The school I work at used to be two and now is one; a preschool and a primary school. For that reason, It’s a bit bigger than most French schools but still a lot smaller than American schools in general. I arrived at 8:50 and stayed until 5. Here is what I did and some things that I noticed:

I visited about six classrooms. One of the first things I noticed was the near absence of computers–or at least updated ones. Projectors in classroom were rare , and the machines in the library were circa 1990-something. I should add that this school was not necessary underfunded, and I don’t want to make any assumptions about a school system I’ve known for less than a week, but I got the sense that technology just isn’t as important in a French classroom as it is in the U.S..  In the teachers’ lounge today, I listened as Madame Maitresse marveled about Smart Boards, and the fact that they could do so much: how students could touch the board and highlight or underline words. What I found interesting was that the other teachers were riveted by the discussion and intrigued by the possibilities as if SmartBoards and the like were a fabled unicorn.

In each classroom, I introduced myself, told them where I was from, that I liked cats and dogs and all that, and then opened it up for questions. I think the one thing that made them light up  the most and their eyes go all googly, was the fact that I was from Miami. Some of the questions I got:

” Why are you teaching here and not in Paris?” 

“You said you were Moroccan?”

“Have you been to the LEGO store?” 

” Do you know Pitbull?”

 The students themselves are a veritable variety of cultures. I could find every hair color and skin tone in each of the six classes visited as if each one had been curated to reflect diversity. There was an Al Jawhra, a Jade (pronounced ‘Jad’ here, like in j’adore), an Alisha, and of course an Antoine or two. Being an international school, this is hardly surprising with many of the students having parents from the US, UK, Italy, and Germany. So basically, a lot of these kids already have a leg up on me with three languages. haha poor me.

Several of the classrooms contained two grades, with the entire room starting out together and then breaking off into distinct groups. Most of them time though, I couldn’t really tell who was who except that each grade was grouped to one side. In the last class I visited I taught the students “The Wheels on the Bus” and now it’s stuck in my head.

So that was my day, from 9 to 5 in a few words. I discovered much about French schools, met the teachers, and spent time with the students. As I left the school gates through a knot of kids, moms, and teachers, one of the 8-year-olds offered  a “Salut Deni!”

I’m glad they know my name–it’s a start.

A+