Ups and downs

Thursday always seems to be the worst day of the week here. Comparatively so, I have six hours of work on Thursday, so it is my busiest day.*

This morning though, I awoke happy and ready to attack the day. My three morning classes were my three best classes yet: my students were eager to participate and use English, my lessons seemed to work perfectly (being both entertaining and educational), and my teachers were very clear with instructions for next week's classes. I had a nice lunch at home and even got to bask in the sun for an hour, as I had a small bit of time without classes. Maybe this Thursday would not be so bad, and I had finally gotten a hang of this assisting thing.

Once returning to the school in the afternoon, everything had changed. For the worse. Before even reaching my first class, ran into another teacher who I work with, asking me why I hadn't been there the previous hour. I said that I am with her every other week and, not believing me, I showed her my timetable. Upon seeing it, she just shrugged and said "humph."

With that omen, I knew the afternoon would be a bit rough. All of the students were not interesting in my lessons at all. In one of the classes, I could not get them to stop talking, to the point where I was yelling over them. It is so discouraging here to see the difference in the interest level of the students, though I know that this difference also exists in America - I just never have experienced it before. I feel there is a lot less discipline in classrooms in general here too, having experienced students talking over not only me when I teach but their normal teachers as well. I literally had students running through the hallway screaming to come meet me at my classroom, leaving other teachers to open up their doors and say something, but no detentions or other type of punishments given out. And, oh yeah, you probably guessed it: walked in to two wrong classrooms again because they keep changing what rooms they are in without telling me.

Will just have to get used to these things I guess, though I hope the bad behavior starts to improve. Another interesting tidbit, looks that there might be a strike here next week... la grêve finalement! I knew it would happen at least one time while I was here, the French LOVE to strike. The teachers are up in arms about not getting paid for a day of work that they already performed (at least that is what I understand about the situation....) so many are striking next Thursday. I heard them loudly organizing in the salle de profs the past few days and a large petition with many signatures is now proudly posted in the common room. Amy's teachers have already all told her to not show up next Thursday, and with Monday already off for Remembrance day, she works a grand total of 3 hours next week.** Oh well, c'est la vie!

Tonight, I am trying to relax into my long weekend by watching a French movie I rented from the bibliothèque, called l'Auberge Espagnole. I have heard many great reviews of this movie, with many friends saying it is hilarious - hoping to have a light-hearted film after this Thursday craziness! Tomorrow brings a relaxing day, with a trip to Avignon to get our phone situation sorted... and maybe some shopping at IKEA and H&M too. Ahhh... le week-end....
 
*Again, as I have said in past posts, I am very sorry to all Americans reading this and smacking their heads as I complain about my lousy 12 hours a week work schedule. I am truly apologetic, and I feel bad about your 40 hour work week.
**And when I say that our hours may be cut from next week, our monthly pay does not get affected by strikes. So there you have it, less hours for same pay!