I’ve met my first class. Twenty-four 16-year olds whose main stream is Humanities (see my French High School System post for more information). I am their homeroom teacher.
A few facts about them:
– There are 20 girls and only 4 boys.
– They all study English as their first foreign language, except one who does German.
– The second foreign languages they do are Spanish (the majority), German and Russian (one girl).
– Almost all of them have added otional subjects to the manadatory subjects. Some even do two. They chose: Russian, Spanish, Sports, Latin, Greek and Art (one student).
– At least half of them quoted reading as a hobby.
– There are some musicians in this class; some kids play the piano and one is a violinist.
Stranger facts:
– Some have unusual hobbies for kids that age: gardening, philosophy, looking after a ferret, wolf protection.
– One girl’s only interests are going out and shopping.
– One girl comes from an exclusive all-girls school while one is from Colombia (the country).
– Two girls are brought up by single dads and did not mention a mother. Someting I’ll have to inquire into as homeroom teacher and also so as not to make a blunder.
I’ll be teaching them 3.5 hours a week. The first lesson is on Thursday. After a short presentation of the course and a few questions about what they did in English last year, we’ll start with a short extract from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Hannah's Nook 