How not to lose English

vive les vacances!!!!

Chantal
I always wanted to be a teacher but I never thought that being a teacher is not that easy. Now I know that. So often do I feel that maybe I should try to do something different in my life. For the time being, however, I'm not going to change my job. The economic reasons are quite important here. With so huge unemployment rate in Poland (among the teachers too), I am very lucky to have a job. As for teaching itself, it gives me a lot of satisfaction - I can't deny it. I feel that my pupils really like my lessons and I can observe that they are making progress and that's the point I think.
I hope that those who don't feel like learning or at least cooperating with me and the rest of the class, will understand their fault when they grow up and let's hope that will not be too late for them. Although working with such "challenging" pupils is really hard I try to justify their ignorant attitude towards the teachers and learning - they are often not looked after by their families properly so how should they know that what they are doing is bad? And that's what I don't like about the job - the fact that I just can't pay all my attention to teaching itself (that's what I've always wanted to do) but I have to "fight" with some of my pupils during the lessons.

between 8 and 10 and already learning a foreign language . that is young.

Students have 3 months holidays more or less, you start at the end of June and return at the end of september or even in october. Is it not the same in the rest of the contries?

ats
Where are you from ? From your posts I thought you were Dutch. I think the Dutch learn foreign languages earlier than the French do. However, in Italy children begin a second language from the age of 6.

Yes Miguel , the same in France for the students of universities. But the schools (primary, secondary,...) take up at the beginning of September. For instance, for the next school year the teachers take up on September the first 2003 and the pupils on September the second.

Monika
Some things are really satisfying, because you can solve them quickly and that's hugely gratifying. When a lesson goes really well, it's just the most wonderful thing. What I like about teaching is working with people and the hilarity of things that can happen, because human beings are what they are...And also the sense that you are contributing to somebody's life.

>>And that's what I don't like about the job - the fact that I just can't pay all my attention to teaching itself (that's what I've always wanted to do) but I have to "fight" with some of my pupils during the lessons.<<

I feel the same as you do. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing the police job istead of the teacher. I find that quite distressing to stop your lessons, to discipline some of the pupils, to put one or two out of the class or send them to another class. I find sometimes balancing that quite hard. But, as I was told by the seniors we can't escape this part of the job. And you know what ? I quit a job I was paying twice more in order to teach, because I love teaching. I said to myself : are you masochist spending your weekend preparing your weekdays lessons ?

Correction :
sometimes I say to myself : are you ........

Chantal,
Haven't you noticed that the problems with discipline occur
especially during the English lessons ? My colleagues who teach Maths or Science haven't got so noisy lessons. I think that's because they say that English is to be thaught through play, songs, comic stories, different communicative activieties and in an unstressful atmosphere (and I agree of course, but...). Therefore, the children have it in their minds that the English lesson has to be loose by definition. Don't you think?

Yes more and less true. But sometimes the head teachers warned me before beginning my lessons that today they were awful and noisy in all the subjects.
I taught in two schools only in the morning and in another one only in the afternoon. Children in the morning classes were better behaved than in the afternoon classes. Maybe because they had more energy in the morning after a night sleep and they were tired in the afternoon after having lunch and playing in the yard. The school day is very long in France : from 8:30 to 16:30 and some kids even stay at school until 18:00.

Monika
So you teach private too ? That may help to make some extra money ?

All students in every nation should start learning foreign languages in kindergarten or earlier. Children absorb languages faster than adolescents or adults and tend to be better able to "think in the foreign language".

In Northern California, school hours for most high schools is from around 7:40 to around 15:00, 1/2 to 1 hour shorter than the French school day. No students, except those playing sports or participating in club activities, stay in school after 15:00. No regular classes in school after 15:00, though some schools have Chinese classes and Adult Education courses at night on Friday and Saturday- none of these are organized by the school. Most after-school activities are held off-campus: i.e. piano lesson in piano teacher's house, math tutoring at tutoring center, test preparation at test prep center, swimming lesson at YMCA pool, etc.

Guofei Ma
your statement is absolutely true. Was this your personal case ? Did you learn English (if you're not a native) in kindergarten ?

Hello, Xerxes.
I was born in Hong Kong, where I lived for nine years, and went to a British school there. Both English and Mandarin Chinese are my mother tongues, since I began speaking the two languages at roughly the same time (around age 1) and in everyday speech, I could express my thoughts equally well in the two languages, though I dare say I am much more fluent in English. Over the years (I am currently 14 years old) I learnt Cantonese and Shanghainese when I was little and I have been studying French for four years, though I would have preferred learning the language when I was in primary school- unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to do so.