Contentment

I haven’t written in longer than a week! I am slacking on my blogging task, and I do apologize. I think the reason I have not blogged in rests in the fact that I am settled, happy, and having a great time. I have been settling into a splendid routine as of late. I go to class. I go to teach. I study. I eat. I sleep. That is pretty much the routine. All of my classes are going well, but I am finding the French educational system is much more of a “make it or break it” ambiance. At Denison, it seems the professors are much more organized and have a more precise way of teaching. That precision does not really exist here in Nantes. The teachers are much more lax about where they happen to be in a lecture. Also, the syllabi are much less precise, and you have exams whenever a professor may want them without really much notice. I think I might like the precision of the U.S. more, or maybe I am just more accustomed to that type of guided education. I don’t need a professor to hold my hand, but I at least want to know when my final will be, so I can sort of make a plan for the semester! As for the teaching internship, all is going well. I am working 7 or 8 hours a week, every week. These hours are all with different classes. I have two classes with students in their last year of high school, two classes with students in their second to last year of high school, two classes with DEES (which is sort of a junior college education) and one class with the equivalent of eight graders in middle school. The high school students that I am teaching belong to different sections of the school (those with higher levels of intelligence and those with lower). I am teaching with a lot of different levels, and I love every level that I am teaching. I am sure I will come to decide what level I like best. Today, I think I put the fear of God in one of my classes. It was my first day teaching all alone with one group of my classes with kids in their second to last grade of high school. They were a little restless as I was beginning our discussion on the educational system in the United States, but all was going well. One student decided it would be a great idea to throw a rolled up paper ball up to the board. Needless to say, I was not thrilled. Who he was trying to impress, I will never know. I wasn’t sure exactly which student had thrown it, but I knew the general corner—a corner filled with boys. I used the old tactic of asking “who threw this?” As I expected, no one responded, so I then proceeded to use the “well, then the whole class will get a zero for participation, and we will sit in silence for the next 45 minutes.” Apparently, these kids had never been threatened with this one before (although I believe it is a staple in the United States). (Also, remember all of this is being said in English and then in French). Immediately, I found out who had thrown the paper ball. Sad to say, there was not even a cute little not written on the paper ball. I was so disappointed there was no note. Although I hated having to reprimand students, I actually felt a bit of empowerment after the situation had resolved itself. Maybe that is what the rest of my teachers felt like when I was in school. As for now, I love teaching the DEES section. All of these students are my age or older, which is fantastic because I do not really have to sensor anything that I say. I have been incredibly creative with my lesson planning—we have had a discussion on the Kanye West/Taylor Swift on MTV incident, a discussion involving two political cartoons regarding Obama’s healthcare plan for the U.S. and how the U.S. system is different from the French system, and a discussion on Inside the Actor’s Studio and James Lipton’s famous last ten questions on the program. Anything I encounter in my everyday life, I prepare a lesson and take it to that class. In fact, I am really enjoying lesson planning. I love the creativity, and although it takes some time to come up with an appropriate lesson for each level, I am really enjoying the task. Also on the checklist for this week was my first experience with grading. The students in one of my high school classes (one of the higher levels) had received an essay test back from their teacher (the test was a sample for their Baccalaureate –or the test they have to take in order to graduate from high school). Two of the girls in my class came up to me at the end of the hour to ask me if I could look over their papers and give them some comments on how they could do better. Of course, I was more than happy to do this. I was thrilled actually. I graded papers for the first time, and I had an amazing time doing it. I think I just like being right and knowing how to do something. I have confidence in my ability to speak English (obviously) and my grammar usage in English. (We are still working on the French part of it all). On the agenda for the weekend is some wandering around Nantes. I am going to go out with some of my DEES students (and yes this is allowed) to a club on Saturday night. I also organized an event where some of my students are going to meet up with my American friends and speak some English. The Americans will enjoy speaking a bit of English, and the French will enjoy continuing their learning!