first day of school

I didn't have a reputation, but a mythical one seemed to preceed me. I hadn't even set foot inside the playground of École Ed. Marquis yesterday, before a voice cried C'est Nina!. Then there were more: Nina! Nina! Hello! How are you? How are you? Hello! A crowd of children followed me through into the school and to the safety of the staffroom. Apparently I had been anticipated. All I could think of is was how glad I was that I am the first English assistant that this school has had - that way they can't be let down too badly when I fail to be anything short of amazing. With just 5 teachers, it's not that surprising that a new face is such a big deal to the pupils of this school, but I was utterly bemused nonetheless. While I was waiting in the classroom for the CE2 (8-9yrs) class to file in after lunch, little heads would poke round the door to say hello or just giggle and run away. It's safe to say that my first day at Ed. Marquis went pretty well.

Today was my first day at École Paul Langevin. It happens to be the day of a general strike, but the teacher of the CP class wasn't participating so I went in just for that one - luckily the buses were not affected. CP, cours primaire, do not usually learn English as they are only just learning to read and write their native language, so this is quite an unusual situation. Over my first two days I've taught kids from 5-9 years old. I'm mostly dreading CM2, the 10-11 class (can we say "I was bullied in middle school?")... but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Both schools have very friendly staff; I've been made coffees and teas and told I am free to use the staffroom kitchen for lunch. Perhaps it's just as much of a novelty to the staff as the students to have me there; more than once I've been "practised" on.

[On a side note, P. Langevin is situated next to a school of music. I must go in there sometime and see if they have a practise room I can use. I haven't played the piano since July, it's terrible!]

On the way home, after the bus dropped me at the Gare du Nord from Camon, I went and rented myself a bicycle. His name is Monsieur le Hoppy-Frog because he's green like the rest of the Busyclette rental bikes (very popular scheme). I need to find something to tie onto the little wire basket so I can find him easily in a crowd... for once I seem to be lacking in useless trinkets. And zip ties. Tomorrow I'm going to take the bike up to Camon, and work out the best route to the schools, and the quickest way to get between the two of them... and remember to ride on the RIGHT hand side of the road...