The term "teaching assistant" is quite vague. Even in French "assistante de langue" confuses people, or, at least a assume it does, because whenever I tell anyone that is what my job is they give me a blank stare. Quite frankly, before I started I didn't know what it meant either. Ok, fine, I'm still not quite sure what it means, but this is a post about what it has been so far. And by so far I mean the whole week and a half that I did anything before an awesome two-week vacation. (On the side-- I've decided to use French Coins as a forum to discuss my job and my other blog, meginfrancetaketwo to talk about more personal adventures.)
My first classes were the easiest, and so far, the most fun. They generally involved a sort of question and answer session where I got to talk about myself and answer some very interesting questions. (No, I'm not married, nor do I have children, I prefer 90's alternative rock, and I've never had the chance to meet Barack Obama.) Then I pulled out my map and impressed the class by showing them how many states I've lived in and Texas- which is about the same size of France. They're little eyes got wide and generally I felt liked and cool. It was a nice introduction into French classrooms, however, I had yet to be left alone with them.
As it turns out, the children are not as interested when their teacher is not in the room. And by not as interested I mean they generally become uncontrollable, talkative and a little mean (at times). I think part of the problem is not only that I have no training what-so-ever on how to control a class, but the methods that my teachers may have used on me when I was in school are culturally irrelevant. Because I'm not a full teacher, I don't have (and nor do I think I should) the right to punish the children for talking when someone else is talking or for general misbehavior. To make things even more difficult in trying to make the children be quiet, some of the teachers have requested that I don't make it known that I speak French as well as I do so that they speak to me only in English. This is hard for me for a number of reasons. First of all, the town we live in (the students and I) is not that large and sooner or later their going to figure out that I must speak French in order to get by in daily life. Secondly, the children oftentimes simply don't understand what I'm asking them to do in English and sometimes rephrasing does not work. Thirdly, I hate the idea that the students think that I'm one of those people who visits a foreign country and expects everyone to speak English to me. I don't.
Since I teach at two different schools, I've had a chance to experiment a bit with the language that I use in class. Only one school has requested that I pretend so, for the first time the other day, I spoke in French to a classroom of students. It made quite a big difference! First of all it shocked the students when I switched, shocked them enough for them to stop chatting. I saw several of them go grey when they realized that not only had a heard the conversation they were having about me to each other, but I understood them without a problem. Actually, that moment was pretty fun, I enjoyed it. For the rest of the class time they were better behaved and I gave them candy at the end, which seemed to make them happy. (I was teaching about Halloween and so I made them all come up to my desk and "trick-or-treat.") I think some (not all) of the chatting has been because they've been trying (with each other) to understand what I wanted them to do. Which, leads me to another trouble of the teaching situation.
I really have zero qualifications for this job. I'm happy to have it, but really, I think the French are a bit insane to hire thousands of recent college graduates with little to no teaching experience to teach their children. I planned a lesson for the first time the other day, and it wasn't until I was in front of the class that I realized that I had no idea how to go about it. It was awkward and I'm sure my nervousness showed to the students. This was my Halloween lesson plan, so I found this activity on-line where the students would have to interview each other to find out if their partner was a werewolf. I thought it was cute and kind of funny, but, I had no idea what their vocabulary level was, so I spent a great deal of the class time translating for them, which is something I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to do. I should have something so that they can figure out what the words mean themselves so that they actually LEARN not just translate. Secondly, I had a word search that was a little too dumbed down I think, and again, there should have been something they actually learned from it, instead of just playing a silly game. I talked briefly about Halloween in the the United States and asked them questions about how they celebrated in France, but I needed to have prepared the speech ahead of time instead of just talking candidly so that I could have planned what words to write on the board so that they would understand me better.
I think when I get back (I'm in Nice now... yay!) I'm going to have to insist on a couple of things with the teachers. 1. I need to be able to observe some more classes without participating so that I can see how French teachers keep discipline in the classroom. 2. I need to simply ask some questions about what to do when students are misbehaving, recently I've just been reporting them to their teachers, which works to some extent, but I think they need to view me as an authority figure in order to realize that class with me doesn't mean play time. 3. I need to get the text books they use off the teachers so that I have a better understanding of their language level so that I can better prepare for the classes. If anyone (including you Rose) has any advice for anything, I will take it. I really want to do a good job, I don't want to half-ass lesson plans, it's really not fair to the students to have an unprepared teacher, even if I am only an assistant. Hopefully I will figure out my place soon and am able to suck less at my job!
Hello Meg,
ReplyDeleteLovely blog you've got here. Do you think that I should do the same as you (as in having two blogs so this one can be devoted to real school experience)? I guess I wouldn't mind that too much but I'd be worried about making all the grown up family members who follow me confused. Anyhow, let me know.
As for your discipline problem, I think you and I have some very different students. I will only be expected to work with groups of six or so students at a time and mine are all high school age or older. This does not mean they understand everything I say, au contraire, I have as well had much understanding difficulty. I ended up letting the students who could understand translate for those who couldn't. However, I just got back from Orientation and I got a few useful pointers I am excited to try out. First, I am going to start each session by having written helpful phrases on the board such as : "What does ______ mean? Can you say that again? I don't understand? and Please say that slower?" I think these will be useful for keeping the students able to participate in English even if they don't understand. The teacher at orientation said that I should not allow the students to translate for each other but instead should request that the ones who understand rephrase for their fellows in English, thus participating, helping, and continuing the idea that we are here to speak English. Another thing they said was that I should not speak French to the students. I had the same fear as you, I do NOT want to be seen as the dumb American who can't even speak French. However, once asserting that you do speak French you can then insist on English ONLY during classes. The most helpful hint I got however was to always keep the students working on a task. Busy students don't have time to chat or think about how soon class gets out. Assign each a task (even a different task) during an activity. For example if you are talking have one student try to identify the point of your speech, have another try to identify the tense in which you are talking, have one student try to identify some verbs you use... or whatever fits the situation. Another thing you can do is separate them into groups and give each group and make them talk to each other. Be sure to save some time at the end of class though to join all the groups and come up with some resolution/conclusion to the activity.
I hope all this has helped. I look forward to hearing about the ways you find to manage the youngins. I know you will get better with practice, good luck.
Thanks Rose, I'll have to use those ideas... we had some training, but not enough I think. I wish I only had six kids... it's usually between 12-16 for me. Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it can be a bit overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteAs for keeping to separate blogs, I don't think you have to or need to. My second one is more of a continuation of the one that I started in Poitiers, so there is a certain familiarity when I reference things in the past. Kind of like the second book in a series, you know? Several of them asked that I continue with that one so I am, but I wanted to cover different things in each so that if someone chose to read both they wouldn't be bored. Plus, I have copious amounts of free time because I'm only working 7 hours a week, so I have enough time for both.
I've been enjoying your posts too, and I hope you're having a great vacation!