Day One

          Today I taught for the first time! I had two classes of CE1. The primary schools in France are divided into CP or “cours prepartoire” (age 6), CE or “cours elementaire” 1 (age 7) and CE2 (age 8), and finally CM or “cours moyen” 1 (age 9) and CM2 (age 10). Before elementary school, schoolchildren go to “maternelle” (ages 3-6), and after elementary school, they go to college for five years. At 16, they start lycee for three years and if they pass the baccalauret, they go to university for three years. The CM1 kids all presented themselves to me, carefully noting their names, ages, and where they are from. Some of the children hesitatingly told me their favourite activities, much to the delight of the teachers. We translated their names into popular American English names and they practiced presenting one another. In CM2, the teacher was a substitute and welcomed me to the classroom with “je vous les lais” or “they’re all yours!” My jaw dropped because I had asked the teachers several times if I should prepare anything and they insisted that I not. Luckily, the students wanted to introduce themselves and that took up a good chunk of time as we reviewed how to do that. It’s hard not to write on the board because I lose track of what I’m saying and what verbs I’m using. I know I’m supposed to speak to them only in English, but doing so was much more effective when I gave directions or explained something in English and then we translated it into French together. When I explain grammar or what something means, it has to be in French. For example, it was hard for the students to grasp what “I’m (age)” meant. In French, you would say, “J’ai (age) ans.” In English, you cannot translate that as “I have (age)”. I was backwards translating “I’m” as “J’ai” until the sub teacher explained that to translate it logically you would say “Je suis” or “I am” – he lamented after class how difficult translating even simple things like age can be across languages. Once we got through ages, he told me to teach them something, so I attempted to teach the body parts head, hands, feet, and the directions up, down, left, and right. He was helpful in making the kids think of where they had seen those words before – in football and in the sports brand Head. I tripped over myself in using “feet” and “foot”, which is of course simple in English and totally confusing for French speakers. My first lesson, for being unplanned, wasn’t a disaster but it was certainly unnerving. Wonderfully enough, English for French children is not a chore – they seemed genuinely eager to learn, but I was warned that once the novelty of my presence wears off, teaching will be more difficult. The teachers advised lots of games and songs, which is perfect, and perhaps even more fun for me to plan than for the kids to do!