I was going to write some more about French culture differences but then I decided, nah, I'll give a real life update now and save the culture for the next time. So off I go...
Teaching overall is going quite well. I love my co-workers in the English department and the majority (emphasis on majority) of my students are at least somewhat motivated and interested in learning English. Unfortunately, I have two classes that I dread going to - one on Thursday and one on Friday. I don't know why humans work this way, but in general bad experiences flood out all the good experiences. After my 'trouble class' on Fridays, I am so thankful to have an hour break so I was in a good mood for my next class (a class full of really motivated Juniors). But on this day, all I seem to think about is this ONE class that I know will be difficult, and I forget about the little angels I have later in the day.
Anyway, my crazy two days began on Thursday morning. My first class of the day is one of the 'difficult' groups. The English teacher and always split this Senior class in half alphabetically, I take one half, and she takes the other. So I went off with my part of the alphabet (the latter half), thankful that this week I got the easy half. As the teacher and I have discovered, all of the problem students are in the first half of the alphabet with only one or two decent students in the group. The second half is a dream - motivated, funny, decent level of English etc. I went about my lesson which was a success. At the end of the class, I went up to the English teacher's room and see she is in a complete fury. Evidently, a girl in the class was told to stop talking and that it was very disrespectful. Well, this struck a little bit of a nerve - she yelled back at the teacher, picked up a chair and threw it on the ground, yelled "T'es con!" (aka You're a b****!) and stormed out of the room. Other problematic students then starting to get angry at the professor, using this as a time to say whatever negative things they could think of, with only the 1-2 good students sticking up for the professor. After the incident was over, and emotions subsided, there was an onslaught of meetings. Since I was implicated as well, the teacher and I had many meetings with the head principal between Thursday and Friday in order to get everything straightened out. The 3 most problematic students (all girls, mind you) were reprimanded firmly but once again used this time to voice their concerns (evidently, I just make them draw pictures during class - that's news to me!).
But this incident did not stop my Thursday and Friday from getting any busier..... A few weeks ago I offered to have an 'English Class' for two days during the French holiday of "Toussaint" (started yesterday and goes until the 5th of November). It was slightly disorganized because a few people in higher levels dragged their feet and were expecting it to not be popular. In fact, we had to cut the enrollment at 46 because more and more people were applying, which eventually would have made it impossible to properly teach. The other English assistant, the same professor which I had the above incident, and I started loosely planning what we were going to do during this course. But of course, it could not be that easy - Madame Hermange (the principal) received a phone call from the Academie de Nantes (an important education group which oversees thousands of students) to tell us that the Rectorat (VP position) would be coming to observe my lesson during this course. SUPER! Madame Hermange flew into 3rd gear - she called me in for yet ANOTHER meeting on Thursday to tell me the oh-so-wonderful news and to also tell me that they wanted a typed up plan of what exactly I would be doing every hour of every day. She is very nervous about this 'inspection' since the reputation of her school is on the line with one of the most important education ministers. Well, after she told me about the typed report, it was my turn to panic. When would I have time for this!? I hardly ever go out on a school night, but the three of us who are running the English class plus a few random friends had already planned to go out for dinner and drinks right after school. Between our classes, we were able to discuss a little bit about what we wanted to do, so I could type up a schedule for the principal to send to the Rectorat.
I was so happy to go out that night and relax. It was a complete blast - all of us were from different countries (the English teacher is from Pakistan, the other assistant from the Netherlands, a Russian girl joined us, as well as a "Francaise") so we learned a lot about differences in cultures and different worldviews (thank you Grove City for that word). We ended up not even going somewhere to get a drink because our dinner lasted 4 hours. The waiter would keep coming to ask us what we wanted for the next part of meal (it was a typical French meal- you buy what they call a 'menu' which is composed of alcohol, main plate, dessert and coffee) and we would never be ready because we were talking too much! Anyway, it was very enjoyable and we plan on getting together as often as possible in the future (and trying to get more internationals to come too)!
Friday, I had to wake up very early to type up our schedule then left for school much earlier than normal because of more meetings about the English course, as well as the problem students. My problem class on Friday (Sophomores) got the brunt of my lack of sleep and stress - hopefully now after a thorough reprimanding they will be better. Needless to say, at the end of Friday, I sprinted out of there. Hoorah for break! Wow, I'm really turning into a teacher, aren't I?
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