In which I get orientated (or Hannah forgets her ribs)

Alright guys, I promised you an entry about my actual work while I'm over here, so here it is, and in much better time than the last one I might add!

Let me begin by saying that the administration over here is amazingly unorganized, and communication between different departments is almost non-existent, despite the fact that assistants have been coming here on this program for several years... To top it off, parts of their system are being overhauled, so many new people are now in charge of fairly important functions. For instance, the contact name and email I was given right at the beginning when I received my contract was Sylvie Blanc, who I emailed and never received a response from. About a month later, however, I got an email from Marie-Claude Lévy, who I had never heard of before, asking if I had received the information she sent about housing in Nevers. No, I have not, and excuse me, but who are you again?, I replied. I have actually now met both of these people, but at the time it was very confusing, and it turns out that my main contact is actually a woman named Françoise Mourlon.

Françoise is the conseillère pédagogique for the circonscription Sud Nivernais II, which means she inspects and advises primary school teachers in Nevers and some of the surrounding area. I went to meet her the first day I arrived here, and it appears I got lucky. She is very sweet and helpful, and on the Tuesday following our first orientation (10/4), she took me and Hannah (who is also assigned to Sud Nivernais II) around to our schools to meet the directeurs (principals, basically) and a few of the teachers. She also told us her husband is a farmer, and they live on a farm where we have been invited to come and have dinner, and also spend Christmas day if we aren't able to make it home. Like I said, she's very sweet.

I actually only saw my two schools in Fourchambault — École Chevillettes (I'm not sure what chevillette means, but I want to say it's 'little ankle', which in my mind I always turn into 'ankle biters') and École Vieux Moulin ('Old Windmill') — because it so happens that my other school, École André Cloix, is literally right across the street from the foyer. In fact, I can see the parking lot and playground from my window. Anyway, that was Tuesday, and we spent the rest of the day in Hannah's room watching YouTube videos (Eddie Izzard talking about learning French, anyone? Hilarious.)

On the day before, 10/3, we had our first orientation, or 'stage', where we met all of the other assistants in La Nièvre, the region of Bourgogne where Nevers is located. In years past the orientation has taken place in Dijon with all of the assistants in Burgundy, but, like I said, there have been several changes going on this year, so our orientation was at Collège Victor Hugo, a middle school in Nevers. It's kind of too bad in a way, I would've liked an excuse to go to Dijon with accommodation and food paid for, but oh well. Not everyone was at the orientation, but there were 8 English assistants (4 American, 3 English, and 1 Canadian), 3 German assistants (2 German, 1 Swiss), and 1 Spanish assistant (Mexican). It was nice to meet the others who aren't at the foyer (although since then one of the German assistants has moved here), and we all got along quite well. We spent the morning going through administrative procedures and signing up for social security and health insurance, because as an employee of the French government, I am entitled to the health coverage that all teachers receive. The afternoon was spent talking a bit about the organization of the French education system, and methods for teaching a foreign language. The pedagogy bit was geared more toward those who will be teaching in the lycées (high school equivalent), because they knew the primary school assistants had another orientation coming up in a few days that would cover what we needed to know. However, we played a few language games as examples, and generally chatted and offered up ideas and such. It was fairly laid back, in all.

My second stage, on the following Thursday (10/6), was even more laid back. This time, there were only six of us, five English assistants and one German assistant, who will be in primary schools in the region. It was a good example of the poor communication between different divisions, because they didn't know until the day before that we had already had one orientation where we already signed up for our health insurance and talked about the education system. Thus, we had a lot more free time than they had originally planned. But, the morning was taken up in a much more specific talk about pedagogy in primary school, given by Sylvie Blanc, the mysterious no-reply from the summer. Turns out, she is the conseillère pédagogique for Château-Chinon, a different circonscription in La Nièvre. We talked about what our duties in the classroom will be, and it appears we really will be much like a teaching assistant, helping with small groups and games, etc. Our primary function is, of course, to help with pronunciation since we are native speakers and therefore know how to say everything correctly. We will also be presenting our culture a bit, and the region we're from. Any suggestions on what to say about the Northwest?

Anyway, the afternoon was supposed to be devoted to signing us up for health insurance and talking about the education system, which we, of course, had already done, so instead we filled out a tiny bit of paperwork and sat around talking. To explain the alternate title of this post, one of the things we needed for the paperwork was two copies of the RIB (Relevé d'identité bancaire, a piece of paper with our bank information on it), so that the académie can pay us our salaries on time. Hannah forgot hers, so the entire time she was cursing the fact that she forgot to bring her ribs. I don't know. It was pretty funny at the time. Actually, it's still funny to me...

So the afternoon was pretty chill, but we had to stay there because at 5 all the directors came to meet us and work out between themselves where we should go on what day. However, one of my directors was unable to be there, so that is why my schedule is still not set in stone. Basically, though, I will be working three days a week; Mondays in Nevers, and Tuesdays and Thursdays in Fourchambault, but I don't yet know my hours. So I will have lots of free time! I'm hoping to join a choir here, and find some other activities to do as well. A large group of us are planning to go take some dance classes starting in November, and I may find some other thing too. Perhaps some random sport.

Well, I think that about does it for now regarding my work; I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell once I've actually been to the schools and helped out in the classes. For now, I'll sign off, and give you a picture:

Several of the assistantes d'Anglais in La Nièvre:
Me, Katy, Liz, Maria, Sophia, and Hannah