A Crash Course in French Pedagogy?

Orientation was today, from 9am until 4pm or so. It was exhausting. The morning portion of the lecture was presented in English, which was poor preparation for the rapid-fire French which followed lunch.

Let me backtrack. The morning session somehow managed to both clarify the expectations, and make everything seem very, very uncertain. Essentially, we learned a lot about the educational hierarchy in France. For example, I have a conscription to the IEN (Inspecteur de l'Education Nationale) of Aubervilliers 1. That means that the random office I showed up to is their headquarters, which is more or less like a District Office that happens to not be near any of the schools. I report directly to the teachers with whom I work, the directors (principals, I guess) of my schools, and then to the national Inspecteurs as well. Ugh, talk about a food chain. We also spent a fair amount of time discussing paperwork that we owe to the government and such, which was very helpful if slightly nervewracking.

We then went over to a nearby high school for lunch in the cafeteria. The lunch was by no means better than lunch in a cafeteria in the US (some things are truly the same everywhere). On the other hand, my lunch was on all glass plates and there were distinct courses. Also, when you arrive at your table, you discover that there is a pitcher of water and a bottle of wine waiting for you. That's almost enough to compensate for an educational system that leaves much to be desired!

Post-lunch we were split up into departements (think counties, I guess) and by age range. I was with all of the elementary school assistants for Seine-Saint-Denis. What they tried to tell us tactfully was basically that we're in the ghetto. They did, however, hasten to add that there is a lot of sensationalism in the media -- in fact, the analogy the directrice used was "It's like Fox News giving updates." Ha! We shall see, I guess. On the plus side, we found out today that over the next three weeks we have four more orientation sessions and a week of observation before they set us loose. That's a relief, seeing as I've, oh, NEVER TAUGHT BEFORE!

Most interesting in a less technical way today was the description of French pedagogical methodology. The things that stuck out to me were:
1. In France, students have typically been taught that that the best grade is unattainable because it is perfection. Well, so much for grade inflation I guess!
2. The emphasis is very much upon communication, but students are afraid to respond because the fear they will lose points. So much for class participation. Evidently teachers are known for silencing their students at all costs. Sooo... awesome. Not.
3. Everything should be task oriented -- don't do things just for fun or because they're interesting, everything needs to have a very direct tie-in to real life and things the kids can apply it to. I guess this one makes sense, but still, I'm not sure I really know how to tie EVERYTHING back into real life with a six-year-old. They aren't living real life yet!

Also, some of the previous assistants commented that their first impressions were of how strict teachers are here compared to ours at home. Gulp. Especially since I'm in a sort of tough area, the teachers don't take any crap at all. They also are required to stay in the classroom to monitor the situation. As the directors explained, as an assistant, I'm only there to teach. The teachers are there to manage student behaviour and everything. I guess that's a good thing, but the teachers will frequently yell at the kids for talking in class, not realizing that the activities that we have them doing necessitate talking (uh, we're teaching a foreign language, guys).

I'm looking forward to getting up close and personal with the French educational system, but I am certain that it is going to be very difficult for someone like me to accept a lot of aspects of it. This will be when I finally learn to shut up, I guess ;) At any rate, the thing I got out of today's proceedings that struck me the most is the sort of nonchalance with which the French approach heavily bureaucratic endeavors like this. So I guess I'm going to sit back and take it à la française, for now.