« The wind that shakes the barley - a film by Ken Loach | HomePage | Morning routine »
27 September 2006
My school
My school is where you want to teach. Nearly 95% success in BREVET (secondary school exam). Pupils are polite, they never swear. Parents are coming to the meetings, colleagues are very nice... I'm so damn lucky to be here.
I have this class... you wouldn't believe. It's a dream. I didn't know it existed. They are in the last class before entering High School (about 14-15 years old). They're 20 (very nice number). And they're incredible. They ask me for more work. They want to have an irregular verbs test. If I forget to ask them about their verbs, they remind me so. They are quiet, polite and good workers.
Plus, they understand everything. What can I say? I love them!!!
They think they know so much that they can be a bit annoying sometimes. On Monday I had to remind them that it's not because they've seen something once that it is completely understood. I know some of them have difficulties. The thing is that they're hidden by the excellent pupils (constituting the majority of the class). I didn't want to lose those pupils (it can be a danger in this kind of class where the excellent pupils give you a wrong impression about the class). I talked to 4 of them on Monday, asking if they were ok, asking if the class was going too fast for them. I had silence as an answer.
I thought I was wrong to ask them, I thought they were mad at me for pointing out their loneliness.
Then, today, one of them raised her hand all the time. I could see her whispering the sentences the others were doing. I tried to make her talk as much as I could. And she was good, even though she was talking with this shy tiny voice.
That's it. She's in it. She boarded the train.
I hope the other three will follow her.
15:54 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this | Tags: pupils
Comments
I experienced the same thing last year with my 2ndes, 21 were good to excellent, and 8 were really behind...it was my first year but as time went by, i found solutions in module, spending more time with them, having them work in "mixed abilities" (sounds bad, doesn't it?) groups...at least they saw I cared, and tried...
wish you luck! and loads of fun!!!
Posted by: La Fraise | 27 September 2006
Mine are lazy but don't bite anymore ;-) ... That's a huge step forward and reading you gives me hope... Maybe... one day...
Posted by: Alinet | 28 September 2006
I've just recently seen a sparkle in my 1ère's pupils !
So one has just to be patient and smile, and joke, and accept that they're entitled to show they're tired when it's their ninth lesson of the day, and your sixth ! Nobody is perfect.
Posted by: Ed | 30 September 2006
Salut je suis prof d'anglais comme toi, académie de Versailles aussi. Je trouve que tu écris super bien en anglais, même si j'ai le capes je suis pas sûre que j'en ferais autant (et 2 ans en collège, je régresse...), bien que je lise beaucoup en anglais. Tu prends le dico ou ta plume est-elle naturelle?
Posted by: laura | 03 October 2006
Hi Laura and welcome to the blog!!! ;-)
Thanks a lot for the compliment !!!! I don't think my English is that good. When I re-read my posts, I sometimes think I suck !!!! :-p I'm not using any dictionaries, except on some rare occasions when I have doubts about a word. But it does take me more time to write in English than in French. I try to be careful about my English. Anyway, It's a good way to practise and keep my level.
I'm not reading a lot in English unfortunately. There had been a period when I was reading much more but since I began working, I kind of stopped reading.
So it's good that you read a lot, it helps to keep a good level of English.
The main reason why I decided to blog in English is because I'm too ashamed to write in French, although I would love too. I though nobody would find my English bad because I'm not a native speaker. ;-)
And here I go, getting compliments! That's nice! :-)
Posted by: missteacher | 04 October 2006