First day of school

Yesterday I had my first day of school at l’école primaire Aristide Briand. Dominique had shown me the school on Friday when we were driving around and it is very close to campus; it might be considered part of campus, actually.

I was supposed to be there at either 8 or 8:15 so of course I planned to be there at 8. Somehow I managed to get lost. I wandered up and down the hill, looking for the familiar driveway. I started up a couple of them before deciding that they couldn’t possibly be correct. Eventually I decided it was better to call Dominique at that moment than later when I was really late, so I called and left a voicemail at his office. Two minutes later I decided to re-check one of the driveways and realized I hadn’t quite ventured in far enough the first time. I made it to school at exactly 8:15, no crisis.

The kids don’t come until 8:30 so I met a few of the teachers. Of course, after work I was talking to Meredith and at the school he went to today there were only five teachers total. So maybe I met the entire faculty! Today I observed in the classroom of the principal. Yes, that is correct – in addition to being principal of the school, she also has a classroom of first graders.

We learned a lot about the letter s when it makes the sssssss noise (as opposed to the /z/ noise). The kids read aloud from a small textbook and there was a lot of repetition of the same four sentences. They also worked on letter recognition and production: how to write the syllable sa as opposed to so or as. It’s a bit more difficult than it sounds, considering that they must also be able to read and write all of this in cursive. On that note, this was also a handwriting lesson.
The kids had a 15 minute recess in the morning about an hour before the lunch break. At 11:30 la maîtresse and I delivered the students to their parents who were waiting in the playground. Nearly all the children went home for lunch, but some stayed and ate in the cafeteria.

I returned at 1:30 for the afternoon session, which included more reading from the textbook, this time each individual had to read successfully the four sentences. Naturally, everyone else was a bit bored and distractible. The children also had a math lesson, which to me seemed really simple for the equivalent of first grade. One of the tasks they had to do was look at a number and in the following blank space fill in the next number.

Another recess followed and in the final 45 minutes the children colored while the teacher principal graded their work and helped individuals correct mistakes. The entire day finished at 4:30.

While I was there I was a bit worried about how I was going to teach English to kids who were still mastering the basics of French, but later I realized that I am assigned to teach 8-11 year olds. It doesn’t quite make a lot of sense then that I observed 6-7 year olds today, but at least it does give me a better idea of the older kids’ French and English proficiency.

Today I am in a classroom for children with 'difficulties,' which seems like a mix of learning disabilities and possibly mental retardation. I am a lot more involved in the classroom activities today, and I've had a lot of fun so far this morning. I hope to write more about today's experience later.

I have to confess that I felt very much at home in the first grade classroom yesterday; the lessons were very close to being appropriate for my level!