Teaching Information

Contract Info and Starting
Technically your contract will start on October 1st. However, I didn’t have my first week of classes to myself until the week before the Toussaint Vacation. It took them about 2 weeks to make our schedules. For the English assistants, they told us that we would have either Monday or Friday off every week to make for better traveling. When they’re making your schedule, feel free to put in your preference, they will take it into account. I got lucky with my schedule, I start at noon on Mondays, and am finished at 9am on Thursdays. My Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are busy. The other English assistant has Mondays off, has extremely light Tuesdays and Wednesdays (1 or 2 classes each), and has busy Thursdays and Fridays.

Our contract is for 12 hours each week. One of those hours is “Debating Society” in which you will work together with the other English assistant to think of ideas for the students to debate. The only students debating are “Euro” level students, which are the cream of the crop. It’s quite simple, you simply say “smoking ban in public places, for or against?” Then give them 10 minutes to form ideas, then sit back and watch. It’s quite enjoyable actually. The rest of the time, you will have the classes in half-sections of usually around 10 students. I have some sections as small as 6, and as large as 15. For 9 of these 11 classes, I am alone with the students doing my own activities. Depending on the professor, you will be doing whatever you want, or something the professor requests. For one of my classes, I am working with the professor in the class. For another class, I only see 2 students each week and give them an oral practice-baccalaureate exam.


Different levels and programs
Lycée is 3 grades in France – Seconde(2), Première(1), and Terminal(T) (10th, 11th, 12th grades). All secondes are essentially equal. They don’t have any particular specialty until their Première year. In addition, the school has 2 “parts” – The “General” part, and the “Technical” part.

General Programs-

• L – “Literaire” These students focus on more literature, languages, and writing. They don’t focus on math or science too much. These students speak English very well and tend to be fun.

• S – “Sciences” Obviously, these students are the opposite of the Literaire students. Their English also tends to be very good and are fun in class.

• ES – “Economic-Social” These students study economics and sociology primarily. Languages are important to them, and they tend to be hard-working as well.

Technical Programs-

• STG – “Sciences et Technologies de Gestion” These are what I called the “Business Majors.” Their English isn’t as strong as the General programs, but it isn’t too bad. This tends to be the most energetic bunch of students, and they can be a lot of fun to work with. However, lots of energy can also mean rowdy. So, it fits fairly well that my favorite and least favorite classes are both STG.

• ST2S – “Sciences et Technologies de Santé et Social” These students either want to be Nurses or Social Workers. This program has the lowest emphasis on English compared to all of the other programs. Therefore, their English is the worst. But, despite their poor English, they are hard working students. They all tend to be girls... out of 55 students in 2 classes, there are a total of 3 guys.

Other Programs

• BTS – These students already have their Bac. The BTS programs are post-grad programs in areas like Executive Assistants, Assistant Directors, and the school’s specialty – Optometry. The students in these classes have varied work ethics. Some are motivated and hard working, while others are not. They tend to be around the same age as the assistants. The only class that you’d typically work with is the Executive Assistant program.

• Euro – These students, as noted before in the section about Debating Society, are the best of the English students. They can have any of the "General Progrqm" specialties, but they are grouped together for Euro-level English classes starting during Seconde. In addition to more advanced English, they also must take another subject taught in English such as History or Biology (the ones offered by our school).

LV1? LV2? LV3? LVA? WTF?

• LV1 stands for “Langue Vivante 1” which means the student’s primary foreign language.
  
• LV2 is the student’s secondary foreign language.
  
• LV3 is the third foreign language.

Only English and German are options for LV1. Very few students have German as their LV1. All of my students are LV1 level. Euro students all have English as their LV1. Spanish, German, and English are available as LV2. Italian is available as LV3. Only L and ES students have the option of taking LV3. LVA is an option in English for non-euro L and ES students. It is an additional class in English where they go further in depth with the language. This year, they studied the novel Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster.

Here was my schedule:

Mondays -

• 12-13: T-L (Alternate A/B)
• 13-14: T-STG (See every week)
  
• 14-15: T-STG (Alternate A/B)
• 15-16: T-LVA (Practice Bac exams)
• 16-17: BTS (A-weeks only)

Tuesdays -

• 9-10: T-STG (See every week)
• 11-12: Debating Society
• 15-16: T-S (Alternate A/B)

Wednesdays -

• 8-9: T-ST2S (See every week)
• 9-10: T-ST2S (See every week)
• 10-11: T-ST2S (A-weeks only)
• 11-12: T-ST2S (A-weeks only)

Thursdays -

• 8-9: 2nd (Alternate A/B)
  

Notes: The classes are 55 minutes long. There are ‘A’ and ‘B’ weeks. In about half my classes, I see each section every week. In the other half (the ones with Alternate A/B), I see the students once every other week. This schedule is convenient, but Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings are very tiring. It’s better to have your classes spread out a bit.


In March, there is a week where all of the Terminals have a practice-Bac (Bac Blanc) week in which their classes don’t meet. If you have mostly Terminals like I did, you won’t have many classes that week!