Lesson Plans in Deauville

Hi, it's Rachael here for my final blog post for my time here in Deauville. It is bizarre to think I have less than two months left living and teaching in France. It is finally warm in Normandy, and flower boxes are once more filled with May flowers after quite a bit of April showers.

A view from the top floor of the Maison des Americans which we lovingly refer to as "The Tower"

The end of the year brings with it several celebrations. The animator team is organizing a family celebration to be held on France's Mother's day, where we will sing some songs and play a couple of games to honor the students and their families.

The students at Deauville and Saint Arnoult are also preparing to sing songs in English at the end of the year spectacle. There will be lots and lots of practice and repetition of songs in class before the big show.

With the end of the year, comes the end of our English lessons. We are given a curriculum guideline at the beginning of the year to follow, and this last period we have includes a lot of review. Since we have less material for the end of the year, we will be starting to conduct some story based lessons where classes will work with one story over the course of many lessons to review English and build their confidence from having completed an entire story in English.

The role of TAs in Deauville will be changing next year, but I thought I'd go ahead and give some of my favorite lesson plan ideas that could potentially be incorporated into next year's teaching.

1. I love using the whiteboard to tell stories. I usually take a story they recognize—like Goldielocks—and then change details along the way, such as the bears to penguins and the porridge to ice cream. The kids love it, because it's entertaining and its a great way to review vocabulary and keep everyone in English.

2. The "question hat" has become a part of our routines for the CE2 classes and up. It is literally just a hat with some lamented questions in it that students draw from and answer. Now they also pose their question to another student of their choosing. It's a quick and easy way to get everyone speaking in class. The students beg me before class to let them choose a question when I pull out the hat.

3. I love ending each class with a song. We usually work on one song over several weeks, and usually only learn the chorus. I only do this the last couple minutes of class, but the repetition over the weeks is typically enough for them to learn it. We start out just listening to the song, and then I have them sing it line by line repeating after me, and eventually we just sing with the song. My goal is that somewhere down the line years from now, one of my students will visit an English--speaking country and impress everyone by singing along with "Ring of Fire" and thank me for bringing some Cash into their lives.

4. Total Physical Response (TPR) is one of the most successful strategies I have used as a teacher. From preschool to high school, it is difficult to sit in those desks for so many hours and TPR lets students get up and move and make a kinesthetic connection to the vocabulary. If it is possible to use TPR with the vocabulary, we do it. To start, I call out the vocabulary term and act it out and the students repeat. Eventually, I just call out the term and they repeat it and act it out to show they recognize it, and finally, I let them quiz each other. Sometimes we also have competitions to see who knows the most.

Ultimately with lesson plans and activities you need to know your classes and students. Some activities work really well with one group of kids and totally flop with another. As teachers, we need to be prepared to be flexible and adjust instruction to fit the students' learning needs. My best advice is to differentiate your teaching, it may seem like more effort, but your students will be more engaged and learn so much more, which benefits them and you in the end.

Happy Planning!

Springtime in Deauville

So we've finally left the cold, gray winter time of Deauville, and now have the beautiful, sunny and colorful springtime upon us. In the spring, there is a lot going on. Firstly, it starts to warm up and everyone starts going outside, as well as the markets become more frequent, and more festivals ar taking place in town. Just recently, we had Easter, along with Poisson d'avril and carnavale at Fracasse. All of this took place right before our 2 week Easter vacation, so needless to say everyone was very excited for the first official weeks of spring.

Needless to say, we're all out and about traveling with family and friends, but even in Deauville there are several events and festivals, such as the book festival happening this weekend. As we enter our third and last trimester, things begin to pick up as the end of the year approaches. Along with regular studies, some children are even taking a 3 day field trip to Gouville sur Mer to learn about the wind (in which I will be accompanying).

Although there's a lot going on with events and such, lessons are going smooth and we begin the final subjects to teach, and also begin reviewing some of the topics we've done throughout the year, as well as prepare for any items and tests that need to be done. It may seem intense, but it really is very calm and easygoing. A lot of classes at this point involve a lot of oral activities along with interactive games and activities where the students can really begin to utilize the language in a fun and engaging way.

So, here's to spring and the uplift and joy it brings us all!

TA Freetime Activities

Whether its actually teaching courses, APEs or preparing lessons, as a TA in Deauville, a lot of our time is taken up by school. When we do get some free time, there are some activities to choose from in town, like Zumba class, choir, volleyball, walking on the beach, etc. However, I think the best opportunity we have here in our free time, would be the four two-week breaks spread throughout the school year.

Over these breaks, I have tried to maximize my time here by traveling. Since most weekends I spend in Deauville, with the exception of day trips in Normandy and time in Paris, I make sure to travel a greater distance for the two-week breaks. Traveling from Deauville usually means taking a train to Paris and from there connecting to other modes of transportation to continue the journey. The following are the trips I have taken so far.

October
Our first break I spent traveling in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Galway. Despite having only been out of the USA for a couple months, it was still strange to walk around and hear people speaking English. I used pretty much the entire two weeks to travel around the United Kingdom and Ireland, trying to take day trips into the countryside when possible. When I got back, it was difficult returning to school, since I had not taken much time to actually relax. I recommend in the future making sure you have a couple of days in Deauville to rest before starting up at school again.

Connemara Day Trip from Galway, Ireland.

Cliffs of Moher in Ireland

December
The second break of the school year was around Christmas, and instead of going home to Kentucky, I decided to travel to Munich, Vienna, Prague and Budapest. I decided that, for me, it was more important to travel as much as I could while here, than to spend the money on a flight home. This was a great time of year to travel to Germany, Austria the Czech Republic and Hungary. In each of the cities they had Christmas Markets set up, so despite not being home for Christmas, I felt like I was still getting to celebrate it. I was in Vienna for Christmas, and chose to spring for a nice hotel, instead of my usual hostel, since I would be alone for the Holidays. I definitely felt homesick, but it was actually a lovely way to spend Christmas if I couldn't be at home. I came in and out of the hotel the whole day, alternating between art museums, palaces, cathedrals and FaceTiming my family at our various Christmas events. It was hard traveling through the Holidays, but I met a lot of great people along the way, and the adventures I had were well worth missing one Kentucky Christmas.

Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany

February
The February break marked the halfway point of our time here in France. We were all fortunate to have loved ones visiting us over this break. My older sister met me in Paris, where we stayed for a couple of days before heading to Italy. We went to Rome, Florence and Venice, before coming back to stay in Deauville so I could show her around Normandy. It was a lot of fun to be able to show someone from home my little world over here, and to have her try all the French foods I love. It was hard to say goodbye, but not too bad, since we had turned the corner on our time here.

Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy

Le Mont Saint Michel

In a month, we will have our final two-week vacation. After that we have a couple of long weekends, and then it will be summer and we will head back to America. For my last hurrah traveling around Europe, I will be going to Spain, Morocco and Portugal. I have not planned the long weekends yet, but I am thinking I will explore more of France.

Even though most of my time here revolves around school, I am so grateful to have those long vacations to explore Europe. Taking the time, energy and funds to do so can be overwhelming, but I have not regretted one trip. When I leave for the summer I can go satisfied with my time here and its balance of work and adventure. My advice to future TAs is to seek those adventures when you can, because we have been given the unique opportunity that allows us to do so.

Salut Fevrier!

Salut tout le monde!

It is finally February here in Deauville and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies! Currently we are all on vacation during our winter break, with each of us going to various parts of France and Europe to explore. Since last month, all has been going well, following our lesson plans, getting into the groove of things with our classes and after school activities.

One thing I wanted to discuss is what a TA might do outside of classes and other various TA duties. To be honest, there isn't nearly as much free time as one might think there is in your typical week: between lesson planning, teaching, APE (after school activities) and the planning you do for that, and other duties such as English Circle or TOEFL help, there's certainly plenty to do. However, there are certain things you can do outside of work. Two things I do are sing in the Trouville Choir and also I'm active in the contra dance (a type of folk dance) community in Paris.

In my undergrad I studied both French and also Vocal Performance, and so when I got here I asked if there was a local choir I could join- choirs are a great way to make new friends and also practice your language with some specialized and not so specialized vocabulary. The Trouville Choir is directed by Laura Rabia and they sing in multiple languages (especially in French and Latin), but the choir is open to many types of singers. We meet 2 times a week normally, and on occasion we'll also have outside of rehearsal get togethers to celebrate the new year or something. We also host several concerts throughout the year in various towns.

As for the contra dance activities that I do, that is something I've done for several years in the states and I've continued here in France. It's not as popular here as in the US, but folk dance in general is a very thriving community and another great way to meet new people and make new friends. Here in France I've helped instruct some dances and lead a workshop.

In my normal day to day downtime, I often do a lot of reading and watching of netflix (gotta love the netflix), or sometimes I'll just go out and walk about town or on the beach. Also, if you like to read, invest in an E-reader, but we also have a very interesting collection of regular English books and novels that have been left here over the years in case you don't have an E-reader.

Well, that's about all for now, until next time!

Extracurricular Activities for a Deauville TA

Coucou from Deauville! It's Rachael again, and this month I will be letting you all in on the extracurricular activities that we participate in as TAs!

Being a TA in Deauville means not only, teaching English classes, but also dedicating some of your time to other responsibilities requested by the city. These responsibilities are as follows:

Midi
Midi responsibilities occur during the lunch and recess time for the students at Fracasse. The school divides the children into two groups (older and younger) for separate lunch and recesses. During lunch, TAs eat with the students and manage their zone in the cafeteria. This means ensuring that students are eating and generally behaving themselves.

For the recess portion of Midi, TAs monitor recess in the courtyard with other animateurs, playing with the kids and ensuring their safety.

APEs
APEs are the after school activities that TAs contribute to four days a week. They are an hour long and meant to be enrichment activities for the students. Each trimester has a theme to which the APEs can correspond, for example the current theme is Italy. Deauville TAs are responsible for planning and teaching these APEs either independently or paired with another TA.

The abstract Mona Lisa my CE2 APE created for our DaVinci activity. 

Guarderie
In the morning, guarderie consists of signing the students in and monitoring them as they work on a quiet activity, such as reading or coloring until the school day starts.

In the evenings, Deauville TAs stay after the APEs depending on their schedule, and help students with their homework. Often this means giving practice spelling tests, or listening to them recite poems.

English Circle
The Deauville English Circle is an opportunity for employees of the city to practice their English on a bi-weekly basis. TAs facilitate the English circle by preparing conversation topics or games to play with the group to practice their English skills.

TOEFL Tutoring
For two months out of the year, Deauville TAs host TOEFL tutoring workshops for high school students in Deauville and the surrounding area, preparing to take the TOEFL exam in order to study at an American university, many are working towards gaining a scholarship to study at the University of Kentucky.

During the workshop TAs may answer questions regarding the test, listen to students practice speaking, and encourage students to work with the study materials provided. TAs are used as a language reference for the students while the work to practice and understand the TOEFL test.

English Tutorials
Deauville TAs also have the opportunity to give English tutorials approved by the city. The frequency and nature of these is determined with the TA and the family. They can range from babysitting in English or focusing on English conversation with a student. TAs are paid by the family for these tutorials and not through the city.

Extracurricular activities make up a huge portion of our contribution to the city of Deauville and as American representatives.

I hope this information was helpful in giving a better picture of what we are doing this year in Deauville! À la prochaine!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Hello from Deauville! It's starting get colder, lights and decorations are all around, and it's almost the end to the first trimester of school! At this point in the year, we've been working hard to get things finished before the next vacances, between lesson planning, APE, and the Christmas spectacles, it's enough to make your head spin.

Lesson Planning 
So one thing that I've grown a lot with is working on developing and creating my lesson plans, along with some research into ESL resources and learning activities. After first receiving some materials and resources from Ivan, along with the first month or so of already made lesson plans, by the third month or so the lesson planning is up to you, and while you are given several topics and items (basically proficiency tests/quizzes) the routines, methods, and specific vocabulary are left up to you.

Now, for me personally, I was teaching CLIS (the special needs class) along with CP, CE1, and a single section of CE2 at Fracasse. However, now Im going to be teaching all of CE1 and CE2 along with CLIS at Fracasse.

I will tell you, as long as you have a good game plan and you don't lose focus of what you want to have learned, you'll be fine. The fun part is figuring out what ways of teaching clicks with the students while they learn. One example is with my CE1s and CE2s, they love a good competition between their classmates, and it really motivates them to want to learn the material.

Another key in forming your lesson plans is to use all four major aspects of language learning: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Though, to be honest in grade school we focus much more on auditory and oral skills than with reading and writing (they are only 2nd and 3rd graders, after all!).

However, just like with all things, practice and getting to know your students will make it get a lot easier over time. I know that even though I've learned a lot, I'm sure I will continue to be enlightened by my students as the year progresses.

One other thing to mention: along with lesson planning for your English classes, you will also be in charge of 'lesson planning' for your APE after school activities. Don't worry, it's not nearly as involved as one might be for your English lessons, but it is something to keep in mind.

Christmas in Deauville!
Here in Deauville, the city loves to get into the spirit of the season, and they definitely went all out in celebration. For Christmas, one of the big spectacles they did was with the children from APE. The children came out to the city center with the mayor and sang 'White Christmas' (in French of course) at the illumination of the city. Since then, the town has been glowing every night.

Even so, this week at the maternelle (preschool), St. Arnoult, and Fracasse, there will be several Christmas spectacles along with the APE spectacle this Friday. The APE spectacle consists of a series of songs, videos, and other performances by the kids on the last day of school before the vacation. It's a very exciting time that definitely keeps us busy.

Final thoughts...
In writing this, I just want to leave you with some final thoughts:

If you think you'd be concerned about the lesson plans, don't be. Ivan gives a great tutorial during the two week preparatory session after arrival, along with doing observations later in the year to give us constructive feedback on our lessons and also in working with our students.

Also, Christmas is an absolutely wonderful time of year here, and the kids absolutely love learning Christmas songs and doing all the fun corny Christmas traditions with you.

Happy holidays and joyeux fêtes de Deauville!

A Day in the Life of a Deauville TA

Another month, another post...

Salut de Deauville! It's Rachael again, here to reveal what a typical day looks like for me here in France.

We are officially back in school after a two-week long break at the end of October. On the breaks, we are off from school and city duties, so I used this time and traveled all over the U.K. and Ireland with another one of the TAs, Mary.

The first month of teaching is behind us, and I think it is safe to say we have all learned a lot about teaching, time-management and French. Luckily, Ivan provided us with sample lesson plans for the first month and curriculum guides for the year. We also have a weekly English meeting where we can ask any questions we may have regarding student behavior, lessons, etc.

All lessons should start and end with routines—something the class does everyday. In between those routines we do different activities, games and exercises to reinforce the material we want them to learn. Ivan asks that all our classes be conducted entirely in English, which can be frustrating when students resist or struggle, but ultimately comprehensible input in the target language (English made to where the learner can understand the gist) is the best way for them to learn. Perseverance is key on this point.

Additionally, I like to plan my lessons as far in advance as I can, so that I can make sure my copies are ready well before the day I teach that activity. Some weeks that is easier than others, but I have found, especially with my placement, that being over-prepared is always better. Always.

Myself and my sidekick, Pineapple smiling for the camera. Pineapple is the puppet that fearlessly helped me introduce English to my preschoolers.

A Typical Day in the French Life of Rachael—pronounced Rah-Shell here:

My placement in Deauville, is actually at the two schools just outside of the city: St. Arnoult and Tourgeville. I teach all levels at each school, from preschool through fifth grade. My schedule changes from day to day, but consistently has me traveling (by car) between all three schools most days in the week. Below is a description of my Monday schedule.

I leave the warmth and comfort of our little brick house at 8:20, because if I leave ten minutes later, there won't be any parking at St. Arnoult, plus I like to have plenty of time to settle in before I bring the Moyanne Section of preschoolers to my classroom for a half hour class at 9:00 a.m. After singing and walking across the schoolyard to take the Moyanne Section back, I come back to my room to knock on the adjoining door and welcome the Grand Section preschoolers to another half hour class at 9:30 a.m. We dance and chant and count, before I return them to class and bring in the CP section at 10:00 a.m. for, yes, a thirty minute class.

Class schedules alternate depending on the level that I see. Moyanne Section through CP are for thirty minutes and CE1 through CM2 are forty-five minutes—don't worry you will understand the different levels when you get here.

The school I teach at in St. Arnoult is also attached to the Mairie. Here is a picture from the front of the school and town-hall.

I wave goodbye to St. Arnoult at 10:30 a.m. most mornings and head over to Fracasse for our weekly English meeting with Ivan. At 12 p.m. starts midi (lunch and recess) at Fracasse. I stay there to eat and monitor the first lunch service with the littlest kids until 1 p.m. , next, I leave to teach afternoon classes at Tourgeville.

At Tourgeville, I set up my classroom so that I am ready to welcome my combined Moyanne and Grand Section preschool class for thirty minutes. Next, I see a combined class of CP and CE1 for a forty-five minute class. Finally, I see the CE2 students for forty-five minutes as well. Are you tired yet? I find that packing a quick snack of cookies helps at this point.

After I wrap up at Tourgeville, I drive back to Fracasse to pick up the students I take roll for and take them outside for their snack before the after-school activities (APE) begin. The APEs last for one hour. They are enrichment activities for students and are separated by age group. On Mondays, I teach puppet-making with the CM age group.

After APEs, I stay for guarderie, or homework help, until 6 p.m. Since I have so many classes, I only stay for homework help on Monday and Friday nights.

As you can see, Mondays are fairly hectic for me. Later on in the week, I have more breaks some days, and less time on others. Wednesdays, we only teach in the morning and have afternoons off, assuming we do not have a meeting.

My days as a Deauville TA are full, and since I work at three schools, they have me running around a lot. However, keeping busy has made me feel like I have a place here in France. I cannot remember a time here I felt bored.

Pineapple and I dressed up for the Halloween festivities we threw for Tourgeville, St, Arnoult and the maternelle, Brenay. Notice Pinapple's mustache. Is it not dashing?

The first couple of months are already behind us, and I have learned oodles about my role in Deauville. I am sure by the time June arrives, I will have much more sage advice to offer, but for now, I leave you with this:

1. Plan, plan, plan: Don't wait until the last minute. Be ready for your classes so that you can maximize your free time during the week.

2. Be flexible: prepare yourself to think on your feet and to change plans when necessary. What do you do when you arrive to class and find you left your flashcards at home? Answer: You start body parts vocabulary early, since you always bring your arms, legs and head to class.

3. Stop to catch your breath: Sometimes when I am driving from one school to another, stressed about time or a lesson, I will glance out the window, and it hits me: I am living and working in France. The job can be tough, but the rewards are immense; stop and notice them.

Whew. I got stressed just looking at that Monday run-down. You get into the routine fairly fast, and it doesn't seem so crazy. It does keep me on my toes though.

Until January!