Teacher Time!

Yesterday I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar aloud to a French elementary school class. How my life is different in such a sort time! I've spent the past week or so getting all sorts of training on how to be an elementary school teacher. At the end of last week, my coordinator took me on a tour of both my elementary schools to meet the 11 teachers I'll be working with this year. All of them seem really nice, and I got to meet a lot of the precious students as well! There's much to learn about how to teach foreign languages to small children, and France is pretty progressive in their techniques. Teachers speak no French during English time, and it's amazing what level of meaning you can learn to convey using simple vocabulary and gestures.

Last weekend, all the Grenoble Academy teaching assistants went on a retreat to the mountains in Autrans for training! There are people from all over the world participating in this program for various languages. I met people from Germany, England, India, Italy, Jamaica, Spain, Argentina and even Trinidad and Tobago! Although our accommodations were a little rustic, this was the view, complete with hot air balloons over the Alps!


I feel very lucky because I became friends with a bunch of really nice people who are living in Valence! There are more assistants here than any other city in the region. There are some great girls living right down the street and plenty of other people nearby! Here's a pic of some of my new Valence friends and another pic of our night out in Autrans:



My coordinator, Rosine, has actually done quite a bit to prepare us Valence primary school assistants for success. She planned further training for us at a university in Valence two days this week to practice, observe classrooms around Valence (where I got called upon to read to the children), meet with all the other coordinators and the Academic Inspectrice, and get more help with our paperwork. All the coordinators made a delicious lunch for us on the second day, and Rosine got us access to the library at the university for free. Tomorrow and Friday I'm spending all day observing my classes, and then Monday I begin officially!