Journée d'entraînement

So today was the training day for the anglophones of L'academie de Caen. Pretty much a pointless day now to be completely honest, as we have all been observing and teaching in our schools for two weeks! A lot of the things they say were common sense, and most of us were already doing most of them.

Best thing about today: meeting other assistants in the area! This is Oliver, on the bus which managed to fit about 80 other language assistants on it. Packed? Yes. Ingenious human Tetris? Yes.

The day itself was spent either together, or with our different schools: collège, lycée, lycée professional. Felt really bad after I had introduced myself (I was the first in my "school"!), as I said about how I worked in the centre of Caen, I had a great apartment, great school where I taught really small groups of bilingual kids and how I have an absolutely amazing group of friends both French and English...then another person said about how they had no permanent accommodation, the school was awful, the only other people in the tiny village were either old or families and how her responsable didn't help at all. Really wished I had toned down how good I've got it, but I just thought everyone would be having as good a time as me!

What our "teacher" told us was of course very helpful information, but really not relevant to me...as it was all about getting the pupils to start talking in English and having the confidence to do so. However, my pupils already speak English to a high level, and I can never have too much of a problem with discipline as the classes are so small. But it was really nice to have it all clarified, and the people running it were so lovely...I swear we were thanked about ten times and welcomed at least five times. It's almost like we're doing them a favour! We even got free food at lunch...starter, main, salad, dessert, cider - not to be sniffed at!

All in all, an interesting day...although the best bits were definitely meeting new people. Was great to have some come with us for a coffee afterwards as well at Les Touristes (ironic?) and get to know them all a little better. Hopefully will be seeing a lot more of some of them on some nights out and the like! Went out for a drink with Becky after everyone else had gone home...was so nice to spend some time getting to know each other a little better - as we always have large groups of people so never get to know everyone as well as I would like. We then finished up meeting up with Thomas for a drink before getting the tram home. Busy (and early starting) day tomorrow...hope I will cope!

Words I have learnt today:-
- Remplir - to complete
- S'accrocher - to cling
- Langue ? Langage
- Empêcher - to prevent
- Sentir - to feel
- Gérer - to manage
- Bordel - damn
- Elu - elected
- Gestion - management
- Affectation - assignment
- Rémunération - compensation
- Principal adjoint - Assistant head
- Pêche artisanale - artisanal fishing (don't ask!)
- Honte - shame
- Tache - task
- Ludique - playful