Reflections on a summer past

Back-to-school day is nearly there - Monday is rapidly approaching as I look at what I've done (and not done) so far.

I've successfully moved to Compiègne where I'm ready to welcome a lot of different students. Here are my future classes:

• three 10th grade groups
• one STMG 11th grade
• two 12th grade groups
• one literature 12th grade

One positive change from my last post is that there are more computer labs than the principal first told me. Here however, the teaching is different from what I've experienced before. English classes are "skill-oriented", if I may call them so.

It means that the year is divided into 3 main periods. One for each skill the students are supposed to work on. For the first period, for instance, I have to teach listening comprehension strategies as much as I can. Then it will be written comprehension and finally written expression. Oral expression is supposed to be worked on throughout the year. Each period ends with a test for all classes to assess student performance.

I find it hard to reconcile these rules with the idea of letting students some choice over their learning experience. I already know I'll be tweaking the rules. I cannot have full-on PBL projects, but at least I'll let students carry out mini-PBL projects at the end of every sequence.
Here are the titles for my tenth grades projects:

 For Sequence 2. Britishness, I'll have student research the British school system on their own, and from the lessons on different aspects of Britishness and their own research they will have to create a short film about British students welcoming a foreigner in their school. I adapted the project from Don Doehla here: http://pbl-wl.wikispaces.com/Project+ideas+for+intermediate.

I'm still working on the other grades - my first topics are ready but not everything. So there will be more explanations about these later.

I went to my new high school this morning: it was teeming with people, busy speaking, shuffling administrative papers and bringing new furniture in. I could not help feeling excited about next week and the new life ahead of me. I am going back to lesson planning now, even more motivated by the thought of new students to teach, new colleagues to meet and the fresh school year about to begin. 

The Best is Yet to Come

I contacted my new high school a few days ago. I had hoped a bigger high school would mean more devices available for students, more computer labs, maybe a close team of English teachers, deep into innovative teaching. 

Sadly, this isn’t the case. There is only one computer lab for 1,500 students, which means that because of the “STMG” (marketing studies) and Maths or Physics classes, I won’t be able to access it on a regular basis, let alone book it for a number of classes in a row. So much for my hopes of 21^st-century-teaching, Internet research, or PBL projects using Internet resources. 

What’s more, not all language classes are equipped with a computer and or an overhead projector, so it may become difficult to grant access to authentic language and video.

I was crushed at first. I shouldn’t have put my hopes up so much. Since I was supposed to be getting more freedom – I am now a fully certified teacher after my first year under regular supervision – I was really looking forward to experimenting with teaching methods. 

On the other hand, I’ve been taking a MOOC class, “5 habits of the highly creative teacher” (Canvas Network). I haven’t finished it yet but it has put me back on track, and I am gradually tuning in with my own creativity and finding ways of expressing it. I used to write a lot – I had started a novel, but I also wrote poetry – I did lots of small arty things, I know how to sew, knit, cross-stich too. I had no time for that during my studies, but doing these things again and looking for inspiration is really liberating for me. 

I think the kind of challenge ahead of me is a creative one. I will be out of my comfort zone, trying to make do with what I have – my own personal computer and speakers; an English book; photocopies… But it turns out I kind of like the idea. 

I have to completely start over (most of the lessons I had ready from this year cannot be carried out without regular access to a computer lab). Starting over means new themes, new outlooks, and new methods too. I thoroughly enjoy being able to express and channel my creativity through my teaching.

This summer is going to be one of great change.

First Year Teaching English

One year ago at that time, I was struggling to pass the competitive exams to become an English teacher in France. It was the end of a much-hated year in Paris, fighting the craziness of blending the preparation for two major teaching exams and working half-time to cope with my rent and living expenses. It turned out fine, since I passed both exams, and I was sent to Caen to teach high-school students for my first year.

The irony of it all was that preparing to sit for a very competitive exam to become a teacher did not involve facing REAL students. I loved English, I loved English literature, English history and culture, and I had this immense desire to share it with others. So I took a leap of faith. And on September 2, 2014, I faced my first class ever.

Looking back on this year, this has been one of the hardest years of my life. I had 3 10th grades, one 11th grade English literature class, and another 11th grade. Learning about my classes only three days before going back to school, I had to juggle lesson planning when I didn’t know how to plan for a class, tests, marking and discipline, with NO TIME to breathe.

And yet. I struggled for months until the Christmas holidays. I finally got some time to think, and tried to prepare things ahead of time. And through an accidental Pinterest click I discovered the Edutopia website and PBL. I remember feeling immediately elated. I am a creative person, although this side of my personality had been buried under years of undergraduate and graduate study. And I could feel that I could make it alive again, and use it to spark the interest and creativity of my own students.

I started shifting the way I saw and conceived my classes, and the way the students interacted in it. In France, language classes are already changing and beginning to see the interest of a non-teacher-centered classroom, but here it is carried out on a larger scale. I started asking my students to work in groups, to collaborate, to help one another, and I started involving them – for one of my 10th grade class, I invented a plot for a Crime Scene Investigation where the victim was one of the student and they had clues to find and interrogations to conduct in English to find the murderer. Others had to create a “Carpe Diem” digital poem about themselves, and the results were surprisingly good.

Asking them to collaborate was a hard thing. But they gradually learnt it and I could see that they all benefited from it. The best students were taking charge, leading the activities, helping out and organising. The ones who were struggling could find help quickly and were improving at a fast rate. In turn, they were also becoming more confident. If they could speak English in front of 3 or 4 students, they could do it in front of the class! They were also learning that everybody has a talent they can lean on.

I have many regrets about this year. I didn’t do enough grammar, my tests weren’t always properly thought-out, I wish had had done more English-listening sessions with my 11th grades, I wish… but this was my first year, and it wasn’t perfect, and I’ve come to accept it. I know what my weaknesses are, and I intend to work on them.

I asked my students to fill in a feedback form for me on the last day of class. Quite a few of them loved the group settings, the collaboration and the fact that I always tried to push them. Some of them told me that I had allowed them to express their creativity and that it was the only class where they had been able to do it. And I am proud of it. It’s also funny that only at the very moment when I started reading their feedbacks did I feel like a real teacher.

Since I have completed my first year, I am now considered a real teacher. It also means that I have to move to another school where I will have my first official teaching position. It will be yet another beginning for me in September. New high school, new city, new students.

So, as a new teacher, I am going to use this blog to reflect on what I do in class, and try to improve my teaching, along what I hope will remain central concerns throughout my career: teaching students, creating things with them, and loving them.