Week 1

Starting on January 28, 2019, I was placed in a CM II classroom in the school Eugene Potier.  The residing teacher is Sabine Nicolle.  When first meeting the teacher, she was very nice to me and my co-teacher.  We haven’t had too much of an opportunity to talk in depth about the specifics of what she would like us to do over the semester, however, it is a pretty hectic job, so it’s understandable.  My co-teacher and I know that for the upcoming week she would like us to create a game where the students practice asking and answering personal questions.  This is in preparation for the exam in 2 months where they are seeing who is staying in the International track, it is apparently super competitive and there are only like 52 spots for the next cycle.  There are 27 students in total with 8 boys and 19 girls in the classroom — they are all around the age of 10.  They generally sit in pods with 5 to 6 students in each pod.

These students were chosen specifically during their earlier years at the school for a special International track, where they would have an increased focus on English and its immersion into the classroom and different subjects.  Because of this most of these kids have been taking English for about 4 to 5 years — 7 hours each week.  Most of these children are proficient in their usage and understanding of the English language.  During my time there, there has only been some confusion about specific words like “lightning bolt” and “studio.”  Overall the students have a great grasp of the language.

During their time at this school, these students have had around 5 main teachers, however, I don’t know about any other teachers that they have had for supplementary English lessons.  Generally, their English lessons are integrated into another subject, or game designed to enforce grammar, vocab, and skills.  These subjects have been writing questionnaires, president’s day in America, and miming.  The games that they have played have included charades, word box, and other team games centered around expanding their understanding of the language.

The kids’ impression during our powerpoint presentation the first day was overall good.  They really liked the sections and pictures about our pets and the section talking about cultural practices.  When talking about Black Friday though they were a little bit confused about why we call it that and why we only have huge sales one day a year and honestly I didn’t really know the answers to their questions, so maybe that would be something interesting to look into.  I really liked the classroom environment — it was so open — both figuratively and literally.  In the classroom itself, there were so many windows that the kids were able to constantly see nature and feel the sun.  It also seemed like a really open environment for the kids to come and learn.

I think one of the resounding differences between US and French classrooms is their ideas on lunch breaks and recess.  In France, it’s expected that kids will have at least a 2-hour break for lunch and 2 other breaks where they are able to go outside, socialize, and play.  In America, lunch is 30 to 45 minutes and there are usually 2 other 15 minute breaks in the day.  There is just so much less break time for kids to relax in America, I would be really interested in the principles behind each country operating this way.