Friday was our first official day of orientation as language assistants. There are 7 of us teaching primary school in Metz, and we met all together for the first time on Friday. Assistants teaching in middle/high school have orientation this week, and are treated separately from us, so we'll have to meet them on our own! In Metz we are: Cole from TN, Jamie from MI, Elli from Australia, Leah from GA, Michelle from WA and Kathy from KY. Kathy taught here last year, and decided to renew her contract since she really liked her school. Friday was spent mostly dealing with administrative paperwork, and making sure everyone had a schedule set up at their schools, and then we got some pointers on teaching the first couple of classes. We were sent off with the instructions to observe classes Monday and Tuesday of this week, then try our hand at teaching on Thursday, before we have another day of pedagogical orientation on Friday.
Friday night was la Nuit Blanche in Metz. Nuit blanche, literally white night, means "to pull an all-nighter." Recently, cities have started having Nuit Blanche as a public celebration of the city's contemporary arts, in all their many, varied forms. The city collaborates with artists and exposition spaces to offer an entire night (8pm-dawn) of exhibits, performances and entertainment, all free and open to the public. It's great, not only for the amazing talent on display, but also for the places where events are held. Lots of private/government buildings to which the general public wouldn't otherwise have access, get opened up and turned into galleries, stages and spaces for showcasing the work of local artists.
In Metz this year, for their 2nd Nuit Blanche, the city decided to set up a 2km walk from one end of the (old!) Centre Ville, south to a more modern part of the city. There were 8 main stations set up, representing the 8 planets, and lots and lots of art, music, dance and other talent being shown the whole way.
A group of us primary assistants + 1 high school assistant spent several hours exploring the length of the 2km walk, watching, listening, observing and taking pictures of everything! It was really nice to see so many people out together, just walking around and seeing what was there to be seen. It was also great that this happened so early in our time here, as a really nice introduction to some of what the city has to offer.
On Saturday, our Nuit Blanche group, Cole, Elli, Jamie & Liz, got together for a lunch picnic in a park and looked over the materials we were given at orientation. We chatted about teaching and how in the world we're going to educate these French children! Fortunately, this week is mostly about observation... except that on Thursday I have to actually teach 6 entire classes!
Sunday, being the first Sunday of the month, meant that the big history museum here, le Musée de la Cour d'Or, was free. We went and spent several hours pouring over the Greco-Roman artifacts that were all found here, in Metz. There were so many things, in such a variety, too! I really need to brush up on my history to get a better picture of what was going on, but Metz was a pretty important city - at both an east-west and north-south crossroads, thus, lots of historical goings-on. The museum had some incredible painted wood ceilings from the Middle Ages. One was covered with creatures from a fantastical bestiary, another with geometric designs and patterns, and a third with heraldic banners and lions. The place was huge, and certainly merits at least another visit or two... or three. Plus, there is an entire fine arts wing we didn't even see!
After the museum visit, we decided to see if we could get last minute tickets at the Opéra to see La Bohème. We could, and we did! All four of us got 8€ tickets all together. The seats were in the 2nd row of the 3rd balcony, which means there was only one row "worse" than us, but in fact the view was quite good! It was a good show, and a nice way to spend Sunday afternoon.
Monday was my first day observing in my schools. I was in the larger of the two, where I will have 6 classes on Mondays and Thursdays. I found out when I got there in the morning, that in fact I will be teaching the CE1 (2nd grade) students too. This is the first year they're starting English at that level, so I will have even more 1st-year English students.
So far, the numbers look like this:
2 groups of 2nd grade
1 group of 3rd grade
2 groups of 4th grade
1 group of 5th grade
That makes 3 groups of 1st-year English, 2 of 2nd, and 1 of 3rd.
Total at Peupion: 130 students.
When I was about to leave my last class of the day, 4th grade, a girl came up to me without a word and handed me a pencil drawing of a horse. She just smiled, then walked away. I said thank you. It was a sweet gesture, but I'm pretty sure she did it while she was supposed to be studying her poetry in class! Not really sure if this bodes well or not!
Quote of the day: "The English teacher [assistant] last year wasn't that great. But that's just my opinion," said to me by a 4th or 5th grade boy as soon as I walked into the school in the morning. Welcome to French school!
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