La vie en France

       So where to start?! I arrived in Denbigh for the second time in optimistic fashion, after a fun- filled yet informative five day training course two weeks previous. After another day’s training with the ever- enthusiastic Michael, my fellow Frenchies were ready to hit the south of France!

       After having arrived in Nice, despite being a regular visitor to this part of the world, I could not help feeling an element of shock. After initially believing that Monday was scheduled as a settling- in day, Gemma and Chris soon announced upon arrival that we would be going into school on the Monday! And alas… we could even be teaching on our first day! K

       So after a broken sleep in my bunk bed, (largely thanks to Ben for unmentioned reasons) I headed for the bus station at the late hour of 7am. Admittedly, I did not anticipate being so nervous until some of my fellow Leonardos, namely Brenda, left the bus together, leaving me alone to meet Chris at the College de l’Esterel bus stop! For a short time my nerves were reduced by the calming presence of Chris, but nevertheless ten minutes later I found myself speaking French to the school’s Principal. Presumably, he was explaining the ‘emploi du temps’ for the day, but it would be a lie to say that I understood very much.

       There were moments at this stage where I had a reality check. Thoughts such as ‘Oh mon Dieu’ and ‘What the hell am I doing here’ were most certainly at the forefront of my mind! However, hindsight is a marvellous thing, and on this occasion I can look back and take a number of positives from the first morning with regard to life experience.

      

       It was also on this day that I met my mentor, and now friend, Valerie. She’s a delightful woman, full of energy and enthusiasm about teaching English. She was also the first person in the school to have spoken to me in English outside of the classroom, so she most definitely helped to ease the headache! Sadly, as I write, it has been a week since I saw her due to a serious car crash which left her hospitalised. Hopefully, I’ll see her again before I leave, unless that will be one of my deepest regrets.

       Moving on, Thursday arrived and I was itching to get started with the teaching. I arrived to school that morning anticipating another day of observing. The observing was interesting initially, but there are only so many times you can watch teachers repeating lessons, although it was interesting to see how the same lesson can receive so many different responses from different groups of students. As so often happens in life, a shock lay ahead of me on the gorgeous Thursday morning. Valerie announced that Chris had contacted the school the previous evening and told Mssr Cassubie that I would be being observed that very day. “Merde”, I thought. Although I wanted to teach, I was not ready to be observed on my first day! After the initial frustration, I dusted myself down, and with the help of Valerie created a lesson about the school system in England. I soon found out that I would be teaching the most infamously badly behaved class in the school! Anyway, to cut a long story short, the lesson went reasonably well, and despite Valerie appearing more nervous than me, the class appeared to enjoy the lesson.

       From this moment on, I could classify myself as part of the staff of the College de l’Esterel. I was now a teacher of English. Eeeeek! It only seemed five minutes ago that I was sleeping in until at least ten every day at uni! Now I was getting up at 6am every morning to essentially throw myself to the lions! But dya know what? I loved every minute of the teaching. The whole experience can only be described as one of the best of my life. However, the month did not pass without a number of comedy moments…

       One of the most notable was when a class was misbehaving wildly, and after all of my classroom management techniques had failed, I decided to start writing names on the board. A small, innocent girl spoke when I was talking and I used her as an example to the rest of the class. However, I wrote her name on the board incorrectly, which led to laughter from the class, prompting me to shout, “JE M’EN FOUS” to the class. For those of you who don’t know French very well, this roughly translates to ‘I don’t give a ****’ in English. To say this statement quietened the room is an understatement!  There were a number of other incidents worth noting, but that can be for another time.

       There are many other things I could write on this blog, but I will post another one in the near future. However, there are a number of special mentions I would like to make for people who have helped to make this experience so memorable. Firstly, Michael. He may be a Newcastle fan, and he may have annoyed me on the last night when trying to come into my room at 1am, but he most definitely enriched the project for every single person in France. From the interview in Manchester, to the last observation, one could sense his genuine passion for teaching English, and his innovative style was contagious. I can only hope that one day I will be as respected as he clearly is in the profession! Secondly, I would like to thank Celine and Catherine for giving me the opportunity to participate on the Leonardo project. I believe that they deserve credit for allowing young, inexperienced teachers the opportunity to utilise their skills, and fight for the youth of Britain to find jobs in teaching English! UKLC is most definitely a company that I would recommend to anyone in the field of TEFL. I have worked for a number of companies in my life, but never have I felt such a team ethic!

       I would also like to thank Gemma and Chris (although I’m not sure they’ll read this) for their hard work in France! They were always there if anyone needed help, and credit to them for the way they organised the project with the schools! Finally, I would like to thank my fellow Leonardos. I did not get to know you all as well as I would have liked (mainly because I only talked about myself LOL), but certain people I will make an effort to keep in touch with!

Merci, Aurevoir

Mark x

Sun, song, school, sea, sky... savouring St. Raph!!

FIRST WEEK (6^th – 12^th May)

On returning to Howell’s School in Denbigh on 5^th May everybody received an extra day’s worth of training by UKLC to top up our already impressive 4 day training received at the beginning of April by Michael Hudson, Jacque Johnstone and Carol Borne.  Our departure on Sunday afternoon, for our flight from Manchester to Nice, was a little delicate for some nursing hangovers after another getting to know you session once more in the delightful town of Denbigh on Saturday night.

We were greeted by Gemma and Christophe of ‘Autour des Langues’, at Nice airport who travelled back with us on the bus to Saint-Raphael and showed us to our apartment block.  Once checked into our rooms we were all issued with an information pack detailing all the information about the area, our school, the ages we would be teaching, transport plus a couple of trips they were laying on during our month’s stay to Nice and St. Tropez! Nice!

I shared my apartment with Grace – a lovely lady, with a colourful personality and fantastic teacher!  Thanks Grace for putting up with me. J Hopefully the sweet eggy bread made up for it!! J

I was very impressed with the all the information I received on arrival - it seemed very organised and clearly both Gemma and Christophe had put a lot of effort into seeing that all our needs were met and more than!

I was going to be teaching kindergarten or maternelle as it’s called in France, at Stanislas Ecole Primaire (Primary School), covering Petite section (3 – 4 year olds), Moyenne section (4 – 5 year olds) and Grande section (5 – 6 year olds).  I was a little bit hesitant of teaching kindergarten especially as my choice of words when asked about teaching in primary was “I’m not sure, I can’t sing!!”

All the maternelle teachers were lovely, kind and very helpful towards me and despite the language barrier they were trying in their best broken English and I was trying in sometimes my even worse broken French to converse.  Needless to say my French improved dramatically during my four weeks at the school! The good hospitality aside, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed after spending my first day with kindergarten, they were so very young, and I found that being in maternelle wasn’t quite my idea of ‘teaching’.  I felt like I was being more of a babysitter than a teacher of English.

However, at the end of the first week Michael observed my first day teaching which ended up turning into more of a demonstration!  This was very beneficial and extremely useful to me as it gave me a better understanding of teaching kindergarten.  I hadn’t quite grasped how much repetition was required for very young learners and how quick and necessary it is to change the activity in order to keep them engaged.   Though it may seem boring to sing the ‘Hello’ song every day and count from 1 to 3 using about 10 different activities, it most certainly isn’t boring for the children.

On our first Saturday in the South of France Gemma and Chris had arranged a trip to Nice.  Everybody went off to see and do their own thing.  A few of us found a beautiful and inexpensive real French restaurant in a back alley of the old town, where we all enjoyed some rather scrumptious French cuisine! After a wander around, Katherine, Sally and I decided to go for a walk to the park at the top of the hill which offered awesome views over the city of Nice.

SECOND WEEK (13^th – 19^th May)

I yo-yoed through my second week with my new found knowledge of ‘repetition’ and through trial and error tried various different activities to keep to the same topic, reinforcing repetition.  I also tried to establish some form of routine.  The variety of activities showed that it worked for some age groups and not for others.

I was advised during my training in North Wales, that a child’s concentration is their age plus 2 minutes however, I was lucky if it was 2 minutes at all!  I worked out from observing the children that some activities may work one day and not another depending on their mood and energy levels which fluctuated from day to day! 

I learnt that although there is only one year’s age difference between each class there is actually a much greater difference in regards to their behaviour.  This meant that some of the activities I could do with my Petite section (who were a bit calmer), such as ‘run to ……….’ was not a very safe activity for the Moyenne section (who were a lot more energetic!).

Routine is also important for very young learners; hence I always started with the same song/topic.  For example with my Petite section we always sang the ‘Hello, What’s your name?’ song at the beginning of every lesson, which I initiated through the same arm gestures every time to lead into it. This way the children knew what was coming.

In addition classroom management was a big challenge, especially as during Michael’s observation in the first week I had two very naughty and disruptive children.  I thought back to some advice that was provided by one of the trainers, Jacque Johnstone, during the training in Howell’s and decided I had to instil some discipline, especially having observed the main kindergarten teachers who were very strict with the children.

I had to put something in place so the children wouldn’t think that it was acceptable to misbehave when I was teaching.  So I introduced ‘the naughty chair’ (labelled with a sad face L) and through gestures and body language imitated that if they were good (thumbs up) I was happy and if they were bad (thumbs down) they would sit in the naughty chair! It worked! J

During this second week I asked lots of the other’s in the Leonardo group what they were doing with their age groups and for any ideas.  I believe everybody was happy to share and help if they could which I am judging from a few of us sat in reception at quarter to midnight singing ‘Wind the Bobbin up’ with actions! (This one’s thanks to Lisa!)

Also thanks to Richard Gunion (UKLC) and Hywel Care (Leonardo Spanish group) for providing some helpful suggestions during this week.

On the Friday of the second week, I had an extremely good day with all three sections of maternelle.  I think it was because I had found and selected all the activities that engaged them previously and to which they had responded well to.  Having said this I also had a massive spurt of energy this day, which also made a huge difference!

NB: Energy is necessary in high doses to deal with kindergarten no matter what the size of the group!

The whole group went out during the second week also to celebrate the birthdays of both Mary and Ben to a restaurant called Mogador opposite St. Raphael port.  It was a beautiful evening and an entertainer walked around the restaurant playing some Latino music for the customers.  However, I think he got a much bigger audience than he expected after a few of us got carried away with the mood and got up to dance in the street!

On the Saturday of the second week Grace, Katherine, Lisa, Jocelyn and I went to Cannes (yes the film festival was also on at the same time!) and walked along the beach and had a good old nose at the fabulous boats parked in the port.  What a different world!  Katherine and Grace spotted a couple of actors though I can say that if I hadn’t of been in their company I probably would have walked blindly through Cannes!  It was very interesting to see the goings on:  so many people – so much attention – a lot of decoration – famous people isn’t an area of overwhelming interest to me – but I do love the boats!! J

THIRD WEEK (20^th – 26^th May)

Following on from the first week, where I learnt about repetition being crucial to kindergarten in order to absorb this new language, I did also learn, during the third week, that there is such a thing as too much repetition (!!) and a change of topic was required.  I wasn’t aware of this until the Friday of my third week, which I would say was my best day so far!!! And I do think that it was purely down to changing the topic for all three of my maternelle classes, as the children were receiving new information and vocabulary.  If only I’d realised before!

When I first started with the kindergarten, it didn’t feel like I was teaching but just being used as an entertainer, which is quite an exhausting activity when you are teaching a group of 3 year olds for 15 – 20 minutes and then changing and repeating the same for the next group for 15 – 20 minutes and so on and so on.  Especially as a one of the main characteristics I found of being a successful teacher of English to very young learners is a lively and energetic personality – you have to show them that it is fun!

However at the end of the third week, and through a ‘felicitations’ from the Petite section teacher, I realised I was actually successfully teaching them English! The children were adorable and I think that they had got used to me plus I had reached success in disciplining them through the ‘naughty chair’. 

Whilst teaching kindergarten I also found that I couldn’t actually plan, more that I needed a list containing enough activities to ensure that I was equipped the very moment they lost interest, which was very quickly.  It was quite challenging to keep the children’s attention and to keep them focused.

The Saturday of the third week brought our second organised trip by Gemma and Chris to St. Tropez.  I had imagined it to be artificial in many respects, but I couldn’t have been so wrong.  St.  Tropez was sublime, a very beautiful town and again an extremely relaxed atmosphere.  I meandered around the huge market in the centre of St. Tropez before catching up with some others and taking a walk up to the citadel that had gorgeous views out to sea.  We did however on craving a refreshing drink, relax in a shaded bar in the centre of St. Tropez and becoming lost in the little paradise that it is completely forgot where we were and recoiled at the sight of the ‘l‘addition’ when presented to us! Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed my 10 euro bottle of corona!

FOURTH WEEK (27^th May – 2^nd June)

When I found out that I was going to be teaching kindergarten I did feel a little bit suspicious, coming from Wales (is that the reason I was placed into kindergarten?), as I’ve never had to sing so much in my life!

The final week, but for a third week in four, it’s a three day week, as all primary schools are closed on Wednesdays anyway and there are three bank holidays in May!! The French certainly know how to relax and enjoy themselves. They make the most out of their bank holidays and even find an excuse to take an extra ‘bridge’ day if they can!

For the fourth week, I carried on being as energetic as I could for the kids, although I could feel the early mornings taking its toll. Revising the topics learnt in the previous weeks and introducing new topics to keep them all engaged, plus testing out other activities I’d found, not always with success!

Katherine and I during the first week had asked Gemma and Christophe if it was possible for them to provide/obtain extra classes for us to teach. For me it was a case of teaching an age group other than kindergarten where I could try out some of the training I’d received in North Wales. Gemma and Chris had been successful in advertising free English lessons for children so I taught my first class on the Wednesday morning of the third week and the second class on the Wednesday of the fourth week, at ‘Autour des Langues’. I am extremely grateful to Gemma and Chris for organising this opportunity especially at such short notice. Although it was only for two lessons I gained from them greatly and was extremely pleased when my second lesson went so well!

Saturday was departure day and we caught the bus to Nice airport. It was so sad to leave St. Raphael - the adventure was over. I honestly didn’t want to leave. It’s a beautiful place and flying back into Manchester airport approaching thick grey cloud, catching the first train towards the Welsh border and a second train through the valleys of Wales which stopped at every possible stop invented in the entire Welsh country (!) just prolonged the agonising realisation that for 2012 the Frenchies Leonardo project was over.

AND SO…

Reflecting back on this opportunity to teach has made me feel very grateful.  It has opened my eyes to teaching kindergarten, which would have been a true shock had I not had this experience, plus it provided me with the opportunity to live in the South of France, which was amazing.  I’d like to thank UKLC for obtaining the funding for this fantastic project as well as the invaluable training they provided and also to Gemma and Christophe for making it possible to happen in the South of France.

I find myself very lucky to have been chosen for a placement on the Leonardo project.  Not only for seeing the South of France, which is far more beautiful and tranquil than I ever imagined but also the opportunity to make good friends, whose brains I’d be happy to pick should the need ever occur in my TEFL career.  There were some lovely and amazing people on this project who truly are great teachers and it would have been great to have observed them also - but you can’t have it all!  I know some people may be reading this thinking ‘Oh Jo’ (Lucy!) But it’s true!! J

I will miss all the singing!  I’ve never sung so much in my life! We’d walk along the road and sing together, whether it was songs that we’d sing with the children such as the invented ones, e.g. by Katherine to the Hokey Cokey tune: “Du du du du du du du ... Whoow Grandma! Whoow Grandpa! Whoow Grandma! ...” or just any random song that happened to pop into our heads: “Bring me sunshine on a cloudy day, bring me moonlight…” (That one’s for you Grace!)

It was an outstanding experience: everyone interacting with each other, talking, laughing, joking, singing kindergarten songs in reception at 11:30pm!  Brain picking and sharing each other’s experiences at different schools on both the good and the bad days!!  Having certain people like Lucy and Ellie entertain you on the bus journey into school (sitting up the back of the bus – like the cool kids!) haha! Not to mention the return journey from school, with the likes of Katherine providing unknown entertainment with her faux pas of ‘parler le main’ in the classroom!

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing this experience (the ups and the downs!) with everybody who went to Saint-Raphael on the Leonardo project.  There were some very supportive people, energetic people and people keen to think of and share their ideas!!

I will miss everybody on the project! Some beautiful people and lots of fantastic teachers whom I am sure are as grateful as me for such a fortunate experience! I loved every minute of it - even the bad bits! – it just makes you a better teacher/person! J

Bonne Chance to everyone for the future and ‘enchante!’ xx

Vanessa's Blog

So it’s the official countdown to the end of the Leonardo Project in St.Raphael and it has been one of my BEST experiences ever!!! To try and explain to you just how enriching this month has been, would be impossible however, I will sum up for you just how fascinating, inspiring and unforgettable this past month has been!!! When we first got told that night that literally the next day we would be teaching, I did almost have a mini cry to myself out of fear! But. I remembered just how much preparation we had prior to coming to Nice from Michael and all the other fantastic teachers at Denbigh, and also the reassuring faces of Gemma and Christophe and for a moment my fear subsided and was replaced with anticipation and excitement to meet all these new faces at my school and who I would be seeing for the next month….!! Institute Stanislas is a Private Catholic school almost in the middle of nowhere, in St.Raphael. Absolutely lovely school, the kids were polite and the teachers were accommodating and friendly. I managed to embarrass myself slightly when the headmaster welcomed me in French by saying “Bienvenue” (which means “welcome”) I ridiculously replied “bienvenue” that was followed by a strange look by the headmaster who probably couldn’t figure out why I had welcomed him to his own school…good start?! However it did get much better from there, I was introduced to Cathy (she was the teacher of Years 8,10,11,12 and 13) who helped settle me into the school and introduced me to all the students I was teaching. The first week was more of an observational week, where Cathy wanted me to basically assist her with the class, get to know the students, let them get used to me, observe the way she teaches and follow suit from then, which was fine, although I was keen to just get stuck in! I did notice though, how heavily they relied on text books and workbooks and initially I was thinking OH NO! how am I going to do the desert Island game if all they ever do is gap fill exercises about “Michelle who’s lost her dog!” (that actually was one of the topics!) But, now that I look back at it, I am really glad that everything I expected that I was going to do with the students didn’t actually work out that way because it really put me to the test to show what I had learnt and the tips I had picked up from the pre training and then adapt them to the workbooks. It made me dig deeper into the exercises that were presented in the text book and really think of ways to make them better. The younger students were very keen to play games such as the verb table, when they were learning about the present continuous and the older students were just as happy to participate in games such as the Desert Island game when learning about debates, which just goes to show how versatile these activities are and not only are they fun and interesting but they also get the students talking English, which is a major accomplishment!! I have two more days left of teaching and I feel like I could do this forever! Its been exciting, rewarding, challenging at times but even when it has been a little bit tough, such as shy students who don’t want to speak during a speaking activity! Or Very noisy 17 year olds who have SO much energy, I have always been able to face the challenge head on, doesn’t mean that it all went perfectly well at those times but, when faced with the same challenge I knew how to deal with it head on! (also the fact that the school has a policy of 4hr detention if you misbehave did help a lot I must admit) Would absolutely recommend the Leonardo Project to anybody interested, it will be something you remember for life! Vanessa

Brenda's Blog

Well, here it is, the last week of our amazing month in Saint Raphael, on the Leonardo Project, teaching English.

Today was a perfect Sunday, 27 May 2012, clear blue sky and hot swimming weather…but not to get too carried away, because the best part, definitely, was the valuable opportunity to put into practice all the skills, tips, and experiences we had during our week of training in Denbigh, Wales, in April.

I especially was happy to be selected for this Project, because, after doing my CELTA last Spring, I managed two weeks teaching Summer School in London, but was definitely aware that my CELTA training had not remotely prepared me or given me confidence in doing project work with teenagers, which came after the morning grammar based lessons. Luckily, I had researched ideas a lot on the internet, and had personal experience having kids of my own, so I successfully managed to somehow get through it.

However I noticed other teachers definitely were organized with material which lasted over several days, really good ideas, which I wanted to find out more about. These were the magic ingredients that came through during our training with Michael Hudson, in Wales, and I now feel equipped to enjoy my time at summer school this year, (and any other Young Learners, challenges that may pop up teaching elsewhere)

I was also lucky to teach kids in Spain for a week last winter, and was fascinated to see five year olds being taught English really successfully. Again, I was eager to find out more, about how to approach this aspect of teaching……..which the Leonardo Project addressed.  Our training in Wales with Carol and Jackie really focused in on the nuts and bolts of teaching Very Young Learners, and I’ve been using a lot of their suggestions, teaching at my Primary School.

But back to beautiful Saint Raphael:  Our school, called Stanislas Primary School, is located on a hillside, just outside of the town, a short bus ride away. I’ve really enjoyed the classes I’ve had, with 7/8 year old and 9/10 year old pupils. The opportunity to use the games and techniques we’d been taught in Wales was invaluable.

The organized tips to Nice and Saint Tropez were a huge success, and several of our group managed to enjoy time off Celebrity Spotting in Cannes, during the Festival!

Now that’s nearly over, it will be sad to say goodbye the kids I’ve taught, and I know I’ll miss their enthusiasm and warmth. But I have lots of their very unique drawings, including their attempts of drawing the British flag, as reminders of this special time I’ve had, here in France.

Brenda Barrett

What’s the catch? As our final week gets well under way I am forced to realise just how lucky we have all been with this project. From our first unbelievable week in Howells to our month in France we will never again get such an opportunity. The training we received in Denbigh has been invaluable to, I think, the all of us whether some people want to admit it or not. I know I would never have been able to get out of the CELTA mind-set without the help of Michael, Jackie and Carole and there’s no way my lessons would have gone anywhere near as smoothly and pleasantly as they have done. I’ve managed to do monsters with 6 classes of 15 year olds who are too cool to try and pronounce ‘through’ in front of their peers but none of them are too cool to turn down an opportunity to colour in a monster with 6 legs, 4 ears, 5 mouths, 2 noses, 1 eye….I haven’t just let them have a lesson of colouring in, of course, there was a pretty clear English lesson buried within but they’re not to know they’re learning or the whole thing will fall apart. Like tricking babies to eat. So depending on the class, some wrote about a day in the life of their monsters using the present perfect tense and some wrote what would happen if their monster wins a million euros today using modals. Occasionally I need a filler lesson so I’ve been using the bit Michael taught us I think on our first day at Howells; ‘how old are my shoes?’ then I progress to using for/since and the present perfect again, although if I actually say the words ‘present perfect’ they all magically lose their hearing. In the two weeks Michael left us we managed to help each other with any problem lessons we were stuck on. Almost every time someone asked for some help my mind immediately raced through our time in Wales and I don’t think I’ve thought of anything outside of our training there. Without the help of Celine, Catherine, Michael, the wonderful Jackie and Carole, Gemma and Christophe here in France and my amazing teacher Nicole at my college I could never have had such a rewarding experience. I have been talking about this to my other CELTA trainees non-stop and they are all as sceptical as I originally was; ‘what’s the catch?’ We’ve had our flights and accommodation paid for, two trips paid for (to Nice and St Tropez), our food allowance every week, transport to and from our respective schools paid for, transfers to and from the airport paid for and free French lessons every week. Plus, we get the privilege of teaching in one of the most beautiful spots in Europe. Yes, we’ve had the occasional apocalypse-style thunder storm but never mind! Dodging lightning is pretty fun especially if you’re swimming in the sea at the time like one brave member here was. We’ve been given the most wonderful experience here and I think we are all very,very grateful. No seriously, what’s the catch? I’m still yet to find one.

Message in A Bottle

The Beginning of The Adventure

 The Leonardo Project 2012 began with a week’s intensive training in Howells School, Wales which involved First Aid, Teaching Young Learners and getting to know the group who we would be going to France with. After that we had two weeks to fine tune our lesson plans and make some resources before we were off to France! We arrived in Nice to be greeted by the owners of Autour des Langues, a private language academy in Saint Raphael, Christophe and Gemma.

I was placed in a small primary school with 60 students, so it almost felt like a small family and had a lovely atmosphere. I taught all ages in the school, from 5 to 11 years old in small classes of 10 students for 45 minutes to an hour. The lesson ideas that Carol and Jacque had showed us during training were amazing and just perfect for the age group I was teaching. I brought out worksheets, games, Scottish songs (does anyone remember The Singing Kettle or was it just a Scottish phenomenon?! Spout, handle, lid of metal, what’s inside The Singing Kettle or another favourite ‘You Canny Shove Yer Granny Off A Bus! For She’s Your Mammy’s Mammy! No, You Canny Shove Yer Granny Off A Bus!’) alongside some pictures, magazines and leaflets from the UK.

I found that with all of the age groups songs were an excellent teaching resource. Not having the most dulcet tones didn’t seem to matter as all the children were so keen to sing and dance that they didn’t seem to notice. With my 8 year olds I made a song describing their daily routine ‘I get up, I brush my teeth, I comb my hair.’ They loved making actions to it in small groups and then performing it to their teacher who beamed at their creativity and English skills.

One of my best lessons involved The Sweetie Game, which I’d carefully laminated before flying to France and used with the 7-8 year olds to practise making and answering questions. Another very successful lesson was with the 5-6 year olds in which we made books for them to take home to their parents describing things in the classroom, their family, animals and their favourite things. They all worked really well together and in two lessons produced beautiful books which they were really proud of and can now say they can write and read in English, which given some of them have recently learnt to do in French, is a great achievement.

La Vie est Belle

 We have been so lucky to have been placed in not only one of the most beautiful coastlines in France, but also in the world, La Côte d'Azur. We have been staying in Saint Raphael, a smallish resort town ‘au bord de la mer’ staying in a self-catering apartment complex just literally 2 minutes from the most stunning beach. There is nothing more refreshing after a long day teaching and planning to walk to the beach and jump in the crystal clear water!

Gemma and Christophe organised two great trips during our stay. The first was to the interesting city of Nice, where Jocelyn, Vanessa, Mark and I enjoyed ending the day dancing to a French jazz band in a big square alongside Nice’s finest octogenarians (who it has to be said had much funkier dance moves than us four!)

The second trip was to St Tropez, birthplace of the everlasting tan and playground of the rich and famous. Everyone enjoyed feeling like a millionaire for the day and the boat trip back as the light was fading and the sea breeze whisked through our hair I know Vanessa and I wished would never end!

The Suitcase Lesson!  

 As Lisa and I are sitting writing our blogs in the Maeva lobby, Brenda has just walked in with a brand new suitcase. Ever in the TEFL mindset, seeing her wheel it into the lobby made me think it would make for a fun lesson. ‘Where has this suitcase been? Where would it like to go?’ Where will it go next?’ ‘What has the suitcase seen?’ ‘What was its longest journey?’ ‘Design an itinerary for the suitcase.’ ‘Describe the trips it made last year.’ The possibilities are endless! Three weeks of the Leonardo Project and you are able to make a lesson out of anything!!!  I now find that I look at the world around me in a different way…from leaflets to maps to my passport, anything and everything can be used effectively to stimulate students’ interest, introduce a topic or as a visual aid in a lesson. This is all thanks to Michael’s ability to make you ‘think outside the box’ and be adventurous and flexible in your planning and teaching. I would say that the new found confidence I have in my teaching is mainly due to Michael’s relaxed and innovative way of making a lesson out of anything, and making it look easy and fun! Maybe in ten years time I will make my lessons look fun, interesting and relaxed too! For that I will be ever grateful.

All’s Well that Ends Well

 So, the final week is here, everyone is planning their final lessons, and making the most of their final days in France. The Leonardo Project has been an amazing experience, from the first day meeting everyone in Denbigh and thinking what a lovely group of people to be lucky enough to be working with through the ebb and flow like the tides on the beach of our time teaching in France, all good things must come to an end.

I leave the project feeling refreshed, rejuvenated in my teaching style, having bathed in the culture of another country and hoping that I will have left a positive and lasting impact on the children I had the privilege of teaching, like footprints on Saint Raphael beach never to be washed away.

Vive La France! Vive Leonardo 2012! Vive UKLC!

Lady Lucy McClay's Blog

Dear Blog,

We are into our final week of teaching and it’s hard to believe that this time next week, we will all be back in the UK.   Today, I have had to say farewell to a couple of classes and literally went out with a bang!  Another winner lesson of Kill The Teacher!  Some of the stories they have been coming up with would give you nightmares!  I am trying not to take it personally!

I have been teaching mostly Year 7 students with a couple of Year 10 classes.  There are roughly 30 students in each class which was a little daunting at first, to have 60 expectant eyes staring back at you from Day 1!  For the first week, we observed our teachers and it became clear that at this time of year,  the students are preparing quite seriously for their final exams and their teachers are keen that all the relevant material is covered before the end of term.  So after arriving from Wales with all our newfound TBLT techniques and starter activities, I was pretty much given a text book and work book to follow.  Despite feeling a little disheartened at the prospect of working through the books over the following 3 weeks and putting all of Michael’s ideas on the back burner, I have managed to use some of the warmers and activities to make a number of classes more exciting and interactive for the students.

The highlight for me has been the conversation club I have been running every afternoon except Wednesdays.  This is the point at which I really feel I can use the material I was so looking forward to trying out.  I have a room to myself where I can arrange my smaller group of about 10-14 students into a circle conducive to language learning and conversational English.  Here, I have been killed time after time, played noughts and crosses,  Bingo, been stranded on a Desert  Island, mingled with students, discussed our futures, dreams, ambitions and fears and generally conversed and had fun using as much English as possible.

I have also learned a great deal from the seemingly formal teaching of my general classes.  It has been an invaluable experience and a real confidence boost.  As I reflect now, in the final week, I have come to conclude that this exposure to a traditional teaching environment has been something which I needed to experience.  It has enabled me to think about my planning in a more structured way,  neatened up my board work and also helped me to brush up on some basic grammar points!  My situation in signing up for this programme was slightly different to some of my other colleagues in that I was not newly qualified but I had been out of teaching for 8 years.  To be standing in front of a class for the first time was a shock to say the least.   However, after the initial shock, things start coming back to you! The teachers at the school I have been working with have been a constant support and have assisted and guided where necessary.  Most importantly, they  have  allowed me to work alone from the start and have given positive feedback and encouragement at times when I have felt the difficulties of making myself heard on a hot Friday afternoon amongst 30 restless students who are ready for the weekend.  It has been at these times where I have questioned my role and success as a teacher but been encouraged by the realities of this being a common situation for all teachers and not everyday can be a success in the classroom.  It is interesting with activities you set up....they can work wonderfully with one group in the morning and just be a flop in the afternoon!  The beauty of trying these things out though is the more you do it, the more you can perfect it!  Sometimes, just more modelling of the activity or drilling of the language could have saved your bacon!

 Preparation and planning for classes has also been a bit of a shock to the system as well as getting up at 6:30am (!?)  In particular, the planning of classes was tricky in the confined spaces of our shared rooms and  getting the peace and quiet required whilst having to use the internet only in the reception area!  However, after a couple of weeks of this, to plan a lesson alone has now become a little unnerving.  Even to be sitting alone for nearly an hour without a knock on your hotel door or someone coming round to borrow a bog roll, eat all your crisps and drink all your wine seems odd and they will be things I will greatly miss!!!!  (I refer to myself here....and with regards to Lisa and Ellie....drinking all your vodka and eating all your biscuits)! Even reading an email whilst having 3 conversations and a skype interview all at the same time has now become a doddle!! 

Another wonderful resource and support has been the rest of the group and even though it seems like I have been having  a love/laughter affair with Ellie throughout the 4 weeks, I can assure everyone that their advice, drinks and chats throughout my time here have been a constant support and comfort.  It seems that Ellie is mad enough to be able to spend more time than most in my company!  In particular, I thank those that I have dragged along to the Salsa Bar on occasions when I ‘m sure they would have preferred to be in the Blue Bar!  A big thank you to Christophe and Gemma who have looked after us and taken us on two superb day trips and been a great resource whilst we have been here.  A thank you to Mark, our French teacher as well for his guidance in learning the lingo!

Saint Raphael itself is utterly glorious.  Just  a stone’s throw from the beach and the cocktail bar!  I have enjoyed a weekly Yoga class, walking along the coastal path in fine sunny weather, trips to Cannes and other smaller resorts, going to an art exhibition at the school and round to one of the teacher’s houses for an apero and a chat in French!  I have also attended the local Church and enjoyed the Sunday services there and made contacts with a few of the ex-pats re living/working en France!

I will leave it there for now....but this is my plan dear blog...to take this experience with me and to teach TEFL in France somewhere rustic and picturesque  and live happily ever after!  Bon Courage!!

Lucy McClay

My first two weeks in a nutshell

Well what can I say the first two weeks in Saint Raphael have been fantastic. I feel right at home and it’s like I have been living here for the past two months (in a good way) and I really don’t want to leave at all.

March seems like such a long time ago, when I completed the application form and attended the London interview. From the start I knew this experience would be amazing, as I’d never had such a relaxed and enjoyable interview before, so I was totally over the moon to be accepted onto the program!

Fast forward to May and me and 14 other people are heading off to Saint Raphael, nobody really admitted it but we were all really nervous and unsure of what to expect from French schools.

On arrival in Nice we meet Gemma and Christophe two lovely people who have their own language school and helped coordinate our school placements. They also organised two trips to Nice and St Tropez. I can’t thank them enough for the help they have given us and providing us with all the information we needed to get by in St Raphael.

Lisa, Grace, Ben and I were assigned to ‘Le College Alphonse Karr’. The students are aged 11 to 16 and I was so delighted to be with them as I knew that I would have great support from them all.

Monday 7^th of May, was so nerve racking, we were meet by the Principle, the Deputy Principle and other members of the school. How lucky were we as they provided us with coffee, Capri Sun and croissants along with a presentation and tour of the school. It was slightly nerve racking speaking French with the Principle, especially when he asked us what we thought about the outcome of the French elections (Wow). Thank God Gemma was on hand to translate (note to self must improve my French speaking while here).

Lisa and I are teaching sixième (Year 7), cinquième (Year 8), quatrième (Year 9) and troisième (Year 10). I also found out that I was assigned to work with two teachers and both their teaching styles were different and they used different resources to teach. I met one of the lovely teachers Sophie Bachet. I hadn’t met the second teacher yet, but was told that she was looking forward to meeting me.

Tuesday 8^th of May was a bank holiday in France so I spent the day on the beach reading through the pupils course materials and with a chat and some brain storming ideas with Ben, Lisa, Grace and Michael, I felt a lot better and ready for Wednesday.

Wednesday 9^th May I head off to school with the rest of my group with a bundle of ideas and a lot of enthusiasm. I met the other teacher Raja Fenzer who at the time was frantically trying to teach them the 1^st and second conditional before their big test. I saw the class come alive when asked what they would do if they had a €1000, 000. I suggested that for tomorrow's lesson we should stay on the theme of spending a €1000, 000 as the pupils understood it better.

Thursday 10^h May I observed Sophie’s lessons, which was good as I got to know more students. By the afternoon my heart was in my mouth but pumped as I was teaching Raja’s class. The lesson was good as we started off by playing a warmer game called 'three seconds'.  It's a game where you pick a topic and each person has three seconds to think of a name related to the topic. The chosen topic was names of countries to start with and after a few minutes I changed the topic to celebrities. I didn’t know half of the celebrities the pupils were talking about so I got them to spell the names in English while I wrote them on the board. After which, I asked the class to imagine if one of the celebrities written on the board gave them a €1000, 000, what would they spend the money on. I separated the class onto groups of and they had to come up with at least four suggestions on how they would spend the money. It was a very interesting lesson as we had   suggestions of spending a night with Megan Fox to buying the school and destroying it because school is boring!!

Well it’s not all work and no play in St Raphael!! I have spent some quality time at the beach chilling, lucky for us it’s literally two minutes walk from the apartments; the sea is freezing but good for the old circulation.

We’ve also been on a day trip to Nice (courtesy of Gemma and Christophe). Lisa, Grace and Mark and I took a day trip to Monaco the week before the Grand prix which was so nice to see how the other half live. Today we went to the ‘Cannes film festival’, only one word to describe the day ‘amazing’. Catherine and I managed to take a picture with Mads Mikkelsen one of the stars from the film ‘Casino Royale’ and we also got a close view of Alec Baldwin.

I don't want this experience to end and hope that the next two weeks past by slowly so I can enjoy this experience even more.

Joss :o)

Ignore Facebook, I have been working really!

So we rock up in Nice, hangovers from Denbigh finally evaporated (Ellie’s jagerbombs and strawpedos with Richard probably not a good idea before a flight but hey ho!) we were met by Gemma and Christophe at the airport who were really welcoming and turns out they are genuinely totally nice people too. They took us on the bus to our accommodation pointing out some sights on the way, on arrival we found that they had arranged for us all to go to Nice on the first Saturday and to St Tropez by catamaran on the 3^rd Saturday….above and beyond the call of duty and a really nice surprise.

I have been working in a state school with Ben, Joss and Grace, a nice half hour stroll from the apartments. On our first day we were given an introductory all singing all dancing presentation including Powerpoint slides from the headmaster and deputy head…all in French. I got the gist of some of it but luckily Gemma was on hand to fill in the many blanks. We met our teachers; I was put with Estelle Boyer who has been absolutely amazing. Asking her what she wanted me to do on my first day, she replied ‘What would you like to do? Whatever it is, do that’, what a hero.

My first day was OK, I say OK only because I didn’t ‘wow’ myself or Estelle. The lessons were just ‘Getting to know you’ so they went fine and I was into the swing of it by the end of the day, I just felt pretty nervous and not sure what to expect from the kids, however, they did all turn up the next day with some great homework, a written paragraph about me. On my second day I had some new classes so did ‘Getting to know you’ again but this time with some games at the end so they all left with smiles, not sure if that was because of the games or if they were just happy to go but a smile is a smile and they seemed genuinely engaged.

In my second week I have been able to do some more meaty lessons, Estelle wanted me to do ‘can and can’t’ with the year 7’s so we did a little bit from the textbook, a few games of my own then I cracked out the superhero lesson. The vocabulary was amazing ‘he can fire lasers with his eyes’, ‘he can stop time and control magma’….so now my classroom has some great drawings with annotations all over the walls.

With the year 10 groups I was asked to do the 2^nd conditional so we really got into a lesson about political and environmental issues the outcome of which they had to say what they would do if they were the President. One boy wrote that everyone would be allowed to smoke weed and play Call of Duty all day and that having ‘bitches’ would be the norm; usually I’d be a bit disappointed but apparently this boy is on the verge of being expelled and is usually totally disinterested but I got him to write something in English so I hi-fived myself instead.  At this age they are really keen to talk about crime and pollution and other world issues so I then went onto ‘My ideal world’. I told them that Estelle is the Queen of the whole world but she has to take a holiday for a month, in groups the students had to write her a letter telling her why they should be allowed to take over her job, we will be having an election this week.

I have found that noughts and crosses games, Bingo and matching games where they can work in teams are really good, they are very competitive and really get into it. I’ve had a couple of girls who are all fake eyelashes and lipgloss but (conveniently ;)) one of them won Bingo so I think I’ve won them round. The lessons are going really well and I have a lot more confidence with my class, mainly thanks to epically good ideas from Michael and the freedom and guidance I have been given by Estelle.

Aside from teaching, so far the whole experience in France has been amazing, there are some really nice people in the group, everyone is always ready and willing with advice for new lessons or a bottle of wine after a bomb lesson. Michael is like a big Geordie bottomless pit of ideas and information and Gemma and Christophe are so sweet and helpful, always giving us great feedback, liaising with our schools and pointing out the best places to go.

I’ve been living less than a minute walk from the beach, numerous bars and restaurants, 2 minutes from the train station as well as going to beautiful Nice where we ate two 3 course meals in one day,  the Grand Prix circuit in Monte-Carlo AND I’ve seen Alec Baldwin in Cannes ….. it’s only week 2!

The next two weeks will bring more lessons, hopefully a bit more French speaking for me, my first conversation club at school and a trip to St Tropez. Why am I going back to the UK again?!

Lisa

Halfway through....

I feel terrible I haven't contributed to this until now but Ben summed up our first week rather well in his blog. Like he mentioned, our arrival was very smooth and I know that mine, Ben, Lisa and Jocelyn's welcome to our school was very formal indeed but so professional. I assumed everyone's school would have been equally as prepared as ours but apparently not. I was introduced to my teacher, Nicole Adrey who has the most perfect English I've ever heard from a non-native English speaker and who was extremely happy to have us there in the school. She looked over my timetable and warned me about a troisieme class who were so difficult she said she should just teach them and I should always observe that class. AS IF! I told her in a more formal way that i'd whip them into shape. Having completed two weeks of classes I am familiar with all my classes especially the tricky one and was astounded that my teacher Nicole hadn't separated them sooner. I started with a quick game to get them to swap seats so it didn't look like they were being picked on and wouldn't you know it, they shut up. I've been doing a lot of "kill the teacher" lessons and they seem to take to that almost too well....I mean, some guy used a tomahawk to dismember me. Maybe i'm not as popular as I originally thought. We're quite lucky with our College Alphonse Karr because it's only a half an hour walk through the town of San Raphael whereas everyone else has to rely on the buses which come once an hour. Our accommodation is very reasonable with bunk beds and and sofa that pulls out into a double bed. I'm sharing with Jo and we decided she could have the sofa bed and i'll take the bunks as I would sleep on the floor and still sleep like a baby. Either way, someone's getting disturbed as she has to come past me to go to the bathroom and I have to go past her to get to the kitchen. But it's all good, we're all on the same two floors so we've all been able to help each other with lessons, resources, food and anything else that might crop up. For instance, i'm about to go and ask Sally for a sewing kit as I fell spectacularly on my face earlier in Cannes and actually ripped the knee of my trousers. I kind of fell in such slow motion I was getting bored with it. I did however, knock a moped which was in the middle of about twenty others so will be eternally grateful that I didn't create a domino effect and have to leg it before someone realised. As weeks go, this one has been FAR less eventful than last. However, equally as enjoyable and educational. Our French was coming on leaps and bounds last week but I feel like I've spoken more English this week than I would back home! I was even saying 'un' wrong like an idiot. But we did get to visit Monte Carlo and go to Cannes on the weekend of the festival thanks to the almost unbelievable amounts of bank holidays France seems to have. Also, it was both Mary's and Ben's birthdays this week so spirits were as high as the temperature (i.e. very) as we all helped them celebrate together. I look forward to the next two weeks and I can safely say I will be very sad indeed when I have to leave this petit paradis.

1 week in . . .

Hello and welcome to my first blog entry,

As I write, dear reader, I am sat on the balcony of my hotel room drinking coffee and eating ‘des oufes brouill és’. I am listening to Leonard Cohen and the sun is shining – life is good. If I have created an image of total tranquillity then cast it from your mind as a manic wing-flapping pigeon just flew up to the balcony, and scared the pants off me! However the interruption was not unwelcome as this feathered fellow has refocused my mind on the task at hand – a brief summary of events since my arrival here in Saint Raphael, France. I am having a great time – the weather has been glorious since the day we got here and our hotel is two minutes from the beach. I have the day off today and as such I thought it would be prime time to get the ball rolling with regards to our blogs.

The hotel is nice, I am sharing with my colleague Mark who is not in the best of spirits as his team, Bolton, got relegated yesterday. I have not yet told him that the goal Stoke scored to send them down was apparently a VERY DUBIOUS penalty. Probably best he doesn’t know. Asides from that we are all enjoying ourselves. Upon arrival we were greeted by Gemma and Christophe (a French man), who are very friendly and have made us feel very welcome – they gave us our individual packs with all the information we’d need for the next four weeks.

I am teaching at a collège which is about 20 minutes from the hotel along with my colleagues Grace, Lisa and Jocelyn. On the first day we were (very) formally introduced to the Alphonse Carr; we had a presentation and tour of the school in French. Although I could follow the majority of what was being said, it was good to have Gemma on hand to clear up any misunderstandings. I think we were all impressed at how well organised the school was in terms of the roles we would play- It was clear that a fair bit of work had gone in to preparing for our arrival, they want to make the most of this opportunity as much as we did. After croissants and coffee, we met the English teachers we would be working with. I have been assigned to Brigitte and her sixieme and cinquieme classes made up of 11-13 year olds. I am very happy with how open she has been to the task-based-learning approach of UKLC. She basically tells me what topic they are doing next and I try to come up with a lesson based around it and run it by her briefly before teaching it – she has been happy with my efforts so far and after each lesson we discuss what worked and what didn’t and how it could be improved for the next time.


My introduction lesson was based around pictures about me on the board, the students would tell me as much as they could about myself and then create their own name badge-type things to display on their desks with two pictures about them. Word of warning when doing this: one cheeky lad introduced himself to me as ‘Booba’. As this was such an easy name to remember I would often call on him by name to answer a question. Every time I did so his fellow students would start sniggering – I assumed I was pronouncing it badly and tried a few different variations. This went one for three days and then Brigitte noticed me addressing him as ‘Booba’ and at the end of the lesson told me that his name was in fact Natsu. It transpires that Booba is a French rapper and he had blagged me good and proper! I have since researched Booba and will be dedicating part of their next lesson to the differences between him and Natsu to ensure I have the last laugh. Anyway in the next part of the lesson I introduced the topic of ‘lying’ – and after much modelling they got it. They would then have to introduce themselves to their partner telling either zero, one, two or three lies according to a secret piece of paper I had given them. The idea was that they would listen to each other much more carefully to work out how many lies the speaker had told, and they enjoyed playing both roles of the liar and the guesser. The biggest thing I learnt on my first day of teaching was the importance of lingering as long as necessary on the modelling stage to ensure that everyone was on board before trying it themselves. In my first class, they hadn’t all understood so I had to go back to giving examples – in the following classes that day, the lesson got better as I became more in tuned with recognising when information was falling on deaf ears. Shout outs to Michael and Grace for helping me with that lesson – it was much better than what I was originally planning!


Another lesson I did with the older year group was introducing ‘ago’. Again Michael’s help was invaluable for this lesson - it involved a timeline of events in my life, and then a lot of modelling to illustrate the construction. Eg. I was born in 1987/ I was born 24 years ago. I came to Saint Raphael on the 6^th May/ I came to Saint Raphael 5 days ago. I was surprised at how many examples I had to give of this before it made sense to them but by the end of the class they were all offering me examples of things that that happened in their own lives – my favourite was Angelo’s effort: “My fish died 2 years ago. His name is sushi!” 


I thoroughly enjoyed the first week and on Saturday we went on a trip to Nice, which was lovely. I managed to catch Huddersfield’s first play-off leg against MK Dons (glamour tie), which we won 2-0. The victory made the €8 pint of Grolsche much easier to swallow. We then had a walk down to the port and (after a particularly messy Friday night including some startling revelations in the ‘I have never’ drinking game), I was more than ready to get the train back to St Raph when 6pm came. Michael, Mark and I (in a bit of ‘boys only’ time) also went to see the local football team St Raphael Frejus Etoiles on Friday night– we got in for free and they won 4-2! 

I have a few lessons to prepare for this week . . . but on Friday I’ll be heading to Sainte Maxime avec ma petite amie (who is visiting) to stay at the hotel her sister is working at, and watching the Champions League final on my birthday this Saturday! All in all I’m having a great time with some wonderful people! I realise I haven’t mentioned our training week in Denbigh, Wales – suffice to say it was great fun and I think stood us in good stead for teaching young people here in France. The leap from teaching adults (on the CELTA course) to teaching teenagers has not been as great as I might have imagined – the most important thing is to remember what we were like at their age! They are both interesting and interested – in one of my more rowdy classes I had to abandon the lesson plan for ten minutes as students pelted me with questions. I was happy to do this as they were curious about me and had an instant reason to want to speak English – surely this is the point!



Ben