Mademoiselle Camille

 You are about leaving France for one year to live an awesome experience in this little city in the middle of nowhere that you probably didn’t know before : Edina ! Now almost at the end of this school year, I would like to share a little bit of my experience with you. Into few months, you will be the one who will spend his days in this immersion school.

Firstly, you will learn a lot about teaching! you will be in a class for one year! Having this opportunity is wonderful. You will learn a lot with your teacher. At the beggining of the school year you might feel a little lost but weeks after weeks, this class will become yours.

Secondly, you will discover what is an immersion school. You will teach in a school, but in a very special school. You will be in a building where everybody switches from “English” to “French” in his brain before getting in. In this school, you will not just teach knowlegdes, you will share you language while your are teaching these knowledges. This point makes the mission a little bit more interesting, isn’t it?! So you will have to speak slowly, using your hands while you are speaking, using a simple vocabulary if you are in the lowest levels. Having the opportunity to see how kids learn a new language is great. You will be impressed to see how quick they improve it during only one school year! Of course, that can make everythings a little bit harder. Sometimes, you will ask yourself if the child doesn’t understand the concept that you are trying to explain or if he doesn’t understand because your are speaking French. You have to keep going and with time and efforts, you will see improvement. You will also try to find new ways to teach even if they don’t really understand the language and learn a lot about pedagogy.

If Normandale is a French immersion school, it stays an American public school. So you will of course learn a lot about teaching but you will also learn a lot about american educational system. This part is really interesting. You might be surprised by the american pedagogy and you might feel a little lost at the beginning. Keep in mind that it is a new culture and forget how we would do in France. Play the game and you will enjoy teaching the american way!

You are about to live an awesome experience. You will learn a lot from this school. You will learn about teaching, about children, and about teaching a language. Moreover, all these interactions with interns, teachers and children will make of this year an awesome experience.

I hope these words let you even more exited to take off and become an intern. Trust me, being an intern in Normandale is an experience that you won’t forget.

              Enjoy!

Camille

       We use to do a morning meeting in my classroom even if this meeting changes over the year. At the beginning of the year we used to sing, to say "Bonjour" to everybody and check the meteo, the calendar, the number of school days... This meeting was long. It was nice and useful but became boring and the children weren't attentive anymore so we change it. Now, we sing, play one or two games to say "hello" to everybody and when we have time, we all answer at the same question in cercle (e.g : "What is you favorite food?" "What is your favorite colour?", "During my holidays I ..."), sometimes this answer helps to creat a graph. I try to make this routine a little bit activer and different every day. Morning meeting is a time to share, to be together, and to prepare eachone for the day (we clarify the scedule and particular event).
       Morning meetings are very important in a class I think. Firstly, It is a good start of the day : I try to make it active and full of energy. Secondly, meeting together every morning contributes in creating a group mind and the feeling to belong to the class. Everyone has the oportunity to express himself, to play, to share... It creates a routine together. Children need a time like that, to start the day. It is a really important time for the class and a really good time to learn while having fun. but, to work, this meeting has to be diversified from a day to the other. Doing the same thing, in the same order is good at the biginning of the year when children needs point of reference but with the time, it creates a lack of attention. Morning meeting has to live!

I don’t really have a particularly challenging student in my class but most few students more challenging than the others, each one on his own way. So it’s hard for me to choose one because they are so much different and anyone less interesting than an other.

I won’t speak about behavior but more about learning disorder. There is a little girl in my classe (she is 7 years old)who can’t learn like the others. Since the beginning I saw that there was something  « wrong » with her. She had a very hard time to learn and even the most simple thing in reading and writing could become a very big deal for her. I know that first grade is like a start and there are some children with problems who haven’t been detected yet, above all if they just went to school half day in kindergarten. And since september, I saw this little girl struggling with reading and writing. I have sometimes the impression that she doesn’t see the letters or these letters don’t mean anything for her. She can’t write a sound even if I pronounce it very slowly like « A-M-I » or « L-E ». She can’t. She has a hard time when I take the half  of the class to work on these spelling words for exemple. She sees the others writing without even thinking because they use to write these words (there are always the same, so it's become easy for them). Even so, she isn’t able to do it. I see her looking around, lost, trying to find the answer, to find some help… She isn’t stupid at all, she just seems lost. Strangely lost...

Few week ago, I tried something with her and… that worked! When I do the dictation for the others, I repeat each word just for her, in front of her, with the sign in phonetic. With the sign, she is able the recognize the word and to write it. Moreover, she is becoming more self-confident. I try to help her as much as can and always take the time to explain something to her, using a different way (like the phonetic). I think she might have a learning disorder like dislexia or something like that. I'm just trying to make her feel "normal" and show her that she can do it too.

I think she does need an other support. She already goes to see a specialist at school but I think she really needs to have a real diagnostic, and a specific help.

I did my lesson template after the lesson itself so it wasn't a help to prepare this one in particular but it was interesting to do it. I realized that I ask to myself all these questions when I prepare a lesson. This plan template can help you to ask you the good questions and to stucture your lesson. It guides you and makes you think more about your lesson. You really have to know what you will do, how and why. It focus attention on some really important points like the goal, the time, or the adaptation for the struggling students... It can be very useful for the first lessons to help you to do a good and effective lesson, but I think it becomes an automatic reflex.

In first grade, we have a lesson of 30 minutes to prepare each week about the theme of the week. We do this lesson four times, in each class of first grade. It's a really good exercice because you can analyse and improve it each day. Usually, my lesson on tursday (the last one) is better because of that...

       Last week it was about the five senses. I decided to do my lesson about the sign language. I know few French song in sign language. We tought to first graders the song "La famille tortue" at the beginning of the year so I tought that teach them in sign language could be great. It really easier when we know already the song. My lesson was divided in two part. The first one was a little lesson about the sign language (Why? Who? How?). For that, I made a power point with the drawing of two little boys, two friends. after, one the seconde page, I put a big cross on the mouth of one little boy. I asked to two students to come in front of the others and I put my hand on the mouth of one. then I aked the other to speak with him. It was very interesting because at the beginning the child tried to speak. Later he tried to find an other way to express himself. He used his hands and his face expression. After that, I put an other picture. The same one, exept that I put a cross one the ear of the other one. This time two, I asked to two students to come and I put my hand on the ears of one. I asked them to communicate. At the biginning, the other one tried a "How are you?". I answered "But, he can't hear you". So, the reaction was to speak louder (this reaction was the same in each class). So, "HOW ARE YOU?". And after that, he understood by himself that he had to find a different way. He used her hands. Doing this king of experience was a way for me to make them understand, by themself, who need the sign language and why. After that I put on the blackboard the alphabet in sign language. Their tried to sign their name. And I teached them how to say "hello".
      The second part of this lesson was the song. They all did a really good job and known the song really quickly. First we sang it with the voice and signs but later, we just signed it in the silence. They loved that. I was happy to see that it was working. They even applauded themself in sign language (move hands up without noise). And, if I had some time more until the end of the lesson, I made a game, in the silence. They couldn't speak and I aksed to eachone few questions (Hi. How are you? What is you favorite colours?). They had to answed me without speaking. It was very interesting to see that they all played the game. I was impressed by their imagination. Now, when I need to focus their attention and keep them quiet (on the hallway before going to the lunchroom or just before bus time) I do that with them and it is really nice.

      I didn't already had a "chaotic lesson" and I'm crossing my finguers. By chaotic lesson, I mean a lesson which don't keep at all their attention and when you go in the hallwway at the end saying "ouf". So, you have to wait few others lessons to hear about this story. I didn't already have my chaotic lesson but I have one lesson that I changed completly the monday evening because some things didn't work very well. It was about the feelings that week. I decided to do a "bingo" with students. the problem was that I decided to use boards already done that I found in my classroom even if I didn't think this game was perfect. As some picture wasn't really coherent with the feeling, I didn't asked to have all the board  to winbut just one line of the board. I didn't really like it but make 27 different boards was a lot of work and I wanted to learn to use the material at my disposal. But, after my first lesson and with the advices of my teacher, I realized that it would be better to make a really good board to repeat and learn all the vocabulary. Then, I made a new game for the day after. I made a new board (just one kind) and I copy it for each students of each class. They all had their board, with nine feelings and the drawing. First I asked them to color their game. After what we start to play. It was really nice because their were playing with their own game and there was a lot of suspens. They were very quiet, listenning and very exited to win. When I said the last feeling, they all screamed "BINGO" at the same time and were very happy.

Changing everything in one evening was a lot of work but my 3 others classes were really better than the first one.

 Solène answered "There" with a  big smile at my question "Where do you want to seat for the interview". She was showing me the corner of the library ; this carpet with a lot of colored seats where children can read. We ran to be the first group to get there and it was the beginning of a really interesting and fun interview. "So?!" she said with her usual smile, seated next to me on the carpet. I learned many things about her that day : Solène has three sisters, she only can say "Hola, qué tal, me llamo Solène. Quiero hablar con mi hermana." in Spanish and she loves the blue even if she didn't have even one blue clothe that day. "I can love the blue without wearing blue things!!!". I agreed. We laughed. Solene didn't know what she will do when she comes back to France but she loves this intern teacher experience. It isn't her first travel in USA. She actually studied in Champlin 4 years ago and "what [she] prefers in the American culture are the pancakes, cupcakes and also...  cupcakes!".

    Solène is a very enthusiastic and active person. She loves travelling. "I just love discovering a new country, meeting new people, living someting new". She has already travelled in many european countries, in India, in USA... This year she plans to visit her sister in Mexico. Where does she want to live later? "I don't know... [she stopped few seconds]... maybe in India, I falled in love of this country."

    Solène is a very nice and funny person. I realised that I had to spend more time with her. She  laughted during the all interview, she even made fun of my brother's name but I still like her!

               What I want to learn to do this year

      What I would like to learn to do this year can be sumed up in one word : "teach". I have already learned a lot and I know it's just the beginning. There is a lot of things about teaching that I have to learn. How to do an interesting and good lesson? How to maintain students' attention during my lesson? How to keep autority while being nice ? How control students’ attitude without becoming a police officer ?

                What I learned about the American educational system and immersion schools

      Being an intern in Normandale is a great experience and I am very lucky to have the oportunity to be here for one year. I used to help a 5th grade teacher in France during my free time. So it isn't exactly my first teaching experience (but the first real one) ! I was very surprised by the gap between the two educational systems. First of all, I have the impression that children here take a bigger, more active part in their education than in France. American teachers listen more to students. Pupils are considered more responsible for what happens in the classroom. It is not a bad thing, but I think sometimes it is necessary to establish more rules because children are not always able to understand rules by themselves. A mix between French and American educational system would be great.

Secondly, I was very surprised at the beginning of the year to see the implication of parents at school. It was very strange for me to see parents in the classroom - helping the teacher, teaching games to children, etc. We are not used to see this implication in France. Moreover, there is more communication between teachers and parents. In France, there is a kind of partition between home and school. Here, parents and teachers work together towards an educational goal.

      It is the first time that I see an immersion school and it is really interesting. Moreover, as a first grade intern, I’m discovering the beginning of an immersion program. The majority of children in my classroom always speaks English in front of teachers who always speak French. They were in kindergarden, so it's not really new for them, but it is still difficult sometimes. In first grade, I realize that an immersion school is challenging. The children are great. It must be really stressful and difficult for them sometimes to do everything in French without understand all we are saying. I see the difference when my teacher speaks to them in English to explain rules. Their are calmer and more attentive. I saw an evolution in their French since the beginning of the year and I know that it will still evolve a lot.

               What I learned about myself

     About myself, I learned that I love teaching and working in a primary school. I was a little scared before coming here and this experience was a test. Positive result! I love working in this class : preparing classes each week, spending time with the children, discovering this job from every angle. I also discovered that I could be really patient and that I loved to adapt the lesson to each child’s needs. Lasty, I’ve confirmed what I sort of already knew - that I am a big child and I love this children’s world.

Professional blog... professional blog... The concept is funny but why not. I like the idea to make me think about this teaching experience in Normandale. I I'm just a little scared to write a blog in English but why not. Here we are.