First day: for realzies

So after a few tangles with bureaucracy, several school visits, and a two stages, today was my honest-to-goodness first day teaching at school #2.

I will take a brief moment to describe the way primary school works.
First, they have maternelle, which is like pre-school through kindergarten.  I won't have any kids this young.
Next is CP, which is like first grade.  I won't have any of these kids either, although I think some of them do start English at this age.
CE1 = second grade. 
CE2 = third grade
CM1= fourth grade
CM2 = fifth grade

I'll have CE1 - CM2, so second grade through fifth grade.

The first class I taught, CE1, hadn't gotten to meet me yet, and they asked me questions for the entire lesson.  The teacher told me to cut them off next time, and I will, but today I was glad for it because I quickly realized that the activity I had planned was way too hard for them.  I'll be ready next time.  I enjoy questions and answers, although I have a hard time understanding little children in French, partially because the questions they ask are kind of non sequiturs.  They begged and pleaded and said they wanted English names - no problem.  Lesson for Friday = planned.  One girl told me I talked funny, but she said it with a cute smile. 

My next class was CE2/CM1 mixed together, but at the same level of English.  I have several little fans in this class.  This is a really cute age group, they always want to hug you and hold your hand and faire la bise with you.  One girl wrote "I love Megane" on her paper (that's actually a lot closer to the correct spelling than most Americans get on the first try), then told me she loved me.  I gave them high fives on the way out.

My last class of the day was CM2, and they aced the activity I had planned, so I'll know to make them something harder if we're doing oral work.  The teacher said if I wanted to do something written; however, the level I had was about right.  A little girl cried during the "tell me your name" exercise, because she was frustrated.  Overwhelmed by a foreign language?  Yeah, I definitely feel her pain.  Except the over-21 set gets to drown their stress.  Anyway, I think I impressed this bunch by telling them I spoke Japanese, and writing Japanese on the board. 

I tried to speak to my CM2s in English only, slowly and clearly.  Nope.  Oh well, at least I tried the immersion method, for about a minute, to a chorus of "mais on ne comprend pas" and "en français, s'il vous plaît!"  I had kind of wanted to use the immersion method, because I learned that way, but I guess they don't do that in elementary schools here.  It's a great way for me to improve my French, anyway.  The kids correct my French sometimes, which is probably insulting on some kind of respect level, but actually I don't mind as long as they do it nicely.

I get a day off tomorrow, which is awesome, because I go to school #1 on Thursday and will use the same lessons as I used today, tweaked slightly for difficulty level.  Then I'll need something else for school #2 on Friday.  In general, I'll have to plan somewhere between 2-4 lessons a week, depending on if I need to vary it for level (if it's cultural and done only in French everybody can do the same thing).  I just hope I can keep it all straight!