Paris is to France as New York City is to the United States (sorry to all my non-New York readers) and is also very French (so says my guest blogger this week, Katelyn, who is Captain Obvious). Katelyn, my friend for way too many years, came to visit me in France! We met in Paris on Friday and spent the weekend there with her French exchange student from high school, Caroline.
Katelyn has never stayed in a hostel so of course I needed to introduce her to the "traveling lifestyle." Our hostel, the Regent Hostel, is situated about 10 minutes from Montmartre and included a free breakfast (essential). We lucked out and only had two other people in our 6 person room, two girls from Long Island one of whom goes to Geneseo. Talk about a small world (ask me about my Italian cousin story)!
We visited all of the typical sites and had amazing weather for almost the whole weekend, minus the fact that it rained while we were waiting to go up the Eiffel Tower but by the time we got to the top it was sunset and beautiful. Fun fact it is 670 steps to the second viewing point on the Tower and from there you take an elevator to the tippy top. Did you know that Gustave Eiffel had an apartment on the top of the Tower and hosted guests such as Thomas Edison? As always the view of Paris,both literally and figuratively, took my breath away...it is a site that I will never get sick of seeing. I am so glad that Katelyn now understands my love for this country, the people are actually really nice and the food is of course AMAZING.
Case in point Caroline's family hosted us at their house on Sunday night and made a traditional French dinner. This included foie gras (avocado and tomato for me), duck, salmon, green beans, salad, three different types of cheese, plenty of French bread, champagne, red wine, white wine, French pastries, and a fruit salad. Caroline's parents are really nice and insured me that my French is actually pretty good (wahoo)!
Katelyn and I are back in Nantes for the week, so I can show her my new home and we can watch Halloween movies together. Bisous!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Just how many times in one week can one girl sing Head and Shoulders? Way too many to count for someone who's musically challenged...Needless to say I started teaching last week and despite my lack of musical talent I think it went pretty well!
I am really happy with my work schedule. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are split between les écoles maternelles et l’école élémentaire, I have Wednesday off, and Friday is spent at l'école maternelle. When I work a full day I eat lunch with the other teachers and staff, which is really great for my French because in the classroom it's all English all the time. This is also a great opportunity to learn and see in action the cultural differences between the United States and France. For example the "lunch hour" is more like two hours and eating actually takes this long because of the conversation. In France a meal is not complete without a well thought out and informed argument. Lately the teachers are focused on school on Wednesdays. Now for all my American readers I'm sure you're thinking, what's the big deal? School on Wednesday, why is that such a hot topic of debate? This is the first year that Sainte Luce and many other French schools have had class on Wednesday. It is only half a day and many of the les écoles maternelles teachers feel as though very little gets accomplished in three hours and by Friday their students are exhausted from being in school for five days straight (keep in mind that these children, including 3-5 year olds, are in school from 8:45 to 4). This is just one of the many reforms that the Ministry of Education is putting into place this year.
Other than lively lunchtime debates I have been singing nonstop and everyone's favorite is Head and Shoulders because it's active and easy to remember. As soon as I started the song everyone joined in, including the 3 year olds. It is astounding how quickly children learn and remember a language! This is the third year of English for the oldest classes at the écoles maternelles and I can't believe how quickly they remember songs, counting, and colors. Living in Europe has shown me how important it is to start learning a language at the age of 3, even if it's just listening to songs or playing an American or English game.
My week of work ended in the best way possible: a huge meal with the assistants to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. There were about 25 of us and plenty of food (and of course wine) to go around. And yes we did indeed have a turkey :) Bisous et à bientôt
I am really happy with my work schedule. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday are split between les écoles maternelles et l’école élémentaire, I have Wednesday off, and Friday is spent at l'école maternelle. When I work a full day I eat lunch with the other teachers and staff, which is really great for my French because in the classroom it's all English all the time. This is also a great opportunity to learn and see in action the cultural differences between the United States and France. For example the "lunch hour" is more like two hours and eating actually takes this long because of the conversation. In France a meal is not complete without a well thought out and informed argument. Lately the teachers are focused on school on Wednesdays. Now for all my American readers I'm sure you're thinking, what's the big deal? School on Wednesday, why is that such a hot topic of debate? This is the first year that Sainte Luce and many other French schools have had class on Wednesday. It is only half a day and many of the les écoles maternelles teachers feel as though very little gets accomplished in three hours and by Friday their students are exhausted from being in school for five days straight (keep in mind that these children, including 3-5 year olds, are in school from 8:45 to 4). This is just one of the many reforms that the Ministry of Education is putting into place this year.
Other than lively lunchtime debates I have been singing nonstop and everyone's favorite is Head and Shoulders because it's active and easy to remember. As soon as I started the song everyone joined in, including the 3 year olds. It is astounding how quickly children learn and remember a language! This is the third year of English for the oldest classes at the écoles maternelles and I can't believe how quickly they remember songs, counting, and colors. Living in Europe has shown me how important it is to start learning a language at the age of 3, even if it's just listening to songs or playing an American or English game.
My week of work ended in the best way possible: a huge meal with the assistants to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. There were about 25 of us and plenty of food (and of course wine) to go around. And yes we did indeed have a turkey :) Bisous et à bientôt
My vegetarian Thanksgiving plate.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Three Year Olds Speaking English...
The French education system...complicated to say the least and this week I received a very fast induction into it. Despite what some of you may be thinking I did indeed come to France to work and my job began on October 1.
Some background information first: starting at the age of two or three, depending on the district, parents can begin to send their children to public school (unlike in the States where nursery schools are usually private). This means that the majority of my students will be between the ages of two and four, so we will be doing a lot of singing and playing Duck Duck Goose. The écoles maternelles have the choice to teach a langue vivante (English, Spanish, German etc), unlike the écoles élémentaires. Starting this year the Ministry of Education has mandated that at écoles élémentaires students must learn a langue vivante for about 1.5 hour each week, which is why the assistant's role is so important. I work only 12 hours a week, so I spent the past couple days trying to sort out a schedule between my three schools.
On Tuesday Marie Christine, my supervisor, brought myself and the other assistant to the six primary schools in Sainte Luce. Luckily two of my schools are right next to each other and the third is only a five minute bus ride or a 15 minute walk outside the center of Sainte Luce. Wednesday and Friday I went to each of these schools again to see when they wanted me to work, as of right now I will Wednesdays off. This is not that surprising because Wednesdays are half days, until this year students in Sainte Luce didn't have any school on Wednesday. (I'll get into the differences between American and French education in a later post)
Most of the students I met already had some level of English, whether it was three year olds singing a song or elementary students counting up to 100 and reciting the alphabet for me. I was really impressed! During recess at the elementary school a group of girls started talking to me in French (obviously in French, but I'm not allowed to speak anything but English to the students!), as soon as I responded in English some of the older ones started asking me questions in English and showing off the vocabulary that they knew. Everyone was really excited to have me there! I consider myself lucky having been placed with younger kids because they are still so excited to learn, I can't wait to actually start teaching next week.
Until next time here is photo of my delicious dinner from last night. A crêpe with goat cheese, honey, almonds, and salad. Bisous
Some background information first: starting at the age of two or three, depending on the district, parents can begin to send their children to public school (unlike in the States where nursery schools are usually private). This means that the majority of my students will be between the ages of two and four, so we will be doing a lot of singing and playing Duck Duck Goose. The écoles maternelles have the choice to teach a langue vivante (English, Spanish, German etc), unlike the écoles élémentaires. Starting this year the Ministry of Education has mandated that at écoles élémentaires students must learn a langue vivante for about 1.5 hour each week, which is why the assistant's role is so important. I work only 12 hours a week, so I spent the past couple days trying to sort out a schedule between my three schools.
On Tuesday Marie Christine, my supervisor, brought myself and the other assistant to the six primary schools in Sainte Luce. Luckily two of my schools are right next to each other and the third is only a five minute bus ride or a 15 minute walk outside the center of Sainte Luce. Wednesday and Friday I went to each of these schools again to see when they wanted me to work, as of right now I will Wednesdays off. This is not that surprising because Wednesdays are half days, until this year students in Sainte Luce didn't have any school on Wednesday. (I'll get into the differences between American and French education in a later post)
Most of the students I met already had some level of English, whether it was three year olds singing a song or elementary students counting up to 100 and reciting the alphabet for me. I was really impressed! During recess at the elementary school a group of girls started talking to me in French (obviously in French, but I'm not allowed to speak anything but English to the students!), as soon as I responded in English some of the older ones started asking me questions in English and showing off the vocabulary that they knew. Everyone was really excited to have me there! I consider myself lucky having been placed with younger kids because they are still so excited to learn, I can't wait to actually start teaching next week.
Until next time here is photo of my delicious dinner from last night. A crêpe with goat cheese, honey, almonds, and salad. Bisous
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