29/03/18

Today is Thursday but I was only in my school until 11:30am as Beth, Briony, Lauren and I had a meeting with our host, Nina, at 1:30pm.

First thing today I was told I would teach three lessons in the morning. Firstly in Agnés Courgeon’s class with CM1/CM2, then in Christine Aué’s class with CM2 and finally after break I would do a lesson in Laura Bellout’s class with CE2/CM1. I taught my Scottish lesson, as these classes hadn’t had this particular lesson from me yet,

My presentation was the same as last time and included; where I live in Scotland, our flag, the Loch Ness monster, castles, traditional food, animals, tartan, traditional sports and Scottish rhymes/poems. I again spoke the lesson in English, as this is how they learn a language in France. The lesson must be taught preferably only in that new language. Now and again for explanation reasons I translated part into French from the children and the teacher was also there to help translate.

I learnt from the last time I taught this lesson that I didn’t know the word for sheep and stomach in French, so this time I taught the lesson I had looked up the translation of these word prior to teaching and this helped me describe haggis to the children. They gained a much better understanding this time.

I also learnt what the national animal of France was. This helped me when explaining that the national animal of Scotland is the Unicorn.

I added into my presentation more about tartan and what it is used for. I explained that tartan could be used as a pattern in all types of clothing. I used the French words for specific items of clothing and them told them what these items of clothing were in English. This added a bit more learning into the lesson. I also said that it could be used for interior design in the home.

I got the children to stand up when I was speaking about highland dancing so that I could get the children engage and physically involved in the lesson. I showed them a couple of highland dancing positions and got them to copy them. They enjoyed this part of the lesson as it gave them a little break from sitting in their seats.

Once again, when I had finished the lesson I asked the children if they had any questions. The questions were a good way of checking my understanding of French, as the children asked me questions in French. I was able to pick out key words and understand what they were asking, but other time I would have to look to the class teacher for help with translating. Although one girl is very good at trying to speak some English and she asked a lot of questions I was able to answer with no help from the teacher for translation. This is the same girl who was able to have a conversation with me on our way to see ‘My Fair Lady’ at the theatre,

A question that came up was about our traditional Scottish music, which I had not covered in my lesson. This gave me an action plan for the next time I teach this lesson. I needed to speak about the bagpipes and include a picture of them.

After my lessons had all finished I sat in Laura’s class until lunchtime. She did an interesting exercise with the children. She got them the fold their arms flat on the table and rest their head on them. This exercise help relax the children after a busy lesson. They did this in silence and the teacher whispered instructions. I liked this idea and thought I could use it in my future practice.

Once it was lunchtime I headed back to the ESPE centre to have our meeting with Nina. The meeting was a half way catch up to see how we were getting on at our schools and if there were any problems that needed to be discussed. Beth, Briony, Lauren and I all spoke about our experiences so far and Nina looked pleased with our progress. She told us we would have a final meeting on the 18/04/18 to finish up our placement.