Week 9

Yes, can you believe (because I certainly can't) that I have been an inhabitant of Marseille for 9 weeks?! 9 weeks! Now, I haven't written my blog for a while so this could be quite a long post, providing, of course, I can remember what I've done this week!





Ok, Monday's events are escaping me slightly but I'm willing to bet any amount of money I will have seen Rachel on Monday. I'm thinking we went to the supermarket together, did we then come back to mine and have lunch? I think we did. Umm, I remember going to bed at a ridiculously early hour because I had to get up for Lycee the next day but apart from that... Let's skip to Tuesday.





By the end of the day I was prepared to say that I properly hated being a language assistant. I arrived at 8am and had a terminale class. That means images. There were 10, sleepy eyed 17/18 year olds who wanted to be there possibly even less than I did if that's possible. Speaking at 8h in the morning in any language is difficult enough, let alone trying to get them to speak in English. I gave them my football violence image but it was hard work. It was me doing all the talking, trying to encourage them to give me ideas, give me their opinions on violence in football. Talk to me about french football. I remember looking at my watch and it being only 8h35 when it felt like I'd already done a day's work. After that class I had a spare hour which I used to prepare a lesson on Bonfire Night for Thursday. I found a text on One Stop English and got some images from google. It was for my anglais renforce class on Thursday. At 10h I had my second class of the day - 2 terminale students. I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to be doing with them. They arrived with the teacher who gave me a text and a sheet about how to write a commentaire de texte and said that that was what they needed to be able to do but orally. Ok. I had never seen this text before so the first thing I got them to do was read it to me. It was quite a good text. After we'd read it I just asked them comprehension questions to check their understanding of the text. I had to explain some things which they hadn't understood. It was quite a good class because the 2 girls were really trying. Their level wasn't that good and how they are ever going to be able to speak about a text for their oral exam I will never know but still, they are hard workers. It would, however, have been better if the teacher were to have given me the text in advance but still I guess I can't have everything - hard working students and a prepared teacher. My next class was BTS - talking about their work experience. I was sent 3 students. I have lots of BTS classes where they tell me about their work experience, it's getting quite boring now, like the image classes. After this class it was lunch time. I remember thinking 3 hours down, 3 hours to go. But I knew that I had mes secondes as my last class... After lunch I had a one-to-one session with Thibauld. He's already done most of his bac but he's having to redoubler some of it again. He's kind of a special case because he is pretty much blind. He's asked to spend an hour every other week with me because he wants to keep up his spoken English which, to be fair, is pretty good. We talked, well, actually, I did most of the talking like I always seem to end up doing. I'm not quite sure what we're going to talk about every other week. I'm somewhat restricted as to what I can do with him seeing as he can't see. My next class was my 'je n'ai rien compris' class. Image time again. I really need to find some new images even if it's only for my sanity. The trouble is, they're quite hard to find. I had 3 students, one by one. It's hard when I have them one by one because they are so weak. They don't have to vocabulary and so aren't really able to talk to be about the images. I usually end up speaking to them in French, again, another class where it's me doing all the talking. After this thrilling hour of talking yet again about famine and size zero models I had ma classe de merde: Mes secondes. 10 14/16 year old boys. Thank goodness my room only seats 10, otherwise the teacher - Isabelle, would have sent me half of the class and considering there are about 37 in the class... Anyway, their English is really poor and they have absolutely no desire to improve. It really is a class de merde. They talk, they fidgit, they mess around. One boy, sat at the back of the class, was doing something with his hair. When I asked him what he was doing he said 'I measure my hair' - why? because it was a competition with the person say next to him to see who's hair was longest. I told him if he could explain to me in English what he was doing and why then he could carry on. Obviously he couldn't. I told them in about 3 differently worded ways that each eleve had to give me a sentence using 'will' to tell me what they were doing that evening. 2 of them gave me a sentence so when the bell rang I let them go. It was so funny, they had not been interested in giving me their sentence before the bell but as soon as the bell had gone I have 8 15 year old boys giving me their full attention, each one with their hand up! They're an ok class, just a bit lively. I'm going to adapt my Bonfire Night lesson to a lower level to do with them next week because I can basically do what I want with this class. So finally, 16h arrives and I can go home. I actually went for a quick coffee with Rachel and Jess at Vieux Port before, umm... what did I do next? Eat with Rachel? Maybe Aimee. I don't remember. Actually, yes, I do remember, Aimee invited us chez elle for soup so on to the metro we went armed with tarte au citron and 2 baguettes. Then we got the number 40 bus with no clue as to where to get off except it was past a roundabout with an apple on and press the bell when we turned right at the chinese. Amazingly we managed to get off at the right stop! On to Wednesday...

I have absolutely no idea what I did on Wednesday. I remember eating dinner chez Rachel. We went out to buy a baguette and had soup. I remember standing in the lift and complaining about having to go to work the next day. Umm... I really need to start either a) keeping notes on what I do or b) writing the blog more regularly!

Thursday I remember well. I was dreading it after Tuesday but I was surprised. I arrived at Lycee and wasn't able to print out my worksheet on Bonfire Night for my anglais renforce class because the network was down. Luckily I had a copy of the text written in my notebook so I wrote it out by hand and photocopied it. I was able to do this because my 8h class didn't turn up! I was sat in my room waiting for my BTS students but no one came. Usually it would really have annoyed me because I'd got myself to Lycee for an 8h class and then the students not turning up. It gave me chance to write up my Bonfire night text and photocopy it. At about 8h55 the teacher and the whole BTS class arrived to apologise prefusely for 'having forgotten' me. Ha. I explained that en fait, they'd done me a favour. They said they'd see me next week. So, at 9h, off I went, photocopying in tow, to my anglais renforce class. I explained to them about Bonfire night before giving them out the gap fill exercise. I then read the text out. I basically acted as the tape player. I had to read the thing out 3 times for them to get all the blanks and then some of them still hadn't got them all. I could practically recite the text off by heart by the end. For saying this is an anglais renforce class they're not very hard working and their level isn't that good either. I enjoyed the class though. It reminded me of when I did my CELTA course over the summer. I wish more of my classes could be me doing my own thing. My next class was 2 terminales students that I hadn't yet met. The teacher hadn't told me what I was going to be doing with them. She came at the beginning of the class with the students and gave me the text they'd been working on and a guide sheet on how to write a commentaire de texte. Good job I knew what a commentaire de texte was and how to write one! I hadn't read the text before though so I started by getting them to read it to me - good for their pronunciation and also gave me chance to read it. I then asked them basic comprehension questions, making sure they'd understood the text. They'd already written the commentaire. Even though their level is poor they work hard. For their oral exam they have to give an oral commentaire. It's going to be hard for them but I'm enjoying working with texts as opposed to images and they were nice girls. I then had a BTS class. I was sent 2 girls. One was very good at English and the other was a 'je n'ai rien compris' kind of student. Because of the stronger student the lesson went well. I was able to give them lots of phrases for their work experience and at the end there was a few minutes left and we were just chatting generally. The talkative girl asked me whether I'd teach her how to tell the time next time I saw her. It was now lunch time. The morning had been quite good but I wasn't much looking forward to the weekend. It was the teacher who basically leaves me with the class whilst she drinks tea in the staffroom. I was prepared today though when she asked me whether I had something prepared. I could do my Bonfire lesson again. This is also an anglais renforce class but it is smaller and they are of a much higher level so I adapted it slightly. I explained Bonfire night and then gave them the text. Instead of reading it out as a listening comprehension I wrote the words that fit in the blanks on the board and they had to fill in the blanks. I really enjoyed this class. The teacher wasn't there. It was so much like my CELTA course except of course I didn't have all the other people on my course sitting at the back watching me. It was just me and the students and they enjoyed the lesson and so did I. Next I had mes secondes but it was ok because it is a nice class of secondes. I just go round helping the students. They were working on a text and had comprehension questions so I went round helping them. One girl spoke to me, quite deliberately I'm sure, in rapid french. The look on her face when I answered her question in English. Ha! At the end of the class it's break time. I looked out of the window and it was snowing! And no, I am not lying, nor was I imagining things. My teacher said 'mais c'est impossible, il ne neige jamais a Marseille!' and I have to say I agree. I never ever expected to see snow in Marseille! Ok, so it was neige fondue mais quand meme! I got a lift to the metro station with a teacher to save me taking the bus. I then went home and got my burger, which I had cooked the night before. Which reminds me what I did yesterday evening. Rachel and Louise were here. We went to the supermarket and then back to mine and I made lentil burgers. I remember now. So yes, on Thursday I took my left over lentil burger to Rachel's and we ate together.

Friday. I met up with Angeline and then, in the evening, I went, with Rachel, to Jess's. She cooked mushroom risotto and then a chicken dish. Saturday was spent at a vintage festival at Parc Charnot and we were supposed to go to the races but didn't get round to it. And then in the evening I ate cheese and tomato omlette with Aimee. Et voila, week 9 as best as I can remember. A+