Teacher Training in France

Teacher Training in France

On the last day at the school my mentor teacher told us just how lucky we are not only to be studying abroad, but to have a student-teaching experience. In France new teachers do not go through student-teaching. They take their classes for their Master’s degree and then are placed directly into the classroom; and the classrooms that they are placed into are usually the least desirable ones to be placed in.

There is no student-teaching in France. The classroom is considered to be a sacred place for only one teacher, and the idea of sharing it with someone learning is unheard of. The new teachers are left to fend on their own because of the isolation that is promoted with teachers in the French education culture. Not only are they by themselves after having absolutely no experience interacting and teaching children, but they are on the bottom of the totem pole and end up in miserable positions. The French school systems works with points; if you are married, have kids, or years of experience you have more points and their fore have your choice of what classes you want. New teachers usually don't have any points so they are left with the classes that the other teachers have picked over. This wouldn't be a bad thing if the new teachers had experience interacting with students and actually teaching them, or if they did not have to be isolated in their classroom due to the “sanctity of the classroom culture”.

My mentor teacher informed us that break downs happen all the time with first year teachers in France, in fact it is more common for first year teachers to have them then not have them.  This is an interesting article to help show that the teachers receive purely classes before entering the classroom. http://www.european-agency.org/country-information/france/national-overview/teacher-training-basic-and-specialist-teacher-training

Knowing this I feel so blessed… I have had the opportunity to work the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th 10^th, 11^th and 12^th graders ranging from co-taught to honors! I have seen a public school system in WV functions, been to Faculty Senates, PLC’s, and Parent-Teacher conferences, and now I've even seen how a foreign public school works all before I have my own classroom! All of this really makes me wonder about the certification process to teach in WV… I feel that as teachers we really need to have a long learning experience in an actually classroom, so we can see how students work and find our teaching styles so that the first year of teaching comes with ease. Our first year should be celebrated, because we will be learning so much, not a thing to fear and hate.