By now, some of you might be wondering why I am actually in France. Sure, I am learning French, eating French food, and living la vie. But what do I actually do here? Allow me to tell you about the breeziest job I will probably ever have. Here is a taste of what it is like to be a teaching assistant in France.
I did not know what to expect my first week of classes, naturally. I showed up and most teachers had me introduce myself and “observe.” Most of my first encounters with classes went like this:
“Hi, my name is Jacinda. I’m from the United States—“
“New York?”
“No, I’m from Michigan—“
“Ahhhh. Chicago!”
“Not quite. I’m close to Chicago, but Chicago is actually in Illinois.”
Blank stares.
“Okay, has anyone heard of Detroit? Detroit is in Michigan.”
Blank stares.
“Umm...does anyone know Eminem…the rapper?”
“Ahhh, oui Madame!”
“Okay, well, he’s from Detroit.”
Then every class, without fail, corrected me on my pronunciation of Detroit. “Ah, Day-twah, Madame.”
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| Thank you Eminem. I don't know how I would make Michigan relevant to French teenagers without you. |
Like all teaching assistants in France, I am required to work twelve hours a week (like I said, breezy). I split my time between two French high schools or lycées. Lycées in France consist of the three final years of secondary education. Therefore, most of my students are secondes (sophomores), premières (juniors), or terminales (seniors). I work at Lycée Jean Monnet, a lycée général, and Lycée J.F. Oberlin, a lycée technologique. Students at lycées générals are being prepared for higher education while students at lycées technologiques are being primed for the workplace. Students at my lycée général will take the bac (baccalauréat) at the end of their terminale year. My students at the lycée technologique will not. Many of my students, at both schools however, plan on going directly into BTS (Brevet de technicien supérieur) after school. BTS, from what I understand, is two years of career training that has students working at a company and attending classes on alternating weeks. In short, my students are quite diverse age-wise and goal-wise. There is a huge difference between my terminale, bac-conscious students from Jean Monnet and my rowdy groups of secondes from Oberlin.
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| Lycee Jean Monnet |
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| Lycee J-F Oberlin |
There are some things that are pretty standard among all of my students, though. For example, all of my students, no matter how rude or disruptive they are during class, will greet their professeurs (and me) upon entering and leaving the class. Most often, it is a simple, “bonjour, madame,” or, “hello, teacher.” Some of the more adventurous students will even go as far as to say, “hello teacher, how are you?” To which I reply, “I’m good, how are you?” The conversation usually ends here with a blank stare, but occasionally, I’ve had students reply with “Oh! Yes, I am…euh…fine.” My all time favorite was when a student was leaving the classroom and said, “goodbye, my girlfriend!” I should have corrected him but it was the most English I’d heard out of any of my students that day so I let it drop.
Another interesting phenomenon: the pencil case. Every student and teacher has one. Every student comes to class with pencils, pens, white-out, glue; the works! It’s truly amazing. Even self-proclaimed slackers have a pencil case at the ready. I guess students are taught from a very early age to be prepared and organized. I think back to the time when a teacher in my middle-school threw a tub of pencils over a student’s head because the student had forgotten his pencil for the fourth day in a row. If only American schools were as insistent about pencil cases, that whole incident could have been avoided.
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| The pencil case. |
Between Jean Monnet and Oberlin, I work with nine professeurs d’anglais (English teachers). With some classes, I work side-by-side with the teacher instructing classes of up to 25 students. With other classes, I work with groups of five to twelve students. Each professeur has me doing something different with her class. The types of students and their levels of English are quite varied. Consequently, I’ve spent a lot of time planning different lessons. These include lessons explaining American high schools (school buses? sports? PROM???), lessons about Thanksgiving, and, as of this week, lessons about the Super Bowl. I’ve also played a plethora of games just to get my students speaking. I’ve done everything from hangman to modified drinking games. There have been days where my students really get into the game and have a good time and there have been others where I’m faced with blank stares, or worse, whispering and giggling in French. I’ve even had students ask their professeurs, “why is she here?”
There have been times when I, myself, have wondered that. Why am I here? I asked myself this after I spent 30 minutes trying to explain the concept of Bingo to my students only to have the professeur spend 30 seconds explaining the instructions in French. I ask myself this when professeurs correct me on my pronunciation of an English word. But more often, I really enjoy the time I spend with my students. The times when my students really have fun playing games make the blanks stares bearable. Repeating myself over and over, using every synonym I know accompanied by frantic hand gestures, all seems worth it when I have students beg to stay with my group rather than return to their classrooms.
Now you’ve had a taste of how I spend my days in France. If that didn’t satiate your appetite, there’s an entire network of assistants divulging all! Assistant Forum
For the actual program description, see this site: Program Description
