Today, I was chatting with a vendor at the market, and she asked me if I was German. My boys have been telling me that I have a German accent when I speak French, so needless to say, A. was delighted to have that confirmation. I will blame my accent, then, on my 7th grade German teacher who taught us the alphabet to the tune of Twinkle, twinkle little star - a song that I remember from several decades ago!
Needless to say, I was amused when A. came home with Jacques Brel - singing declinations along with Rosa might be the best way to learn (and remember) them! (Warning, you may never, ever forget them.)
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Paris vs New York
I saw a book comparing New York and Paris by Vahram Muratyan ( Penguin) in the bookstore the other day. Loved it! Here's the video: http://vimeo.com/49545320
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Grade Inflation? Pfffftttt....
We got back from our all-too-brief vacation last Sunday night, and fired up the computer to make sure that all the homework assignments given over vacation were done. (Yes, school vacation seems to mean that you don't have to be physically present in the classroom. It does not mean that the work has stopped. Think summer reading lists on steroids. Gack!!)
The only assignment that A. had brought with him on his trip to Denmark was from his French class: he had 2 books to read - a play from the Middle Ages (love that vocabulary!), and a contemporary murder-mystery set in an abbey in the Middle Ages - both great examples of cross-curricular enrichment. (Yes, history this year is focussed on the Middle Ages!) The computer, however, revealed that A's teachers had decided to pile on the homework while we were gone. PANIC! The major assignments: revise for tests to be given during the week following vacation. English: test, Math, test, Latin, test, History, test, Physics, test, Biology, test.... I suppose that the reasoning behind all this testing is to ensure that the children don't neglect their studies during their time off, so that time in class can be devoted to learning, not relearning. The other reason is that grades closed at the end of the week, and this was the last chance to get something on paper.
Sunday night, then, was rather stressful, as were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Friday evening however, the stress level had fallen back to normal levels, and we went down the street to see Skyfall. This is the type of stress that I like (even if my son teases me about shaking throughout the scary parts. I was cold, I say!)
Grades come out next week: French teachers grade on a 1 - 20 scale that is difficult to compare with American grades. In the words of one French commenter - " I got a 12 on my baccalaureat, which put me in the top 20 percent, with the comment of "Assez Bien," but to translate this into American grades - a D minus? Hardly..."
When I googled French-American grade correspondance, I found this comment from an American who had taught in France, and wanted to know how to grade his assignments. This person was told:
20 c'est pour le bon dieu
19 le prof
18 le meilleur élève du monde
donc tu notes les copies vraiment parfaites 17 !
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=981125&langid=6
Can you imagine a typical American high school class being told that no-one would get a grade higher than 90 percent? (Well, I know this happens in private schools, but I just can't imagine this happening at our local middle school, where upwards of 20 percent of the school body belongs to NHS!)
Additionally, there are no grades given out for effort or behavior, and comments are rather sparse.
There is a very French institution that happens every trimester: it is called "La conseil de classe," and is made up of the classroom teachers, the principal, and 2 elected students from every class. They sit around a table for a couple of hours, and review each student's grades and give input into character and work ethic. So for example, they might say, Person X has been working very hard, even if the grades don't reflect this. Or the opposite, Person Y's grades are outstanding, but the work is superficial and not representative of true ability. The parental grapevine assures me that comments of these types (and more) are quite common.
Finally, I don't know what happens at my son's school, but in many schools, it is common to list grades and names together and post the results on the classroom wall at the end of the year. Adolescents who have taken the admittance tests for the "Grandes Ecoles" are told that their results are posted on the wall at a precise hour on a specific day, and they find out if they will become part of France's elite (or more likely not, as the admittance rate is quite low) in the company of their peers.
It sure doesn't pay to have a thin skin in this country. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad, although I can see where it could be helpful in life.
In any case, seeing how the scoreboard lined up helped me understand a couple of things. As far as A. is concerned? He knows that he's learning a ton, and that's the important focus... ah yes, wisdom from the children.
The traditional French grading system is from 0-20.Here is a chart to convert French grades to US-type letter grades according to the Franco-American Commission Guidelines:
Update: Nov 28. My father just sent me an article that captured how he felt about one (many?) of his undergrad classes at MIT. It seems that his experience (and others for many years to come) were similar to what A. is going through now. Now I know why he so often says "forewarned is forearmed." It takes the sting out of 20 percent (or less!)
The only assignment that A. had brought with him on his trip to Denmark was from his French class: he had 2 books to read - a play from the Middle Ages (love that vocabulary!), and a contemporary murder-mystery set in an abbey in the Middle Ages - both great examples of cross-curricular enrichment. (Yes, history this year is focussed on the Middle Ages!) The computer, however, revealed that A's teachers had decided to pile on the homework while we were gone. PANIC! The major assignments: revise for tests to be given during the week following vacation. English: test, Math, test, Latin, test, History, test, Physics, test, Biology, test.... I suppose that the reasoning behind all this testing is to ensure that the children don't neglect their studies during their time off, so that time in class can be devoted to learning, not relearning. The other reason is that grades closed at the end of the week, and this was the last chance to get something on paper.
Sunday night, then, was rather stressful, as were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Friday evening however, the stress level had fallen back to normal levels, and we went down the street to see Skyfall. This is the type of stress that I like (even if my son teases me about shaking throughout the scary parts. I was cold, I say!)
Grades come out next week: French teachers grade on a 1 - 20 scale that is difficult to compare with American grades. In the words of one French commenter - " I got a 12 on my baccalaureat, which put me in the top 20 percent, with the comment of "Assez Bien," but to translate this into American grades - a D minus? Hardly..."
When I googled French-American grade correspondance, I found this comment from an American who had taught in France, and wanted to know how to grade his assignments. This person was told:
20 c'est pour le bon dieu
19 le prof
18 le meilleur élève du monde
donc tu notes les copies vraiment parfaites 17 !
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=981125&langid=6
Can you imagine a typical American high school class being told that no-one would get a grade higher than 90 percent? (Well, I know this happens in private schools, but I just can't imagine this happening at our local middle school, where upwards of 20 percent of the school body belongs to NHS!)
Additionally, there are no grades given out for effort or behavior, and comments are rather sparse.
There is a very French institution that happens every trimester: it is called "La conseil de classe," and is made up of the classroom teachers, the principal, and 2 elected students from every class. They sit around a table for a couple of hours, and review each student's grades and give input into character and work ethic. So for example, they might say, Person X has been working very hard, even if the grades don't reflect this. Or the opposite, Person Y's grades are outstanding, but the work is superficial and not representative of true ability. The parental grapevine assures me that comments of these types (and more) are quite common.
Finally, I don't know what happens at my son's school, but in many schools, it is common to list grades and names together and post the results on the classroom wall at the end of the year. Adolescents who have taken the admittance tests for the "Grandes Ecoles" are told that their results are posted on the wall at a precise hour on a specific day, and they find out if they will become part of France's elite (or more likely not, as the admittance rate is quite low) in the company of their peers.
It sure doesn't pay to have a thin skin in this country. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad, although I can see where it could be helpful in life.
In any case, seeing how the scoreboard lined up helped me understand a couple of things. As far as A. is concerned? He knows that he's learning a ton, and that's the important focus... ah yes, wisdom from the children.
The traditional French grading system is from 0-20.Here is a chart to convert French grades to US-type letter grades according to the Franco-American Commission Guidelines:
| 18-20 | 16-17 | 13-15 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| A+ | A | A- | B/B+ | B-/B | C+/B- | C/C+ | C-/C | D+/C- | D/D+ |
For reasons steeped in tradition, however, it is more difficult to obtain a high grade in the humanities than it is in the sciences. In French literature, for example, a grade of 13 is probably equivalent to a 15 or even a 16 in math or in physics. source: http://www.eabjm.org/en/faq#q1215
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Voting Time!
Late Friday the school held elections for parent representatives to what is called the Counseil d'Administration.
This is a large group: Parents (I'm not sure how many representatives there are in total, but this year there are 5 openings from the College and 7 from the Lycee,) the Proviseur (head of school), her assistant, a delegate from the commune (here the 15th arrondissement,) several teachers/other administrators, a delegate from the building committee (the group responsible for the upkeep of the school,) student reps from each class (6th-12 grade.) This being France, the country where bureaucracy was born, it is easy to find exquisite detail on how this group works, who should be a member, how often it will meet, and how it works with other administrative groups, both at the school and within the city and country. In looking at the list, I am actually amazed that the director is able to do any productive work: it would seem that most of her time would be spent in meetings.
The overall goal of the CA is to provide an educational "plan," and then come up with the money to fund that plan. Apparently, there is some autonomy at the local level, which really surprises me - I had a vague idea that in the land of equalite et fonctionnaires that pretty much everything was top-down driven. I shall have to investigate that a little more. I suppose that explains why certain schools have certain extra-curricular activities that are different than others. So for example, here's a plan from one from Henri IV, located in one of the most "desired" school districts, the 5th arrondissement, (and consequently one of the most expensive places to live in the city.) And another college in the 19th - one of the poorest places in the capital - looks like it doesn't have a plan. Certainly its website has little useful information. Alexandre's school is in the middle - not particularly good, but not the worst. (There are a couple of after-school projects including rock-climbing, hip-hop dancing. In-school projects include chorus (1x week during lunch, and a couple of field trips (5 days in the Lozere in early Sept. for the 7th grade class, a trip to see West Side Story in November...)
To return to the subject at hand: voting in France most often means voting for a political party and its platform of political promises rather than individual candidates. Before the election, each party will present its candidates in a specific order. Once the votes are tallied, the positions are allotted proportionally to the votes cast, and then the party will assign its allotted places in the order that the candidates were presented. Thus the name - proportional voting. This is in contrast to how France elects its president, for the presidential race is one of the few where the voters vote for a specific candidate. During this election, all candidates are on the first round ballot. Two weeks later, the top two vote-getters square off in a final vote that will declare one person the future president. This can lead to some interesting results: a couple of elections ago, in 2002, the two candidates facing off in the second round of voting were both from the right - Jacques Chirac (center right,) and Jean Marie Le Pen (extreme right.) France is not an extreme country, particularly, although parties from either end certainly have representatives in various legislative bodies. This choice was problematic for the left. (Anecdotally, the French don't have an option for a write-in vote - the only protest is by not voting at all.) A decision was made that center right was less objectionable than far right, and consequently, the Socialist Party (PS) called on its members to vote for Chirac in order to prevent LePen from coming to power, and the result was an overwhelming victory for Chirac. (about 82% vs 18% of total votes cast, with about a 20 % abstention rate.)
The vote for the school's Conseil d'Administration, however, was by proportional - not direct - voting, and before the election, we received the position statements from the two parent groups proposing candidates.
One party, called PEEP, is in favor of
- electing dynamic and committed parents who will be actively involved in the daily life of the school.
- making sure that the school invests in and maintains its historically strong language program (both living and ancient languages.)
- More field trips and developing foreign exchanges/partnerships with schools outside France.
- Developing and investing in projects that will help students figure out what they will do later in life.
The other party, called FCPE , is in favor of
- improving social and learning environment (d'obtenir de meilleures conditions de vie et d'apprentissage, ameliorer le cadre de vie.)
- fighting excessive backpack weight.
- promoting balanced and inexpensive school lunches.
- proactively preparing students for their future by bringing in professionals to meet students. (Rencontres etudes et metiers)
Both sound pretty good to me. As I have said in other posts, carrying around 10 kilos of books, and bouncing pieces of stale baguettes across the courtyard are not particularly conducive to a postive educational experience. But I think that field trips will trump cafeteria food this fall. So, I take the piece of paper that says PEEP, put it into a small envelope, seal this envelope, and put it into another envelope. The second envelope asks me for my name and address, which I duly write on the front of the larger envelope. I give the envelope to A. who will put it in the voting urn (a big cardboard box) at school for me. And my civic duty for the day is done. But the million euro question is, once the votes are cast, and the election results known, how much influence will this group have with the school? And that question is international. Parents come and go. Teachers and administration stay.
This is a large group: Parents (I'm not sure how many representatives there are in total, but this year there are 5 openings from the College and 7 from the Lycee,) the Proviseur (head of school), her assistant, a delegate from the commune (here the 15th arrondissement,) several teachers/other administrators, a delegate from the building committee (the group responsible for the upkeep of the school,) student reps from each class (6th-12 grade.) This being France, the country where bureaucracy was born, it is easy to find exquisite detail on how this group works, who should be a member, how often it will meet, and how it works with other administrative groups, both at the school and within the city and country. In looking at the list, I am actually amazed that the director is able to do any productive work: it would seem that most of her time would be spent in meetings.
The overall goal of the CA is to provide an educational "plan," and then come up with the money to fund that plan. Apparently, there is some autonomy at the local level, which really surprises me - I had a vague idea that in the land of equalite et fonctionnaires that pretty much everything was top-down driven. I shall have to investigate that a little more. I suppose that explains why certain schools have certain extra-curricular activities that are different than others. So for example, here's a plan from one from Henri IV, located in one of the most "desired" school districts, the 5th arrondissement, (and consequently one of the most expensive places to live in the city.) And another college in the 19th - one of the poorest places in the capital - looks like it doesn't have a plan. Certainly its website has little useful information. Alexandre's school is in the middle - not particularly good, but not the worst. (There are a couple of after-school projects including rock-climbing, hip-hop dancing. In-school projects include chorus (1x week during lunch, and a couple of field trips (5 days in the Lozere in early Sept. for the 7th grade class, a trip to see West Side Story in November...)
To return to the subject at hand: voting in France most often means voting for a political party and its platform of political promises rather than individual candidates. Before the election, each party will present its candidates in a specific order. Once the votes are tallied, the positions are allotted proportionally to the votes cast, and then the party will assign its allotted places in the order that the candidates were presented. Thus the name - proportional voting. This is in contrast to how France elects its president, for the presidential race is one of the few where the voters vote for a specific candidate. During this election, all candidates are on the first round ballot. Two weeks later, the top two vote-getters square off in a final vote that will declare one person the future president. This can lead to some interesting results: a couple of elections ago, in 2002, the two candidates facing off in the second round of voting were both from the right - Jacques Chirac (center right,) and Jean Marie Le Pen (extreme right.) France is not an extreme country, particularly, although parties from either end certainly have representatives in various legislative bodies. This choice was problematic for the left. (Anecdotally, the French don't have an option for a write-in vote - the only protest is by not voting at all.) A decision was made that center right was less objectionable than far right, and consequently, the Socialist Party (PS) called on its members to vote for Chirac in order to prevent LePen from coming to power, and the result was an overwhelming victory for Chirac. (about 82% vs 18% of total votes cast, with about a 20 % abstention rate.)
The vote for the school's Conseil d'Administration, however, was by proportional - not direct - voting, and before the election, we received the position statements from the two parent groups proposing candidates.
One party, called PEEP, is in favor of
- electing dynamic and committed parents who will be actively involved in the daily life of the school.
- making sure that the school invests in and maintains its historically strong language program (both living and ancient languages.)
- More field trips and developing foreign exchanges/partnerships with schools outside France.
- Developing and investing in projects that will help students figure out what they will do later in life.
The other party, called FCPE , is in favor of
- improving social and learning environment (d'obtenir de meilleures conditions de vie et d'apprentissage, ameliorer le cadre de vie.)
- fighting excessive backpack weight.
- promoting balanced and inexpensive school lunches.
- proactively preparing students for their future by bringing in professionals to meet students. (Rencontres etudes et metiers)
Both sound pretty good to me. As I have said in other posts, carrying around 10 kilos of books, and bouncing pieces of stale baguettes across the courtyard are not particularly conducive to a postive educational experience. But I think that field trips will trump cafeteria food this fall. So, I take the piece of paper that says PEEP, put it into a small envelope, seal this envelope, and put it into another envelope. The second envelope asks me for my name and address, which I duly write on the front of the larger envelope. I give the envelope to A. who will put it in the voting urn (a big cardboard box) at school for me. And my civic duty for the day is done. But the million euro question is, once the votes are cast, and the election results known, how much influence will this group have with the school? And that question is international. Parents come and go. Teachers and administration stay.
Friday, October 5, 2012
A. takes the bus and will meet Dolores Umbridge
 |
| The boys, just last summer, on the rail trail. |
 |
| N. getting ready to leave for school. |
It occurred to me,yesterday morning, as I watched the epic deluge from our window, that it must be nasty to ride a bike without proper gear. Most of the people that I see riding bikes here don't resemble the bikers in our family. No head gear, for one thing. No fluorescent tapes, or lights. Nor biking shoes. Basically, the idea is that you jump on a bike and ride from point a to point b.
I dunno, the whole thing is a bit scary. I say this as a former rider, with some experience outside spinning classes. Let me just brag a bit... from the time I was in conservatory until my older son was born, I was a bike commuter. First from the various suburbs of Boston that called home as a student (Belmont, Central Sq., JP) I could get downtown far more quickly than the Green or Red Line. Then, as a tour guide in the Loire Valley and in Burgundy (although in both cases, my lack of seniority meant that I drove the van
Brag over.
 |
| This is the first biker I've seen who actually stopped biking to chat. |
But back to the story....
I actually do get the reason behind the bike riding, I'll reluctantly admit. Who in the world would want to wait 15 minutes for a crowded bus, ride on that same bus for another 10, risking life and limb to a cowboy driver whose knowledge encompasses only "fast" and "stop" - only to find that the desired destination will be achieved by getting on the next bus because the bus that you're on has been "termine" midway through its trip because there is a "manifestation" (lots of people making a lot of noise over their grievance de jour) that is blocking the rest of the route? If a bike is handy, it sounds like a great way to get to where you're going. No fuss, no maintenance, not even expensive. Easy. And there's a lot of people who agree - up to 110,000 trips per day according to the Velib blog. (in French) That's a lotta people that aren't on the bus or in the metro.
Except when it's raining.
And so here's what happened: we went downstairs to catch the 62 bus that would take us to the 88 bus that goes directly to school. The 62 was late, because, well, it takes a long time to board 25 people at the same time that an equal number are getting off. And a long stop means incremental delays in service. We could have walked to the 88 stop - it's only 8 minutes away. But, it was raining - like a peeing cow, as they say here- and so Murphy's law prevailed once again. We arrived at the 88 stop just in time to see the taillights disappear down the road. The next bus was 17 minutes later, and voila, Alexandre was 10 minutes late for school.
I didn't know this until he texted me at lunchtime. "Three kids have gotten beaten up on the playground and I've gotten a colle." Oh yikes. I immediately texted him back, "Explain." "Nothing serious. I'll tell you when I get home, don't text me again at school. I don't want my phone stolen."
The email wasn't long in coming:
NOTIFICATION D'UNE RETENUE
Mme Katherine ,
J'ai le regret de vous informer que votre enfant XXXXX élève de la classe de 5ème 1INTERNATIONALE a été mis en retenue à la demande du CPE CPE.
Durée et date : 1h00 le 08/10/2012 à 08h00
Pour le motif : Arrivée trop tardive, élève dirigé en permanence
Travail à réaliser : Recopier les verbes irréguliers d'anglais
Veuillez agréer, Mme Kxxx XXXXX, l'assurance de ma considération distinguée.
La Conseillère Principale d'Éducation
------------------------------
Accusé de réception à retourner lors de la retenue
Rappel des faits : 1h00 le 08/10/2012 à 08h00 pour le motif : Arrivée trop tardive, élève dirigé en permanence.
Je soussigné(e),
Date :
But seriously.... 5 minutes late AND you're not allowed in class, AND you're given an hour detention at 8am (meaning we have to leave at 7) to ...write out irregular verbs in ENGLISH??? I suppose I should be thankful that he didn't miss French.
From the teacher's (and even the other student's) point of view, it is a good thing to not have to worry about the class being interrupted with late arrivals. But this was a first infraction! It seems like the penalty is a little steep. Where's the leeway? I got on the phone and managed to switch the penalty to another day after school, so at least we won't have to leave home at 7 am. And A. won't have to copy irregular English verbs, only work on homework. That's a good thing, I think, I hope. I would like to believe that it would be easier/more efficient to work at school rather than at home where there are many other distractions...
Rumor has it that A. got off lightly: that there are three teachers in the next grade up that make their errant pupils write 200 lines of text for each infraction. An hour before school, no exceptions. At least the blood quill is missing, and pupils are now allowed to use ball point pens, rather than Waterman's. And next week, the math class is actually going to get 3 computers. Ta dah!
As to being on time... maybe we should get scooters. But how do you scooter with a 20 lb. book bag? In the rain? At 7 am?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Guilin to Yangshuo down the Li River
Just as promised, the trip down the Li River was astonishing. We left early in the am, passed by some construction, and then hit the river.
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| Scaffolding is bamboo |
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| 2 story houses are evidence of increasing wealth in this once exceedingly poor region. |
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| Rice paddies being cleaned up. |
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| This woman has a catch of fresh fish that she will sell to the stream of commercial tourist boats heading down the river. |
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| A more traditional bamboo raft. There were not many of these fishermen. |
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| Cooling off in the river. |
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| The wall of Nine Horses - A. was the first one to see them all. (I found 7) |
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| Tangerine plantations |
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| Water buffalo |
After we reached Yangshou, we had a small break, and then headed out on another bus. First up was a short trip on a bamboo raft. As we drifted down the river, we were treated to the sight of a traditional fishing method: that of comorant fishing. The birds have a choke collar so that they can not swallow the fish that they catch. The collar is undone every 5 or 6 fish so that they know that if they work, they will get fed. It is quite amazing to watch. Then, we stopped to see some water buffalo up close, and a quick tour of a traditional fishing town (which is in the process of being completely modernized.) And then off to our hotel.
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| N and A enjoying the river. |
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| Cormorant fishing |
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