Danijela Takač

Teaching assignment u Francuskoj školi College Combe de Savoie, Albertville 

During my teaching assignment in the French school I have organized stargazing activity for students 12:00 to 14 years old and it was in the evening around 600 hours. During this activity I taught French students about the constellations we can see on the night sky during the night. We observed Orion, circumpolar constellations and used telescope to look at the Moon. The students were given a worksheet made by me to draw what they see on the Moon and I explained to them the craters, seas and oceans that we can see on the Moon. I explained the line between light and dark side and how craters are made.

Apart from three hours of stargazing I taught gravitational force and energy to students of 5E, 5C and 5A class. We connected the physics class with astronomy, so energy and friction force were explained by the fall of meteors through Earth's atmosphere. I thought them how to calculate energy and gravitational force.

I also thought 4A and 4C classes on forces and we also did a fun experiment with craters and meteors to see how gravitational energy is dependent on the height of the falling object.

Apart from teaching I also observed five classes it it was mathematics, physics, special needs and I also saw different methodologies and activities the teachers use in French schools. My mentors were kind enough to involve different cultural activities and clear classes.

The French school I thought in is a school that has move to Maths, physics, chemistry, art, and some other subjects in English language. They are a CLIL school, and they have integrated English everywhere which has proven to be very useful for French students and many immigrants that don't speak French.

I have learned so much during my teacher silent teaching assignment. I have learned how to adapt to students that don't speak well English and how to adapt my worksheets to different kinds of levels of students I learned about the French educational system about their different grading of students and different methodologies they use. I specially loved how they use self-centered learning with students that are 11 years old. They teach them to take responsibility for their own learning by explaining to them the new concepts and then giving them a specially made worksheet that they should follow step by step and on this worksheet they can find different kinds of questions to help them understand different kind of tasks videos that explain to them the physical concepts once again and guide them to the important knowledge they should take out from the video. It is amazing to see that 90% of the students in this class know how to learn by themselves with the teacher only as a support if they don't understand something they used these papers quietly and learn really a lot. I also witnessed different kinds of hands-on activities that they use in special needs class. I loved to move my own boundaries and take a step out of my comfort zone and teach physics in a totally new school with different language and different methodologies and concepts. I think teaching assignment is an amazing thing for each teacher and each student because they have taught me so much and changed my point of view, but I think that I also explain to them some things in a different way than their teacher would it was a very satisfying and helpful experience for my future career.

The whole experience was very interesting, and I saw that some students have an excellent knowledge of English language and scientific concepts thanks to CLIL classes. We found out debt to this school which is lower secondary (11- to 15-year-old students) students come from two primary schools. The first primary school is Vie Scolaire Ecole Pasteur and is in an undeveloped part of the city so the kids coming from that school have a very weak knowledge of English language. Students that came from the other school which is totally opposite because it is in a very elite part of the city. The teachers find it very hard to level out the knowledge of English language from these two types of students. School gives students an opportunity to choose which subjects will they listen in English language or CLIL. They can choose between Maths, physics, chemistry, art, history, geography.

On the CLIL classes English language is used 80% of the time and all the directions and worksheets are more than 80% in English language. If there is a need the teacher can explain something in French language to the students that don't understand some part of the directions. Usually, it is the students with a very weak pre-knowledge of English language but that have shown desire and motivation to go to CLIL classes.

The school has special classes for students with special needs or learning difficulties in two different programs:

SEGPA- This program is for students with learning difficulties that are minor or students that have behavioral problems.

ULIS-this program is for students with a lot of different difficulties that sometimes include physical or mental deficiencies.

I visited both programs and classes they we're having, and it is amazing how much individual work is included with working with such students.

Students with the minor behavioral problems if they continue to disrupt the class or learning process are sent right away to detention the tension can be 1 to 4 hours a week but if the student has continuous difficulties in behavior, they can be transferred to special classes.

This school is incredibly environmental aware, and students recycle and reuse everything they bring their food to school wrapped in a long-term use wrappers and avoid plastic bags. On our free time the teachers that were our mentors took us to a restaurant nearby school that has a very high sustainability principle in making food and equipping the restaurant. The restaurant is next to a big bio supermarket where food (fruits and vegetables) that doesn't look nice or is about to expire is sold or given to the restaurant early in the morning and on that day the chef prepares it and serves it for lunch so the restaurant doesn't have a menu but the chef has to decide each morning what is goanna be served for lunch. It is an amazing concept that saves a lot of discarded food. The lunch menu is very tasty because the chefs are really good. The restaurant is also equipped and designed with only secondhand tables and chairs.

I had the opportunity to try Nordic skiing for the first time. The students from underprivileged families have never had an opportunity to ski even though Albertville is a skiing city and is located near hundreds of ski resorts skiing is a very Expensive sport. The school organizes ski school for such students, so I had the opportunity to join them and try it out.

Every day of the week one class of 11-year-old students goes skiing from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on the ski resort Las Saisses. The students are divided into groups of advanced skiers and total amateurs where I was also. There were ski instructors that taught us for two hours the basics of skiing. It was an unforgettable experience of falling and rising again.

Some interesting facts about the school and educational system.

- Cell phones are strictly forbidden in school, and nobody tries to use them

- Physics is tightly connected to chemistry and always taught by the same teacher

- students often work by themselves in class. For example, the most stunning thing for me was that the students were given a worksheet with different problems and mathematical tasks that they had to solve. The correction sheet with answers is in the back of the class and after they solve it they can go and see if they solved it correctly by checking the correction sheet and then come back and try to do it again if the answer is incorrect. The most amazing part was that nobody tried to copy the solutions, but they all tried to get to the correct solution by themselves.

- students are graded from 0 to 20 for example in this class only one student has 20 while the average mark of the class is 9

- no one can fail a class they can only pass it with zero grade

- students have national exams in French, science, history, Maths and earth science in June

- In January and April they have test exams these exams are made by teachers while the June exams are given to the schools by the ministry. Testing exams are written in two days to see the level of the student knowledge and prepare for the national exams

- if the student doesn't pass in June he can retake the exam in September and if he fails again he has to repeat the year

- the school starts it at 8:00 AM and finishes at 5:00 PM except for Wednesday when it finishes at 1:00 PM, since the students and teachers spend so many hours in school day have holidays every four to five weeks for a week or two.