to the structure of education within the region and had a tour of the town. Because there were German, Italian, and Spanish assistants as well as English ones, all of the training was in French. I was actually able to understand almost everything, so I was pretty impressed with myself. It did make it harder to meet people, though, because it felt awkward to introduce myself in French to people who might be English speakers, but I didn't want to introduce myself in English to people who didn't speak it. The program also wasn't really designed to faciliate people meeting each other. We had a second training in the afternoon, which was only for primary assistants, but it was still only in French. By the end of the day, I was totally exhaused. We did meet some other assistants from Blois (two German and one English) on the train back, though, which was exciting.
Wednesday and Thursday we had training here in Blois, just the six of us who are teaching primary schools (two are in neighboring cities). There was a lot of paperwork to fill out, we got our schedules, and then we got a lot of information about how to teach English, in English, to little kids who don't speak any English. Nancy, the person in charge of us, was really helpful and gave us a lot of ideas. She is American but has lived in France for over 20 years and has taught regular French school, so she knows a lot. Taking care of the assistants is only part of her job, though, so she hasn't been totally on top of things. For example, I still haven't visted the schools where I'm teaching (I'm going to go to at least one later this afternoon) or observed any classes. On the bright side, this leaves me free to go shopping for school supplies (and groceries) and get my cell phone, finally.
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