Today started early. I woke up at 6:50am so I could get my stuff ready and have breakfast before I walked to the train station. I gave myself too much time and ended up at the station 35 minutes early…oh well. It gave me plenty of time to buy my ticket (it turned out to be a bus, not a train) and listen to my iPod while I waited. Alison, the assistant living in the next town over, arrived 5 minutes before the bus left and we rode to Dax together. Luckily there were two women at the train station to pick up the assistants and take them to the training.
It was great to meet other assistants! There were about 30 at our training and most of them were English assistants (either from the US, Canada, or the UK), but there were some Spanish assistants as well (from Spain, Argentina, Honduras, etc.). While we waited for the training to start, I chatted with Fergus, an assistant from Scotland. He’ll be teaching in three elementary schools and he was really skeptical about the way the French teachers act towards the students. In his school he observed the teachers screaming at the students (right in their faces) and one of them threw a notebook. I haven’t seen anything like that, but it is true that the teachers seem to be stricter here. Not that the students end up behaving any better, but they do scold them a lot more. And there isn’t as much praise as there always seems to be in the US.
During the morning, we filled out lots of paperwork and were told about the rules of the program. Nothing much that we hadn’t heard (or read) before. Right before lunch we were talked at by a lady from an insurance company. Yes, we do get social security (which will reimburse us for most of our medical costs)—but the insurance company will make sure we get almost 100% of our medical bills covered. The lady kept going on about how the “social security is the walls of the house, but we are the roof.” It was annoying because I knew that there was no way I was going to pay them for extra health coverage…and it was really boring having to listen to their advertisement! Eventually we got to eat lunch…
Luckily there was enough vegetarian food to eat in the cafeteria (couscous with cooked veggies, bread, cheese, wine…yes, they do give the teachers wine in the cafeteria!), so I didn’t go hungry. Alison and I sat with two girls who are assistants in a small town near Bayonne (not too far away). Iris is from Wisconsin and Gabby is from Honduras. They were both really friendly and we’re hoping to all meet up in Bayonne sometime! We spoke French together because I don’t know if Gabby speaks any English (and, even if she does, it’s good practice to speak French!).
We spent the afternoon being instructed on good ways to teach a foreign language. One thing they told us is that we should speak in our native language. Yes, the kids probably won’t understand, but we should use lots of gestures to help them understand instead of reverting back to French. Also they said we shouldn’t give the kids any homework, just play lots of games and get them to SPEAK a lot! I guess all the “Way to Go!” “Good Job!” etc. stickers I brought to put on their homework are somewhat unnecessary! :p No, I’m sure I can find a way to work them in!
When we’d finished the training, Alison, Pablo (the Spanish assistant at my school from Argentina), and I walked to the train station. It turns out that it’s all the way across town (a 35 minute walk), so it’s really good we didn’t have to walk this morning! However, it was nice to walk this afternoon—it allowed us to see the town of Dax, which seems like a really nice place. There is a beautiful cathedral (we only saw it from the outside) and a nice car-free zone with little shops. I spotted a few specialty chocolate shops, which looked super tempting! I plan to go back to explore sometime as it only cost me 2€60 to get there and 3€80 to get home!
I was really tired by the time I got home at 6:30pm. I found Catherine in the office, battling the internet provider. She’s been spending countless hours on her cell phone, trying to get the internet and home phone fixed. The company keeps giving different excuses and has been thoroughly unhelpful. We’re all getting really frustrated. After battling all evening (with a short break for a pasta dinner), they finally thought to give us the password to the public wifi…and, if I don’t move my laptop too much, I can get some internet in my room. It’s not very predictable (and their desktop computer doesn’t pick up the signal, so that’s really frustrating for them), but it’s better than dangling out the window! :)
When I came into my room tonight to go to bed, I found some new drawings that were slid under my door. Very nice new decorations, thanks to Margot--complete with very cool stickers.
Tomorrow I’m back to observing…I can’t wait to actually start teaching on Monday!!
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