First week of teaching

The first week of teaching was definitely memorable. Mondays I teach at both Turgot and Malot. They are both fairly close to one another; it’s about a twenty minute walk. Both schools are in a “rough” neighborhood. Malot is surrounded by low-level income apartments, but is more open to the public than Turgot. Turgot is fenced in by steel bars and is accompanied by a security guard to provide “order” and act as a position of authority that the kids will listen to, as well as to let people in the gates.

Last Monday morning was my official integration into the normal school week schedule. I started with an early morning class at Malot. I was out the door by 8:15am and made it to the school in a little less than an hour. Once I arrived, an English teacher named Rosee came to greet me immediately. We chatted for a moment in French, and she led me up to her room on the third floor to meet the kids in her class that I would be teaching. The class consisted of 8 and 9 year olds. They all stood up as I entered and were not permitted to sit until the Maitress had given the okay.


The first thing I did to get the kids talking was to introduce myself and get the kids a good idea about where I’m from. I pulled down a huge map of the world and asked the kids if they could find the United States of America. Many believed it was next to Germany. They all laughed. A student eventually found it. Next I asked if anyone had some questions pertaining to my voyage from the U.S to France. They were very eager to ask as many questions as possible. The first class went great!


I had 5 classes to attend on my first day; 2 at Malot and 3 at Turgot. After teaching at Malot, I left for Turgot. The neighborhood consists of mainly immigrants from countries like Algeria and Morocco in North Africa. As I began the 20 minute trek to Turgot, cars honked, and men hollered at me. The icing on the cake was when a creepy man followed me for about 4 blocks shouting “eh sexy.” So at that point I felt completely uncomfortable, and pissed off that I would have to make this walk every week. The man eventually stopped when I yelled, “Arrêtez! Ca souffit maintenant!” (Stop, that’s enough) I later told my contact about what happened. She had taught at Turgot for 7 years so she knew the neighborhood; she suggested I buy mace. My schedule is not set in stone, so I am hoping that I can rearrange it so it won't be necessary to walk from one school to the other. There are Metro stops close to each of the primary schools.


The incidences along the way put a little pep in my step and I made it to Turgot in less time than I anticipated. I met the teacher whom I will be assisting the most. Her name is Natasha. She is really sweet and I am sure we will get along great! I went to the first class with her, initially to observe and then to introduce myself and teach a little. The class went great. The kids were a little wild but Natasha has an extremely loud and authoritative voice. When one of the kids misbehaved she would give them a little talking to, discussing the poor decisions they had made. The day had been very smooth up to that point; that all changed as I went to the last class I would teach for the day.


I went with Natasha who trades classes with other teachers since she is the only English teacher at the school. While I was with Natasha teaching the class, a different teacher went to watch over Natasha’s normal class. It went great until I had to go over to get the other teacher for her to return to her normal class. When I got to the class room, kids were screaming, hitting each other, and all sorts of nonsense. I was in a jungle of animals! The teacher got up and said they were just horrible. She left to get Natasha and discuss what the kid’s behavior was like. I was left alone with these crazy French kids. I was not intimidated though, at least not yet. I told everyone to get into their seats so we could sing a song. The class had been working on one during the week. They followed my directions, but not for long. A little girl, who is a trouble maker, slapped a boy right in front of me for no apparent reason. The boy of course ran up to tell on her. This then coincided with five other kids coming up to tattle on what the others had done. I lost it, after the entire class was screaming. I sat down at the desk and told the children that we were not going to sing the song because they were unable to behave. I continued by saying, "So we are going to sit and wait for your teacher with your heads down on the desks." I had to pretty much shout this, but they finally listened and calmed down until Natasha entered the class. Natasha is a really small and petite lady. She came to the front of the class and told the kids how disappointed she was in all of them. She then spoke to the girl (that had hit the boy) in front of the class, since the other teacher had specifically spoken to Natasha about her behavior. The lecture began with an overall tone of “you are incapable of life.” This was continued by how she can’t say she just doesn’t want to do the homework, life doesn’t work that way. She continued speaking to her about paying bills, and how she can’t just say no I don’t want to pay. The lecture ended that if you keep making these decisions you will end up on the streets alone. Just to keep you up to speed this lecture was given to an 8 year old. It was intense to say the least.


The bell rang and I finally got to leave. The security guard led me out of the school grounds. Jordan called, and after a long day I couldn’t wait to get back to him! We ended up grabbing a hot chocolate on the way home. Chocolate can fix almost anything in my book. Needless to say I felt much better and was ready for the next day of classes.


The week was smooth from there on out. I played a lot of games with the kids. I used flash cards to play games like memory, Bingo (to learn numbers 1-5), and Telephone to learn pronunciation of words. I really love this experience and am learning so much! I just hope I can keep coming up with new and interesting lesson plans for the kids. If you have any games or songs you remember learning when you were little let me know! Anything would help!


-Kathryn