Cours Elementaire 1

As my life has been totally consumed by work, so too shall my blog – at least until the holidays !

I’ve been working with my new grade, CE1, for four weeks now. They’re a normal, likeable bunch of 7 and 8 year olds. I have 16 students in my morning group, and 18 in my afternoon group. They all call me Jayde.

The focus for this age group is vocabulary. We work to a weekly theme, be it Easter, The Countryside or Spring, and base all of our activities around said theme. The kids do all manner of reading/writing/speaking/listening activities and are graded in terms of Very Good/Satisfactory/Progressing etc.

English is the only subject I teach, though I try to squeeze some respect/values/Being A Good Person stuff in too. History, Geography and Science are taught in English, just not at this level.

They’re a switched-on group, and I am continually (pleasantly !) surprised by how much English they know and understand.

They also know who Don Spencer is, what textas are and when arvo is !

Bisous !

Allo ? Allo ?

The thing that throws up the greatest language barrier for me is talking on the phone. I hate it. I very rarely answer the phone when it rings at home, and it takes me days to mentally prepare to make a phonecall, which I’ll put off for the slightest thing :

Gee, I should ring the doctor to make an appointment. Oh the skirting boards are a bit dusty, better do them first. The magnets on the fridge are messy, better rearrange them nicely. Ooooh, something else pointless and irrelevant needs doing and oh ! Is that the time ? It’s too late to ring the doctor, I’ll have to do it tomorrow.

But the time finally came that I needed a new prescription, and I had to bite the bullet. I’ve only been to the doctor once by myself, and even then Sim rang and made the appointment for me. Doctor G-D has a practice in an apartment building on the main street rather than in a medical clinic. She was recommended to me by Sim’s cousin, on the basis that she spoke English and was super nice. It’s true, so I rang her secretary to make another appointment.

The conversation went something like this :

Moi: I’d like to make an appointment with Doctor G-D, please.

Secretary: Yes of course. Have you already seen Doctor G-D ?

M: Yes, once, a year ago.

S: What is your name ?

M: Jayde Clements.

S: How is that spelled ?

M: Jayde J-A-Y-D-E Clements C-L-E-M-E-N-T-S

S: Yes, but what is your name ?

M: Jayde Clements…

S: Yes, but what is your LAST name ?

M: Clements

S: How is that spelled ?

M: (Really ? I repeated the spelling of my name – both of them…)

S: OK. I have an appointment at 12:30 on Monday February 18.

M: No, that won’t work sorry. Do you have any evening appointments ?

S: 5pm on Wednesday February 20.

M: Nothing later ?

S: No, there are no free places.

M: Nothing on Saturdays ?

S: No, you  have to go to the nurse on weekends.

M: OK, I’ll take that appointment.

S: Very good. What is the appointment for ?

M: I need to renew a prescription.

S: Yes, but what is the appointment for ?

M: Er, my prescription has expired and I need to renew it… (maybe she didn’t understand me the first time)

S: You do realise that you need an appointment to do that ?

M: What ? Didn’t I just make an appointment ?

S: Yes, but it’s obligatory to have an appointment to renew a prescription.

M: Er… But… What ? (By now, I’m both confused and flustered, forgetting all the French I’ve ever learned and just want to hang up)

S: Pfffft. Wednesday February 20, it’s noted, au revoir.

And up she hung ! I just stared stupidly at the phone, looked at my diary and realised I have to work at that time anyway and promptly burst into tears ! Bloody hell !

So now I have an appointment that I can’t keep, a bruised ego and an even deeper hatred of making phonecalls ! I’m going to have to find a clinic that I can physically go to and make an appointment face to face. Sorry Doctor G-D, but your secretary is a con***se !

I just have to ask Sim nicely if he’ll ring and cancel my appointment for me first !

Bisous !

Bon moment, bon endroit

J’ai trouvé du boulot. Un vrai CDI ! Je serai enseignante de CE1 dans une école bilingue dans le 5ème, à partir de mi-mars.

C’est marrant comment les choses fonctionnent. Après les vacances de Noël, j’ai envoyé un email à une dizaine d’écoles internationales/bilingues sur Lyon pour demander si ils avaient une liste d’enseignantes remplaçantes sur laquelle je pourrais ajouter mon nom. Je savais, comme c’était au milieu d’année scolaire, que ce n’était pas le bon moment pour chercher un poste permanent. Je savais aussi, comme c’est la France, que ce serait un miracle d’avoir une réponse rapide !

J’ai reçu une réponse rapide par contre, de la part d’une directrice d’une école à Gerland (une américaine), qui disait qu’ils n’avaient rien pour l’instant, mais de regarder dans quelques mois, quand ils commencent leur recrutement pour septembre.

Ensuite, j’ai reçu une appelle d’un autre directeur (un anglais – c’est les anglo-saxons qui répondent !), qui disait qu’il avait bien reçu mon mail, un de ses enseignants a démissionné ce jour là et : « Pouvez-vous venir pour un entretien ? » Donc j’y suis allée, et pendant la semaine j’ai passé une journée avec l’enseignant et ses (mes !) élèves, surveillé la cantine, surveillé la récréation sous la neige, fait connaissance aves les autre profs, enseigné pendant une après-midi et, pour couronner le tout, reçu une poignée de main et un ‘Bienvenue dans l’équipe’ de la part du directeur ! Youpi !

Mlle Clements est de retour !

Bisous !

Right place, right time

I got a job. An actual ongoing, full-time job ! I’m going to be teaching Grade 1 at an école bilingue in Lyon’s 5th district from mid March.

It’s funny how things work out. After the Christmas break, I sent emails to the handful of international/bilingual schools in Lyon to ask if they had a substitute teacher list that I could add my name to. I knew, being the middle of the school year, that it wasn’t quite the right time to be looking for a full-time position. I also knew, this being France, not to hold my breath waiting for a reply !

I did get an email reply from the director of one school (an American, rather than a Frenchie !), saying that they didn’t have anything for the moment and to check back in a few months when they start recruiting for September.

Then I got a phonecall from another director (English – the Anglo-Saxons get back to you !), saying that he’d received my email, one of their teachers had just resigned and could I come in for a meeting ? So off I went, and, over the course of this week, have spent a day with the leaving teacher and his grade, done canteen duty, done yard duty in the snow, met the other teachers, taught for an afternoon and, to top it all off, received a hearty handshake and a ‘Welcome to the team’ from the director ! Woo hoo !

Miss Clements is back !

Bisous !

J’adore mon dictionnaire…

I’ve started my third week of Level B1 at uni, and it’s now too late to change to Level A2 (the level I skipped). We were introduced to the subjonctif today, and we had to write a film review including phrases in this mood – without using our verb dictionaries! I could’ve cried. I’m actually quite attached to my dictionary. I managed about half a page and two phrases in the subjonctif before our 45 minutes was up!

Yes, 12000 verbs, and how to conjugate them ALL!

The verb dictionary is one of the most valuable things a student of French can have, aside from a photographic memory or a French boy/girl friend. It lists all the verbs and how they’re used depending on the person, mood and tense you’re using (or trying to use). That’s around 40 different ways to use the one verb.

Did I mention that French is quite ridiculous complicated?

Bisous!

More tales from the other side of the desk…

I’m back at uni now, and blundering along in my new level. It’s certainly a leap from my previous level, and I’m yet to figure out if it’s too much of a leap, or just right. Some things are, as we say back home, ‘Flying with QANTAS’ (or perhaps Air France?) but others have been quite easy to pick up and start using. Maybe because I’ve just…had to!

Look at those tiny lines…

The timetable’s great, with 10am starts and Thursdays off; and I’m happy with my elective subjects – Français Familier and Ecriture Creative. Watch this space for poems in French! We have a Civilisation class, plus the normal reading, writing, speaking, listening and comprehension – or, as is often the case – incomprehension!

I still have the option to change, but I reckon I’ll stay.

Je suis courageuse – ou stupide!

Bisous!