« 2006-10 | HomePage | 2006-12 »

25 November 2006

THE event of the week

You know as I told you last time how tired I was... Well I headed to school last Monday feeling quite ok until THE event.
I had a small group of boys, aged 14, all beginners of English. I like them, I like teaching them. And I think one of them likes it too much. He's one of the best. Sitting in the first row. He was wearing tracksuit trousers on that day. Towards the end of the class, he started scratching himself... well... between his legs. At least I THOUGHT he was scratching. I would HAVE PREFERRED that option. But he kept on. And he was having that weird look on the face, looking straight at me. Then I realized. I realized he was doing something else...
I kept teaching, as if I had not seen anything. The others pretended not to see I guess and I tried not to look at him. It lasted some minutes until he stopped. Those were the most hallucinating minutes of my (young) career.

When the class ended, I didn't feel I was able to talk to him. I was so upset. As it was my last class of the day, I went diectly to see the CPE (kind of referent teacher for discipline problems). I told him everything, I started to cry... I was so shocked. He brough me directly to the headmaster but as there were no obvious gestures, they decided not to talk to him (plus, he is an excellent pupil so...).
I went back home very upset. During the night, I started having nausea and feeling sick. I threw up at 4 am (God bless my boyfriend keeping my head up during that *lovely* time).
I couldn't get up to go to work. Saw the doctor. Gave me stuff for headaches and sleeping problems, which I have had for two weeks now.

Now is Saturday and I feel ill. The week went fine in the end but the week-ends are awful. I keep sleeping and feeling ill...

Still four weeks to go before the holidays. And I guess all the week-ends are going to be like this one.

*big big big sigh*.

20:08 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: ill; tiredness; pupil masturbating in class; upset

18 November 2006

I'm tired...

Hi everyone... Sorry for not posting anything. It's not that I don't have anything to say but I just don't have the energy.
Im exhausted... the kids are taking out all my energy.

See you soon (in a better shape I hope - or maybe sick).

20:23 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this

11 November 2006

My brain is full !!!!

As I told you last time, I had a visitor in one of my classes last Thursday to give me advice as I've been a full time teacher only for a couple of months now.
Well, she was very nice and she talked A LOT. Couldn't stop her! But everything she said was interesting and useful. She made compliments and then she told me what to improve and the direction my teaching should take.

The problem is that we are at the beginning of a revolution here in France, as for how to teach languages. We have to abide by the Europen Framework. My initial training didn't really train me in that perspective. A bit sure but not fully. Si I find myself with all this advice about teaching in accordance to the new Framework and I don't know exactly how to do. Because we're at the beginning of this process, few ressources are available for teachers. The school books are awfully boring, the colleagues don't seem very eager to start the process and the institution doesn't give you many clues.

I'll try to open soon a new section on this forum called "pedagogy", where I will try to post my ideas and my projects for teaching English as a seconde language in accordance to the new Framework.
I'll just try to do it bit by bit. Because I can't imagine whole new projetcs for my whole class just like this. It will take me an awful lot of time!!!!

To learn more about the European Framwork for teaching:

http://eduscol.education.fr/D0067/cecrl.htm (in French).

http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/CADRE_EN.asp (in English).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_...

23:00 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: european common framework of reference for languages

05 November 2006

Where I come from...

I’ve already told you about my pupils and my school. How nice it is. How polite and quiet and respectful they are.
I like it. Sure I do. How couldn’t I ? But it sometimes feels awkward. I feel displaced. Because my pupils are the kind I would have despised when I was one myself. They’re coming from another world. You can see it. The way they ask questions (in this always very quiet and polite way), the way they dress (brands and high-quality fabrics), the way they behave, the way they tell you about the books they have at home, the trips they’ve made abroad, what their parents told them and bla bla bla.
Most of my pupils are coming from well-off backgrounds. And it is weird for me to be their teacher. Would you believe it if I told you that I don’t feel on the same level? And not in the way you think ? I feel culturally superior to them only because of my studies. My studies are what allowed me to become what I’ve become. For the rest –to use scientific terms- my pupils have more social and economic capital than me.

Here, you need an explanation: Bourdieu –a well respected French sociologist- distinguished between social capital, economic capital and cultural capital. These capitals are given to you in your primary socialization –in your education to make it short. They help you integrate in society. The more capital you have, the higher you’ll go.

To learn more: click here http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialisation#La_reproductio...

In English: For Bourdieu, the three capitals are transmitted through the socialisation institutions. Determinism is the fact that a behaviour, a situation is determined in advance, considering certain socio-demographical caracteristics such as age, the belonging to a social background. Social reproduction is a sociological mechanism of maintaining the social position, the way of thinking, of acting and feeling of a family. Exemple: children from working class background tend not to pursue long studies. According to Bourdieu, this reproduction is due to the unequal sharing of the economic, social and cultural capitals between the classes. Families from upper backgrounds seek to preserve their place in the social system and use school as a way to reproduce their cultural capital.

French society still works on that system. French society is highly reproductive. Talking about classes wouldn’t be wrong.
Most of my pupils wouldn’t believe if I told them that in France, to say it roughly, a worker’s son will become a worker. But it’s true. Statistics prove that the higher the parents’ job/diploma is, the higher the children’s job/diploma will be. It is an inevitable truth. Nothing to argue about.

See (still in French): http://www.brises.org/cours.php/Cours/index/crsId/169/crs...

Well, I’m the exception confirming the rule (“je suis l’exception qui confirme la règle: French saying!).
My father has been a worker for more than 35 years now. In only a year time, I succeeded in earning more than him after 35 years of factory work. My mother was a cleaning woman. She is now retired. We were three children. I was the last one.
My father was a communist at heart. He was a fervent trade unionist. He used to talk about big strikes and fights against bosses. In the 70s, he locked his boss up with other workers during a protest. He was condemned in court. A real fighter. Now he is getting old and has lost a lot of his illusions, helped by the fact that his only son is now voting for the right wing (Conservatives), which must be such a blow for him. I grew up with those strikes’ talks. Made it my dissertation topic at University, on the Irish point of view. I always voted for the left. As a belief but also as a duty. A duty to my background. Voting right would be like selling myself to the enemy. It would be wrong. It would be denying my past. It would be forgetting where I come from.

Finding myself in this school is strange to me. The little girl inside me doesn’t feel at ease. But the teacher feels confident – and that’s the most important thing I guess.

17:25 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this | Tags: social background; social ladder; money; pupils' families; my f