Meeting in Nantes

Wednesday, Robin, Alicia, Michael, Doug, Sibel and I journeyed to Nantes for a meeting of all the assistants in the académie. We were up really early to catch the 7:40 bus from the train station. It was still dark out. The bus ride was almost 2 1/2 hours of anonymous French countryside, with a handful of small, picturesque towns.

We arrived in Nantes about 10, already an hour late for the meeting. After a small snafu with the bus, we took a tram to the meeting location. We walked into the auditorium as a panel was discussing insurance, banking, and finding an apartment. Luckily, everyone in our group had already completed all these things, so we hadn't missed much important information. Shortly after we arrived, the group broke up into 3 smaller rooms: one for middle school, and two for high school, divided by last name. We went over some very basic information, most of which was common sense, and then broke for an hour and a half long lunch.

After a delicious ham and cheese panini, we came back together to work on planning a hypothetical lesson plan. It may have been my exhaustion by that point in the day, but I didn't really feel like this was a helpful exercise. I did get a few ideas about showing an advertisement or comic, but covering up some or all of the text. I think I'll be able to use those to have some good discussions in my terminale classes. Finally at about 4:30, we finished and caught the tram back to the bus, and the bus back to Laval. I was disappointed that we didn't get to spend more time exploring the city, but at least now we know how to get to Nantes! It seems like a really cool place, so I'd love to go back soon.

Yesterday and today were spent at school, observing classes and going through the hundreds of ideas left for me by previous assistants. I was glad to find worksheets and handouts already prepared, but considering the varying personalities of the past few assistants, I'm not sure all of them will be used. I know I'll be writing my own lessons as well, and adapting those left for me. It's been a beautiful couple of days, a welcome change after all the rain we've been having. Even on the bus, you can tell people are in a better mood! I couldn't resist snapping a few photos of my school and the town.

One of the courtyards at my school. This building houses a computer lab and a study hall.

A Vieux Laval street right around the corner from my school.

The view across the river. Notice the Hollywood-esque "LAVAL" sign on the hill...