...I'm just tired, that's all.
I'm really trying to be enthusiastic about this teaching thing, but I just can't. I mean, I'm coming up with new, fun lessons for my classes every day but in the back of my head I keep mentally ticking off my teaching days as they slide along. No, in fact, I actually have a paper sheet that I made up at the beginning of the academic year with all the number of sessions I'd have in each class to get a general idea for how many classes I'd have to prepare and how much time I'm allowed to spend on each unit.
Well it's now evolved into a "how many days do I have left in class" plan. And I swear to God, if I never hear "If You're Happy and You Know It," again...
But apparently I'm not as bad as some of my teachers. I'm not sure why, but when I showed up to one of my CE2 classes today, the maîtresse frickin' snapped! When I asked her if it was o.k. to erase the board and begin the day's English lesson, she started screaming at the class, "It doesn't matter anyways because we never advance. We're always falling behind on every lesson because someone wants to go to the bathroom, you forget something, there's too much talking..."
And then I saw the red darts come shooting out of her eyes. This sparked a five-minute rant that took up some of my teaching time as she continued chastising the children, blaming their insolence. (If I can get my two cents' in here, I haven't noticed their behavior to be bad enough to warrant this mess, but what do I know, I'm just the American girl who doesn't understand French, right?)
Either way, when my lesson was over I was about to head out the door. I finished five minutes early because the coloring page I set aside for the class to do was thwarted by this angry teacher. She told them they weren't allowed to have a fun activity today because they didn't merit such a thing. Instead she asked me to do something else to take up the last five minutes, like study vocab. This was requested of me so she could run to the bathroom for longer than five minutes. I had to stay in with the class during their recess break and babysit, while she did whatever the heck it was she had to do.
Oh, and might I add that she was doing absolutely nothing during the rest of the 40 minutes of my lesson. Couldn't she have gone then?!
But, I want to end this little puzzled rant on a good note. Because, as much as you might believe to the contrary, I am not an angry person who hates living in France. I'm rather enjoying it -- it's just the teaching part I'm not so sure about.
So in hopes of having some good news, I am finally done with all the French administrative, bureaucratic garbage for the rest of my stay -- I hope! Both yesterday and Tuesday I went to the CAF office which had been closed during the entire month of February, with all my filled out forms and carte de sejour. I don't know what the next step is, but at least I handed in all my documents so a folder could be created for me, meaning that in about a month, I'm going to start being reimbursed for about half of the money I've been spending on rent!! And if all goes well, it can't be better timing, as I'm going to need a bit of spending money for my trip to Germany and Spain over Spring Break :)
I'm really trying to be enthusiastic about this teaching thing, but I just can't. I mean, I'm coming up with new, fun lessons for my classes every day but in the back of my head I keep mentally ticking off my teaching days as they slide along. No, in fact, I actually have a paper sheet that I made up at the beginning of the academic year with all the number of sessions I'd have in each class to get a general idea for how many classes I'd have to prepare and how much time I'm allowed to spend on each unit.
Well it's now evolved into a "how many days do I have left in class" plan. And I swear to God, if I never hear "If You're Happy and You Know It," again...
But apparently I'm not as bad as some of my teachers. I'm not sure why, but when I showed up to one of my CE2 classes today, the maîtresse frickin' snapped! When I asked her if it was o.k. to erase the board and begin the day's English lesson, she started screaming at the class, "It doesn't matter anyways because we never advance. We're always falling behind on every lesson because someone wants to go to the bathroom, you forget something, there's too much talking..."
And then I saw the red darts come shooting out of her eyes. This sparked a five-minute rant that took up some of my teaching time as she continued chastising the children, blaming their insolence. (If I can get my two cents' in here, I haven't noticed their behavior to be bad enough to warrant this mess, but what do I know, I'm just the American girl who doesn't understand French, right?)
Either way, when my lesson was over I was about to head out the door. I finished five minutes early because the coloring page I set aside for the class to do was thwarted by this angry teacher. She told them they weren't allowed to have a fun activity today because they didn't merit such a thing. Instead she asked me to do something else to take up the last five minutes, like study vocab. This was requested of me so she could run to the bathroom for longer than five minutes. I had to stay in with the class during their recess break and babysit, while she did whatever the heck it was she had to do.
Oh, and might I add that she was doing absolutely nothing during the rest of the 40 minutes of my lesson. Couldn't she have gone then?!
But, I want to end this little puzzled rant on a good note. Because, as much as you might believe to the contrary, I am not an angry person who hates living in France. I'm rather enjoying it -- it's just the teaching part I'm not so sure about.
So in hopes of having some good news, I am finally done with all the French administrative, bureaucratic garbage for the rest of my stay -- I hope! Both yesterday and Tuesday I went to the CAF office which had been closed during the entire month of February, with all my filled out forms and carte de sejour. I don't know what the next step is, but at least I handed in all my documents so a folder could be created for me, meaning that in about a month, I'm going to start being reimbursed for about half of the money I've been spending on rent!! And if all goes well, it can't be better timing, as I'm going to need a bit of spending money for my trip to Germany and Spain over Spring Break :)
2 comments:
almost the same thing happened to me today! the kids were all whiny, they didn't want to play the game i had for them, and kept trying to get me to play other unrelated games, so the teacher is like "who's in charge? she is! so you'll either play the game she picked or write lines!" i freaked out, all under pressure from the teacher to make up lines for them. luckily (for me and the kids) the bell rang! french teachers are just scary sometimes.
yes but thats on the other side of germany from you. i'm actually closer to you when you are in france (proabably). where in france are you?
i'm right on the border of luxembourg on the far west side of germany.
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