what do you mean, I haven't written about my job all year?
So I was just skimming through my blog for the last few months, and besides being totally behind in all my (public) travel posts, and continuing to obsess about guys and future employment (privately), I realized that I basically never talk about my job as an English Teaching Assistant. I wrote way more about being an au pair last year, although that probably has something to do with how stressful it was at times.
I'm an English Teaching Assistant--pretty self-explanatory, right? I either assist in the classroom with a teacher or I take a group of students on my own. I'm technically not supposed to have more than 12 students by myself. According to my placement, I'm supposed to work nine hours a week at the Lycée Jean Macé and three hours a week at the Collège Fontanes (aka a high school and a middle school).
Before this past week, I'd never worked more than eleven hours total. Before this past week, since January I'd been working about eight hours a week. Yeah. I have so much free time it's ridiculous. See why I joined getyourwordsout ?
I've had two classes from the beginning of the year, and they both happen to be my favorite classes. Wednesday mornings I take a group of eleven students in premier (like junior year), one-third of the class, and do an activity with them. Activities have included silly teen quizzes, rewriting Twas the Night Before Christmas, and watching music videos and discussing them. Thursday afternoons I work with another teacher in Anglais Specialisé, which is an optional class for premier students. They mostly do projects that usually involve a bit of theatre, like doing comedy sketches. There are actually two classes of this, but I usually help with one more than the other. Several students from my Wednesday class overlap with my Thursday class. Some of my best (and most of my favorite) students come from one or both of these classes.
This week was sad for me because I saw one of my Wednesday groups for the last time. Since they rotate, I only see each group every three weeks. I only teach for two more weeks, so I saw this group for the last time. I wanted to go out with a bang, though, so I gave them perhaps the best lesson I've done. Working in pairs, they had to prepare a short dialogue/scenario of when I return to the States. One group gave a pretty straightforward dialogue in which Brita talks about the different things she did in France, and one group didn't do anything (they're a) not very good at English and b) painfully shy, so I didn't get after them). But the other two groups were hysterical. One of them had Brita getting arrested at the airport for trying to bring back wine, cheese, and bread. The other had Brita working as a secret spy for the Gay Mafia. I was bummed that it was my last class with them, but we had a really good last class together.
I was also sad because I had my last Thursday class. I didn't even know it was going to be my last one! Annie (my contact teacher, the one with whom I normally work on Thursdays) is giving oral exams next week for the bac and is hosting the American exchange students who are coming the following week. I'll see the other group of Anglais Specialisé next week, and they're a good class too, but it won't be the same.
So I gave both classes my email address, which I'm only giving to them. I mean, if they share it with other students that's fine, but most of my other students I don't see regularly, and I haven't really developed a relationship with them. One of my students has emailed me already! And he gave me his name to find him on facebook, so I did, and now we're facebook friends. Plus two more students have managed to find me now, since I'm searchable to friends-of-friends. (But they only have limited access to my profile, which I do for most friends until they graduate high school, with the exception of maybe four GCT kids).
My other classes have changed throughout the year. I worked with a terminale (like seniors) class four times by taking a group of seven each time, I worked with four classes of secondes (like sophomores) once each during which they asked me questions about myself, I helped with the odd class here and there that wasn't on my schedule, I worked with small groups of secondes first with another teacher, then just by myself, and I did an English theatre class with another teacher and about 30 secondes. Since January I've been helping with a group of BTS students, girls post-bac who are training to be administrative assistants. Some of them have a very low level of English, but I really really like them. They're sweet girls, and especially now that I've been working with them for awhile, they seem very comfortable with me. I also started helping a teacher in January or February with her class of premier students and with her class of secondes.
This past week and this coming week I'm doing something completely different that totally isn't in my job description, but I love it! One of the teachers left Friday to chaperone a field trip to Poland (lucky French kids!), so I am taking over one of her classes. I had them Wednesday with a surveillante (like, an administrative person who helps with discipline & attendance), Thursday with the teacher, and Friday all by myself! This is a class of 25 students in seconde. I have them again this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as well. All the secondes have been divided by writing ability, so they gave me the highest group. Many of the students were ones I'd had in the theatre class, which makes sense. The English theatre class was optional, so naturally students who are good at English would sign up for it. Anyway, this class has gone really well so far. I had to yell once on Friday, but they were good after that. Oh, and three girls left early (like, a minute before the bell) when I'd said that everyone could pack up, but not leave yet. It's not a big enough issue for me to discipline them, but I'm rewarding all the other students with Silly Bands on Wednesday.
I can't believe I only have two weeks left. Where did the time go?
I'm an English Teaching Assistant--pretty self-explanatory, right? I either assist in the classroom with a teacher or I take a group of students on my own. I'm technically not supposed to have more than 12 students by myself. According to my placement, I'm supposed to work nine hours a week at the Lycée Jean Macé and three hours a week at the Collège Fontanes (aka a high school and a middle school).
Before this past week, I'd never worked more than eleven hours total. Before this past week, since January I'd been working about eight hours a week. Yeah. I have so much free time it's ridiculous. See why I joined getyourwordsout ?
I've had two classes from the beginning of the year, and they both happen to be my favorite classes. Wednesday mornings I take a group of eleven students in premier (like junior year), one-third of the class, and do an activity with them. Activities have included silly teen quizzes, rewriting Twas the Night Before Christmas, and watching music videos and discussing them. Thursday afternoons I work with another teacher in Anglais Specialisé, which is an optional class for premier students. They mostly do projects that usually involve a bit of theatre, like doing comedy sketches. There are actually two classes of this, but I usually help with one more than the other. Several students from my Wednesday class overlap with my Thursday class. Some of my best (and most of my favorite) students come from one or both of these classes.
This week was sad for me because I saw one of my Wednesday groups for the last time. Since they rotate, I only see each group every three weeks. I only teach for two more weeks, so I saw this group for the last time. I wanted to go out with a bang, though, so I gave them perhaps the best lesson I've done. Working in pairs, they had to prepare a short dialogue/scenario of when I return to the States. One group gave a pretty straightforward dialogue in which Brita talks about the different things she did in France, and one group didn't do anything (they're a) not very good at English and b) painfully shy, so I didn't get after them). But the other two groups were hysterical. One of them had Brita getting arrested at the airport for trying to bring back wine, cheese, and bread. The other had Brita working as a secret spy for the Gay Mafia. I was bummed that it was my last class with them, but we had a really good last class together.
I was also sad because I had my last Thursday class. I didn't even know it was going to be my last one! Annie (my contact teacher, the one with whom I normally work on Thursdays) is giving oral exams next week for the bac and is hosting the American exchange students who are coming the following week. I'll see the other group of Anglais Specialisé next week, and they're a good class too, but it won't be the same.
So I gave both classes my email address, which I'm only giving to them. I mean, if they share it with other students that's fine, but most of my other students I don't see regularly, and I haven't really developed a relationship with them. One of my students has emailed me already! And he gave me his name to find him on facebook, so I did, and now we're facebook friends. Plus two more students have managed to find me now, since I'm searchable to friends-of-friends. (But they only have limited access to my profile, which I do for most friends until they graduate high school, with the exception of maybe four GCT kids).
My other classes have changed throughout the year. I worked with a terminale (like seniors) class four times by taking a group of seven each time, I worked with four classes of secondes (like sophomores) once each during which they asked me questions about myself, I helped with the odd class here and there that wasn't on my schedule, I worked with small groups of secondes first with another teacher, then just by myself, and I did an English theatre class with another teacher and about 30 secondes. Since January I've been helping with a group of BTS students, girls post-bac who are training to be administrative assistants. Some of them have a very low level of English, but I really really like them. They're sweet girls, and especially now that I've been working with them for awhile, they seem very comfortable with me. I also started helping a teacher in January or February with her class of premier students and with her class of secondes.
This past week and this coming week I'm doing something completely different that totally isn't in my job description, but I love it! One of the teachers left Friday to chaperone a field trip to Poland (lucky French kids!), so I am taking over one of her classes. I had them Wednesday with a surveillante (like, an administrative person who helps with discipline & attendance), Thursday with the teacher, and Friday all by myself! This is a class of 25 students in seconde. I have them again this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as well. All the secondes have been divided by writing ability, so they gave me the highest group. Many of the students were ones I'd had in the theatre class, which makes sense. The English theatre class was optional, so naturally students who are good at English would sign up for it. Anyway, this class has gone really well so far. I had to yell once on Friday, but they were good after that. Oh, and three girls left early (like, a minute before the bell) when I'd said that everyone could pack up, but not leave yet. It's not a big enough issue for me to discipline them, but I'm rewarding all the other students with Silly Bands on Wednesday.
I can't believe I only have two weeks left. Where did the time go?