Icy Road Week?

Yup, it was an ‘icy road day.’  I can’t tell if it’s just me/my impatient American-ness, but I feel after 24 full hours of snow NOT falling from the sky, the roads should be clear and definitely shouldn’t be a problem for the Monday morning commute, let alone a threat for the rest of the week, even if the region isn’t used to snow, as everyone seems to be so fond of reminding me.

Uh-uh!  Second Rule of Being in France: Logic?  What Logic?

I knew I wouldn’t have a ton of students today, but I thought at least some teachers would try to make it in.  Again, uh-uh: a total of perhaps twelve teachers were in the staff room at 8 AM this morning, and not one of them was Romain.  Great.  I got up at 6:45 for nothing.  All of the English students were in a group on the stairs by the staff room, and all of them pleaded to be set free.  I had two of them, and one of them split immediately after I said, “Mr. Desnos is not here today.”  The other, a boy from the Prytanée, shifted from foot to foot and asked what he had to do.  I explained that I legally couldn’t keep him, but if he wanted, we could accompany Valérie and Lydia to the computer lab and have a conversation.

Surprisingly, he agreed, so we planted ourselves in the computer lab, and while I talked to a couple of my teacherless premiers in the hall, Valérie gave him the choice to do the same thing as her single student.  As I sat down, Valérie explained that her activity was about India even though my student was studying fair trade, so I gave him another choice in English: “You can try to do her activity or I can show you a video I have on fair trade and Valentine’s Day.  It’s hard and probably not as fun, but you’re studying fair trade.”

His face positively fell.  “You don’t want to have a conversation with me?” he asked in English.

Oh.  Well. “Of course!  What would you like to talk about?”

And so we had a meandering conversation for the majority of the hour, with him taking the lead.  He rarely lapsed into French, even when he didn’t know how to express himself: he miraculously found a way around the lost word, which is really all I ask of my kids.  When I found a topic that interested him, I ran with it, and we talked about American and French film until the bell rang, and then he seemed like he didn’t want to leave.  I can only hope that he wanted to continue the conversation and not procrastinate going to another class.

Rinse and repeat for the rest of the day.  I’d already had two classes cancelled before the crise de neige (one is on stage/internship and the other had a test of some sort), and then Karine couldn’t make it in from the country for our literature class.  So I spent the rest of the day in the teachers’ lounge, just listening and talking and writing.  After lunch, a small and rather lame snowball fight broke out amongst the teachers, and when I nailed a French teacher in the stomach with a snowball, he began complaining about being all wet and cold.  Wimp.

There was supposed to be a conseil pédagogique (staff meeting with the principal?  I think?), and I guess the teachers were supposed to boycott it, though there was a large argument about whether or not they had finally decided on a boycott.  And there were others who wanted to push the boycott to a different day, because it wouldn’t have the same effect with so many teachers missing because of the snow.  The fact that they were trying something other than a strike surprised me, but then again, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so threatened before.

Partly because of the National Education reforms, but mostly because of “shifting priorities” and budget cuts, my part of the lycée will lose 117 teaching hours next year, and they’re threatening to cut either Latin or Italian completely as well as a whole class of both seconde and premier.  That’s a lot of hours and a lot of classes and therefore a lot of teachers who could lose their jobs.  Hence the need for action that actually means something this time.  As far as I heard, the administration (read: the principal) has decided to cut at least Italian and tant pis for the students who are already studying it.

Sigh.

So one student in total today.  Rinse and repeat for tomorrow, too: all transports scolaires for Maine-et-Loire and Sarthe are cancelled again. I’ll have to try really hard tomorrow to get nothing done.